The Emotion Thesaurus

This is probably the best guide to writing fiction there is.

A must-have for any writer that wants to expand their characters' emotional range

I owned the original version of this book, and still liked the update well enough to buy it, also. When I'm writing and can't think what a character would be doing to express a particular emotion, this is my go-to resource. And now the new version gives me even more choices, as well as more tips on how to write effective emotion. Yay!

I tweeted a while back that The Emotion Thesaurus is perpetually open in my Nook app while revising, and I wasn't exaggerating. Whenever I reach a moment where I'm struggling to describe an emotion, or I get a CP note asking for more emotion from a character, I open up The Emotion Thesaurus.

It's not a book that you necessarily read from cover to cover (although you're more than welcome to), it's a resource that you open when trying to describe a particular (or several) emotions. What I love about it is it not only lists body language cues, thoughts and physical responses, but it also lists cues of suppressed emotion (which I use all the time). As a bonus, it has writing tips at the end of every chapter.

I honestly can't recommend this book enough to writers of all stages. It will forever change the way you think about and write emotion—or at least, it did for me.