WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

Helping writers become bestselling authors

The Positive and Negative Trait Thesaurus COVER REVEAL!

by

Holy buckets, people. They’re coming. They’re actually coming! The next two books in our descriptive writing series—the ones we’ve been working on for a full year. The ones we thought would be done in August but it turned out we needed another two months to achieve the appropriate level of AWESOME. The ones that have turned Angela and me prematurely (yes, prematurely!) gray. The ones that…well, you get the picture. So, without further verbosity…

TAKE CHARACTER CREATION TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL!


Nothing adds complexity like character flaws. Inside the Negative Trait Thesaurus you’ll find: 

* A vast collection of flaws to explore when building a character’s personality. Each entry includes possible causes, attitudes, behaviors, thoughts, and related emotions 
* Real examples from literature, film, or television to show how each flaw can create life challenges and relational friction 
* Advice on building layered and memorable characters from the ground up 
* An in-depth look at backstory, emotional wounds, and how pain twists a character’s view of himself and his world, influencing behavior and decision making 
* A flaw-centric exploration of character arc, relationships, motivation, and basic needs 
* Tips on how to best show a character’s flaws to readers while avoiding common pitfalls 
* Downloadable tools to aid writers in character creation 

The Negative Trait Thesaurus sheds light on your character’s dark side. 

UNEARTH YOUR CHARACTER’S UNIQUE PERSONALITY

Character creation can be hard, but it’s about to get a lot easier. Inside The Positive Trait Thesaurus, you’ll find: 

* A large selection of attributes to choose from when building a personality profile. Each entry lists possible causes for why a trait might emerge, along with associated attitudes, behaviors, thoughts, and emotions 
* Real character examples from literature, film, or television to show how an attribute drives actions and decisions, influences goals, and steers relationships 
* Advice on using positive traits to immediately hook readers while avoiding common personality pitfalls 
* Insight on human needs and morality, and how each determines the strengths that emerge in heroes and villains alike 
* Information on the key role positive attributes play within the character arc, and how they’re vital to overcoming fatal flaws and achieving success 
* Downloadable tools for organizing a character’s attributes and providing a deeper understanding of his past, his needs, and the emotional wounds he must overcome 

If you find character creation difficult or worry that your cast members all seem the same, The Positive Trait Thesaurus is brimming with ideas to help you develop one-of-a-kind, dynamic characters that readers will love. 

 (If the books look like they might be of interest to you, consider adding them to your Goodreads list [Negative Traits and/or Positive Traits].)

Oh my gosh, we are SO excited about these books, you have no idea. When Angela and I start a new thesaurus, it almost always comes from a place of personal struggle: Where do we have problems in our own writing? Is this a problem that other writers have? What kind of resource might help us all in that area? Characterization is hard to get right, so we knew we wanted to tackle that one at some point.

Then we started writing the Character Traits Thesaurus entries on our blog. We knew we’d stumbled onto something good when so many of you started telling us how useful they were. So we’ve expanded our original thesaurus, providing more content for each entry, plus adding a bunch more traits—so many that we had to split the resource into two manageable books. And we are so excited to release them upon the writing world!

And when is the big day? you may wonder. Well, wonder no more. Our newest books will be available for purchase October 21st! And, you know, we can’t celebrate without some kind of spectacle—one that will involve lots of cool giveaways, encouragement for writers, and general shenanigans within the community. But, my goodness, I can’t spill the beans on that just yet. We’ll save that for another post ;).

So thanks again, to everyone who has encouraged us, supported our work, and sent happy messages regarding your experiences with The Emotion Thesaurus. Without all of you, these books would still be  sidebar links, a mere portion of their full potential. More good news to come. Can’t wait to share it with you all!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Becca Puglisi says

    Melissa, i’m sorry; I just realized that we haven’t answered your question about The Emotion Thesaurus. Yes, the final list of entries in the book is different from the list of emotions that we covered on the blog. When it came time to publish, we went back and forth trying to figure out exactly what was an emotion and what wasn’t. Some of them we cut and some we combined; if there’s one you’re missing, that’s probably why.

    That being said, we are keeping a list of emotions that should make the cut should we ever decide to release a second edition, and contentment is definitely on the list. Thanks for mentioning it!

  2. jessalyn says

    How about your fans in Africa? i remember having some difficulty getting the Emotion thesaurus in my country. Would we be able to get it as quickly as people from other countries?

  5. Angela Ackerman says

    Thanks all of you! And Melissa, no worries on typos! I am the typo queen when it comes to posts, lol. We really hope these books help you all on your writing journey. I struggle with characterization and I know they will help me, haha.

  7. Melissa Sugar says

    Holy Buckets is right! I am super excited and can’t wait to get my hands on both of these gems. I can’t tell you how often I refer to my emotional thesaurus when I am writing. I originally purchased the Kindle version, which is great, but then I also bought the hard (soft) copy as well. It’s one of those rare writer’s craft or “writer’s help” books that I can’t live or write without. I usually have my Kindle opened on my laptop (to the Emotional Thesaurus) along side Scrivener, when I work on my manuscript.

    Yippie, Yea! I can’t wait. It comes out on my little boy’s birthday, so I will have to buy myself two presents on his b-day.

    I have a question. Did you leave out any of the original emotional thesaurus entries when you published the book? The reason I am asking is because I am working on revisions and I was reading a scene that I wrote quite a long time ago and in the margin I have a note to self that says something like, “see emotional thesaurus for better internal sensation.” I can’t remember the exact emotion right now, but I think it might have been contentment (not certain). Anyway, it seems like the book actually covers more emotions than the blog or at least as many. I was wondering if you combined any of them when you wrote and published the book.

    A very big. congratulations to both of you. Your blog and books are a great source of knowledge and inspiration for me. I really can’t wait. And two books coming out at the same time. Way to go! Your readers are in for a nice treat, come October 21st.

    I apologize in advance to everyone for any typos in this comment. My son’s lab puppy chewed several of the keyboard letters off my laptop and I’m having to guess where some of the letters should be. Sorry.

  14. Becca Puglisi says

    @Victoria, the PDF will be available at Gumroad (Gumroad.com), like The Emotion Thesaurus currently is. We’re hoping everything will be available worldwide on 10/21, but sometimes it takes longer for the books to become available overseas. Fingers crossed :).

  27. Ash Litton says

    Congrats! I can’t wait for October now. I know I’ve used The Emotion Thesaurus so many times to jumpstart my late night creativity. These will be a fantastic addition to my shelf. 🙂

  35. Jessica L. Brooks (coffeelvnmom) says

    So excited for you guys… This is great news! 🙂 I know how hard you must have been working on these! The covers are awesome–love how the three of them go together! Woohoo! (Also a little excited for me, too. Can’t wait to get them! *grabby hands*) CONGRATULATIONS!

  41. Michelle Pickett says

    I can’t wait for these. I keep “The Emotion Thesaurus” on my desktop at all times! It is my go to book! And your website is always open when I write. I consult it all the time. I love it. I’m going to be first in line for your new books.

    Michelle 🙂
    Author, PODs available now!
    Milayna (Milayna #1) available March 11, 2014
    Milayna’s Angel (Milayna #2), September 2014
    The Infected, a PODs novel available November 2014
    The Innocent (Milayna #3), April 2015

  42. Angela Ackerman says

    Oh wow you guys! I have tears in my eyes seeing all this support! These books will greatly help writers brainstorm their characters and better understand how their troubled pasts lead to present behavior, and we are so excited to be finally able to have a release date to share them with you all.

    You are the best! Thanks for the kind words!

  43. Ava Jae says

    Yay! They look great, ladies! Congratulations! So glad to see you have an official date worked out. Looking forward to October 21st! 🙂

  46. Johanna Garth says

    Congratulations ladies! These sound like such great resources that I think they were probably worth at least a few gray hairs (I’m sure there are only a few)!

  47. Vijaya says

    Congratulations, you two! I’ve been cheering from the sidelines and loving how this blog has blossomed. Really beautiful to watch, and it’s a great gift to writers. Brava!!!

  53. Wendy's Writing says

    That is so exciting, Becca and Angela – Can’t wait to get my copies in October and of course as your biggest fan from across the pond, shall make sure I celebrate its publication on my blog x