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WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

Helping writers become bestselling authors

The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide To Character Flaws

Crafting likable, interesting characters is a balancing act, and finding that perfect mix of strengths and weaknesses can be difficult. But the task has become easier thanks to The Negative Trait Thesaurus.

Through its flaw-centric exploration of character arc, motivation, emotional wounds, and basic needs, writers will learn which flaws make the most sense for their heroes, villains, and other members of the story’s cast.

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 warps 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

Written in list format and fully indexed, this brainstorming resource is perfect for creating deep, flawed characters that readers will relate to. The Negative Trait Thesaurus sheds light on your character’s dark side.

For a sneak peak, click the image to preview this book at Amazon (contains an affiliate link).

Buy the book in print and ebook or PDF formats
Add it to your Goodreads list and see what reviewers are saying
See the master list of entries

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. lucy says

    January 22, 2021 at 8:44 pm

    Are you going to turn WEATHER AND EARTHLY PHENOMENON THESAURUS into a book?

    Reply
    • ANGELA ACKERMAN says

      January 23, 2021 at 1:40 pm

      Hi Lucy,

      We never will say never, but right now it isn’t on our radar. Instead we moved it to One Stop for Writers where it is a permanent part of our descriptive Thesaurus database: https://onestopforwriters.com/weathers

      Reply
  2. Mike Downey says

    June 6, 2017 at 6:24 pm

    Is there a place to buy all books combined in a PDF format? I really want them all!

    Reply
    • ANGELA ACKERMAN says

      June 6, 2017 at 7:00 pm

      If you are asking if they all exist in a single PDF, then no, we don’t have that, but each book comes in PDF format and is affordably priced (rather than the usual high price you see with big traditional publishers). Your other option is to invest in a subscription to One Stop for Writers and access all 13 thesauruses we have created. A list and links to those are here: https://onestopforwriters.com/features_tools

      Hope this helps! Happy writing, Mike, and thanks for being so enthusiastic about our books!

      Reply
      • Nadia says

        June 26, 2020 at 9:52 pm

        WOW! I just went to check out the price of the subscription and I didn’t expect it to be so affordable! Thank you for creating this amazing resource!

        Reply
        • ANGELA ACKERMAN says

          June 27, 2020 at 5:37 am

          So glad it is helpful to you, Nadia. 🙂 Happy writing!

          Reply
  3. Andrena LeBlanc says

    February 7, 2016 at 1:37 pm

    Awesome tool! It plus the emotions thesaurus, emotion amplifiers, and positive traits thesaurus are like the basic tools when I’m writing. Thank you!

    Small tip for future installments: use neutral pronouns and/or mix masculine and feminine pronouns when talking about characters. Not all chargers identify as make!

    Reply
    • ANGELA ACKERMAN says

      February 7, 2016 at 5:12 pm

      So glad you found this book helpful, Andrena. I’m a bit confused about your comment about not mixing male and female pronouns however. In our front matter, we do exactly this–listing some examples from a male’s viewpoint, other examples from a female’s.

      However what we do not do is switch back and forth in the same passage or example, as this would likely greatly confuse readers. In any case, Becca and I will keep an eye on this to always ensure both genders are represented.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. The Writer’s Bible: The Negative Trait Thesaurus. says:
    October 14, 2021 at 2:03 pm

    […] is what I took directly from their website: https://writershelpingwriters.net/negative-trait-thesaurus/ You can purchase the book on there as […]

    Reply
  2. Boktips: ”The Emotional Wound Thesaurus” av Angela Ackerman och Becca Puglisi – Mitt Skrivprojekt says:
    January 27, 2019 at 12:09 pm

    […] (tagna från författarnas ”Positive Trait Thesaurus”) och brister (från författarnas ”Negative Trait Thesaurus”) som såret kan ge upphov till. Slutligen finns också exempel på triggers för såret och […]

    Reply
  3. Guest Post: 2 1/2 Indie Resources I Can’t Live Without by Becca Puglisi says:
    April 25, 2017 at 3:17 pm

    […] This is one of her reasons for writing The Emotion Thesaurus, The Positive Trait Thesaurus, and The Negative Trait Thesaurus. A member of SCBWI, she leads workshops at regional conferences, teaches webinars through WANA […]

    Reply
  4. One Stop For Writers: Virtually all a writer needs – Heather M. O'Connor says:
    January 8, 2016 at 12:49 pm

    […] Every writer has a few favourite go-to resources they reach for. Tops on my bookshelf are three well-thumbed books by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi: The Emotion Thesaurus, The Positive Traits Thesaurus and The Negative Traits Thesaurus. […]

    Reply
  5. What killed it for me. — Becca Puglisi | says:
    September 19, 2014 at 11:01 am

    […] at Writers Helping Writers, thanks to the research and practice we put in while writing our negative trait and positive trait thesaurus books. Here are some tips we’ve learned on how to write […]

    Reply
  6. What Killed It For Me #4: Clichéd Characters | WRITERS HELPING WRITERSWRITERS HELPING WRITERS says:
    April 2, 2014 at 5:34 am

    […] at Writers Helping Writers, thanks to the research and practice we put in while writing our negative trait and positive trait thesaurus books. Here are some tips we’ve learned on how to write […]

    Reply
  7. Reader Empathy: Catch It & Keep It - Writer.ly Community : Writer.ly Community says:
    March 19, 2014 at 3:41 pm

    […] the bestselling writing guide, The Emotion Thesaurus, and most recently, The Positive Trait and Negative Trait Thesaurus books. Centering on the light and dark side of a character’s personality, these new resource […]

    Reply
  8. Guide to Character Analysis | Rain's Writing Realm says:
    February 28, 2014 at 11:18 am

    […] It’s an interesting read, and I’m anxious to buy the book The Negative Trait Thesaurus […]

    Reply
  9. Help For Character Wounds: A List Of Common Themes | WRITERS HELPING WRITERSWRITERS HELPING WRITERS says:
    February 27, 2014 at 5:55 am

    […] On the outside, these flaws “appear” to help her be safe, but they limit her instead, preventing her from building healthy relationships, hampering her spontaneity and placing a filter of distrust on all she sees. This in turn steals her her freedom, and puts a choke hold on self-growth and true happiness. (For more on flaws & their role in Character Arc, please reference The Negative Trait Thesaurus.) […]

    Reply
  10. Busy Mama » Conferencing for Introverts says:
    January 20, 2014 at 10:00 pm

    […] the bestselling writing guide, The Emotion Thesaurus, and most recently, The Positive Trait and Negative Trait Thesaurus books. Centering on the light and dark side of a character’s personality, these new […]

    Reply
  11. Winner Announced for Writing Games Giveaway | Marcia Richards, Writer says:
    October 31, 2013 at 1:35 pm

    […] The Negative Trait Thesaurus […]

    Reply
  12. Writing Games Giveaway | Marcia Richards, Writer says:
    October 23, 2013 at 7:43 am

    […] The Negative Trait Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi! […]

    Reply
  13. Chocolate – Better Than Sex | Marcia Richards, Writer says:
    October 21, 2013 at 6:38 pm

    […] can find out about the huge volume of resources the book offers by clicking here >> Writers Helping Writers . I guarantee it’s a book you’ll use for all your novel […]

    Reply
  14. Chocolate - Better Than Sex | Marcia Richards, Writer says:
    October 21, 2013 at 7:44 am

    […] can find out about the huge volume of resources the book offers by clicking here >> Writers Helping Writers . I guarantee it’s a book you’ll use for all your novel […]

    Reply

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