Helpful books for writers 2

Hey everybody. A while back, I made a blog post talking about various writing-related books that I found helpful and which I recommend for those trying to write. (Link here) I don't exactly have much to add at this moment, but I thought I'd put this here in case somebody found the first list useful.

In the last blog post, I mentioned a particular series of books that I called the Thesaurus Series, though I'm not sure if that's the actual name for it. The series is written by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi.

As a recap, it was a set of five books, two complimentary pairs and one single, that offer help for various aspects of writing, such as expressing character emotion through body language, creating and using both positive character traits and negative character traits, and the use of various kinds of settings, both urban and rural, not only various ways to use them, but different things you'd find in each to flesh out descriptions.

Recently, there have been some new additions to the series. The most important is The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Psychological Trauma. As the title implies, it's a guide to how characters can react to various kinds of psychological trauma.

Example entries in the book include: A carjacking. A home invasion. Caving under peer pressure. Experiencing the death of a parent as a youth or child, and a toxic relationship.

Each entry provides an example (or some notes) on the wound in question. Following that, it lists:

The basic needs often compromised by the given form of trauma
False beliefs the character may embrace as a result of this trauma
Things the character may fear as a result
Possible responses and results
Personality traits that may develop as a result (both positive and negative)
Triggers that may aggravate this sort of wound
Opportunities to face or overcome the wound

I'll give a few possibilities from the home invasion entry, just to give you a better idea. Like the blog entry before, I'm not listing everything from each category, but it'll let you get a sense for the book and what it can offer.

Examples: Having one's living space broken into while one is there, either alone or with family, and going through the ordeal of being robbed, victimized, assaulted, and possibly even kidnapped.

Basic needs often compromised: Safety and security, love and belonging.

False beliefs that could be embraced: Strangers should be feared, sympathy (empathy, kindness, etc.) is a sign of weakness.

The character may fear: Being alone and vulnerable, having their control taken away

Possible responses and results: Becoming withdrawn and secretive, struggling when one is alone, even suffering panic attacks and paranoia, waking with a racing heartbeat.

Personality traits that may develop: Independent, analytical (positive). Humorless, pessimistic (negative).

Triggers: Being left home alone, hearing about a break-in in one's neighborhood, hearing the doorbell ring when one isn't expecting visitors.

Opportunities to face or overcome the wound: Experiencing a disaster (like a house fire) and being welcomed into a stranger's home and shown kindness.

I can't say that I've gotten to read much of this book so far, as I didn't get it all that long ago. But it does go into the details and possibilities of each scenario it covers, and it covers a whole ton of them. Now that's not to say it will cover every possibility. Even with the setting books I mentioned before, I found at least one setting they didn't have. But the books still do their best of variety. So I recommend this one as much as I recommend all the others in the Thesaurus series. Check it out. You may be surprised.

There was one other small edition to the Thesaurus series as well. This one is an actual companion to the Emotional Thesaurus, called Emotional Amplifiers. It's meant as an aide with word choice. I can't really say much on this one. This particular book is digital only. Specifically, it's only available via Amazon's Kindle service. Personally, I don't find that very fair, what with all the others being in print, but I'm not the publisher.

I have little doubt it's useful as a writing guide, so I'm still listing it here to check out, if you feel so inclined.

That's all I have to say for now. I really do recommend these books for those who are interested. And hopefully, someone who has read this has found it of use.