Writing Vivid Emotions – Book Review

Showing character emotions can be tough for writers at all levels. Beginning writers start with a limited palette for painting emotional states, restricted to things like smiles, frowns, and shrugs. The more we write, the larger that palatte gets, but one can always grow it more.

Rayne Hall’s book, Writing Vivid Emotions: Professional Techniques for Writers, will help you do just that. The first 11 chapters cover techniques, from showing body language, to getting readers to feel your characters’ visceral reactions, to varying emotional intensity, and more. You’ll learn what to show and what not to show, how to play on the reader’s feelings even while the point of view (POV) character is experiencing something different, and even how to foreshadow through subtle emotional cues.

Chapter 12 will be a great help when you’re having trouble varying a character’s body language. Titled Chapter 12: Thesaurus of Body Language Cues, it contains an alphabetical list of emotions, and many body language tells for each. Perhaps you wouldn’t have come up with crisp nodding as a way one shows satisfaction, or licking one’s lips as a tell for love, but these may be perfect for how one of your characters would react.

Chapter 13: Thesaurus of Visceral Responses, will increase your toolset for showing readers how your POV character is feeling. You may have a confused character, but you’ve had his chest tighten several times already in your book. Check in Chapter 13, and you’ll find that confused people sometimes start to feel hot. Tada! A new clue about how he’s feeling.

The book ends with two of Rayne’s short stories. In this way, she demonstrates many of the techniques used in the book. For example, the first story, Druid Stones, shows a cheerful woman going to visit a druid circle. However, environmental details let the reader know that she shouldn’t be feeling excitement, but fear.

Keep in mind, this book is intended for intermediate to advanced writers, and beginners may find the techniques too tricky. There are many books out there for new writers. If that’s you, I suggest looking into various Writer’s Digest books. Work on your craft from those awhile, then come back to Rayne’s excellent Writer’s Craft series.

You can get Writing Vivid Emotions on Amazon, in Kindle and paperback formats.

Bodacious Creed Comes Out Tomorrow

The day is almost here! Yes, my novel, Bodacious Creed: a Steampunk Zombie Western is being released tomorrow, August 18, 2017. It's been available for pre-sale for weeks now. Those who pre-ordered the Kindle edition should have it on their devices in the early hours of the morning, and those who ordered the paperback, hopefully within a week. (Of course, that will depend in part on the shipping method they chose.)

More is happening over the weekend, though!

On Saturday, August 19, from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm Pacific Time, I'll be holding a release party for Bodacious Creed on Facebook. You're all invited. Since this is a Facebook event, feel free to drop in, respond to posts, and check out what I'm sharing any time during those hours.

RSVP for the party here.