I’ve written and edited a few million words for Sons of Adamah. (100,000-word doc x 50ish drafts.) A person has to be a bit crazy to do that, no?
My creative writing degree required short pieces, so the scale of a novel was daunting. But short pieces or long, showing emotion (rather than telling) pulls the reader into the story.
Most people know this.
My problem is that I have little awareness of the effects of emotions in me or what they look like in others. I have theories about that but I’ll spare you. (I’m not alone in my disconnect, which is both comforting and alarming.)
To the rescue of writers everywhere—”The Emotion Thesaurus”!
From acceptance to worthlessness, this tome lists hundreds of emotions and describes their inward and outward effects, depending on point of view.
Phew. Thank you, authors Acherman and Puglisi.
Eager to apply their suggestions, I shoved emotions into my manuscript wherever I could. The narrative became stilted, to say the least, but I managed to smooth the rough edges on subsequent drafts.
The results are satisfying, and I anticipate more practise with the Adamah sequels—millions more words and God only knows how many emotions.
Satisfaction: “A crisp nod.” “A fist pump.” “A puffed-out chest.” “A thumbs-up.” Page 230
Anticipation: “A fluttery, empty feeling in the stomach.” “Breathlessness.” “Tingling all over.” Page 46