Need Stronger Backstory for Your Characters? The Emotional Wound Thesaurus to the rescue!

At The Winged Pen, we’ve written about Angela Ackerman’s and Becca Puglisi’s wonderful writing books before. So we’re super excited to tell you about their newest one: The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Psychological Trauma. Yay!!!!! *shoots off rockets* A wound, in the writing world, is the hurt the main character carries around that keeps him or her holding onto a lie. A … Continue reading Need Stronger Backstory for Your Characters? The Emotional Wound Thesaurus to the rescue!

image shows middle grade and young adult fiction books open with text face out

MYC: How and When to Write Emotion

Welcome to this week’s Master Your Craft post! Each Wednesday we’ll discuss prewriting and drafting a new book from the BIG IDEA to QUERYING. Last week, we talked about the importance of Pacing and Tension. This week, we’re looking at emotion. I don’t know about you, but this topic brings out a lot of emotion because it is so closely tied to the phrase writers love to hate: show … Continue reading MYC: How and When to Write Emotion

Master Your Craft

MYC: Developing Supporting Characters

Welcome to this week’s Master Your Craft post! Each Wednesday we’ll  discuss prewriting and drafting a new book from the BIG IDEA to QUERYING. Last week, we covered Developing Main Characters. This week, I’ll discuss Developing Supporting Characters. The Supporting Characters’ Job The purpose of a supporting character is to add depth to the protagonist by helping the reader understand how the main character interacts with others and … Continue reading MYC: Developing Supporting Characters

Book covers for The Urban Setting Thesaurus and The Rural Setting Thesaurus

Spark a Story with the Setting Exercises in The Rural Setting Thesaurus

Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi do it again! Introducing The Rural Setting Thesaurus! Disclosure: I received a review copy of The Urban Setting Thesaurus in exchange for an honest review. I also bought a copy of The Rural Setting Thesaurus because it has GOOD STUFF for #kidlit. You know, SHINY settings, like Backyard, Basement, Birthday Party, Child’s Bedroom, Halloween Party, Outhouse, and *cough* Secret Passageway, … Continue reading Spark a Story with the Setting Exercises in The Rural Setting Thesaurus

Using Setting to Create a Three-Dimensional World for Your Story: THE URBAN SETTING THESAURUS

We received a free copy of Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi’s The Urban Settings Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to City Spaces in exchange for an honest review. Since we’re fans of their Emotion Thesaurus as well as their thesauri of positive and negative character trains, we were excited to dive in. (See our review of the other books here.) The Urban Setting Thesaurus is a wonderful resource for a … Continue reading Using Setting to Create a Three-Dimensional World for Your Story: THE URBAN SETTING THESAURUS

The Setting Thesaurus Books Are Here: Help Becca And Angela Celebrate!

Today we’re excited to host a guest post by Angela Ackerman! There’s nothing better than becoming lost within the story world within minutes of starting a book. And as writers, this is what we’re striving to do: pull the reader in, pull them down deep into the words, make them feel like they are experiencing the story right alongside the hero or heroine. A big … Continue reading The Setting Thesaurus Books Are Here: Help Becca And Angela Celebrate!

Write Believable Heroes, Villains, and Emotions with The Positive/Negative Trait Thesauri and The Emotion Thesaurus

Rebecca: The Emotion Thesaurus has had its own special place on my writing desk for so long, I had to look on Goodreads to see when I’d first read it. January 1, 2014. I’ve been using it for a while. When I first started using the book, it opened my eyes to conveying emotions through actions. Well, okay, I used the easy ones all the time. … Continue reading Write Believable Heroes, Villains, and Emotions with The Positive/Negative Trait Thesauri and The Emotion Thesaurus