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A review by perilous1
Creating Character Emotions by Ann Hood
3.0
“I leave a lot out when I tell the truth. The same when I write a story.” –Amy Hempel
A quick and potentially useful reference guide; one which needn’t be read in order. Each chapter references a single emotion and is made up of an introduction, a listing of bad examples, good examples, and Exercises composed of 3 objectives. (The aim being to successfully evoke emotions in readers with a sort of indirect subtly. )
Despite its age, this book has a number of timeless and valuable contributions to offer. The recurring theme can be distilled down to trusting your characters and following them on their emotional journey—taking care to move up the character development ladder “emotional rung by emotional rung.” The emphasis on avoiding clichés and ambiguity reminded this reader of a Margie Lawson workshop—and I mean that in the best way possible.
Note: The author seemed to have a fondness for the works of Amy Tan, and this reader found it helped my grasp of the good examples to have read The Joy Luck Club prior to picking up this craft book.
The author had particularly good insight into conveying anxiety—something I’m not personally prone to but see often in others to a crippling degree. On the downside, this relatively short read sometimes felt a bit padded. Certain emotions came so close to each other as to be essentially redundant: i.e. Anxiety vs. Worry, Fondness vs. Tenderness, Hate vs. Revenge.
A quick and potentially useful reference guide; one which needn’t be read in order. Each chapter references a single emotion and is made up of an introduction, a listing of bad examples, good examples, and Exercises composed of 3 objectives. (The aim being to successfully evoke emotions in readers with a sort of indirect subtly. )
Despite its age, this book has a number of timeless and valuable contributions to offer. The recurring theme can be distilled down to trusting your characters and following them on their emotional journey—taking care to move up the character development ladder “emotional rung by emotional rung.” The emphasis on avoiding clichés and ambiguity reminded this reader of a Margie Lawson workshop—and I mean that in the best way possible.
Note: The author seemed to have a fondness for the works of Amy Tan, and this reader found it helped my grasp of the good examples to have read The Joy Luck Club prior to picking up this craft book.
The author had particularly good insight into conveying anxiety—something I’m not personally prone to but see often in others to a crippling degree. On the downside, this relatively short read sometimes felt a bit padded. Certain emotions came so close to each other as to be essentially redundant: i.e. Anxiety vs. Worry, Fondness vs. Tenderness, Hate vs. Revenge.