WHY YOU NEED THIS BOOK
Trust me, it’ll happen. You just finished a marathon writing session. All you want to do is celebrate or sleep when your significant other accuses you of emotional insensitivity. Before you can defend yourself, s/he says, “How can you write so vividly about emotions and not know anything about mine?”
I learned from experience that the correct answer is not, “What do you mean? Every emotion in my novels I wrote after watching you.” (At least, not if you want to share the same bed for the next week).
From then on you don’t dare write about an emotion that remotely resembles your loved one’s. But if you visit the coffee shop and observe behavior there, s/he’ll ask, “Why are you checking her/him out? Aren’t I good enough for you?”
What do you do? Buy Rayne Hall’s Writing Vivid Emotions: Professional Techniques For Fiction Authors. Her book takes writers through an exhaustive, and yet easy to follow series of lessons for adding emotional depth and intensity to your fiction.
WHAT THE BOOK DELIVERS
A horror and adventure writer, Hall edits a number of quality indie anthologies and released the fantasy romance Storm Dancer.
Hall wrote Vivid Emotion in clear and straightforward prose, accessible to novice and experienced writers, even those, like me, who studied in graduate school. Her short chapters cover one or two key principles, examples and assignments to guide writers through each step of the process.
Topics include using body language to convey emotions (including avoiding novice traps), conveying a character’s feelings through dialogue, phrasing thoughts to deliver the most impact and working with simile and metaphor.
She doesn’t stop with depicting emotional clues; she demonstrates how writers can add emotional depth with layering and shading, and by depicting unconscious and suppressed emotions (including denial and deception). Vivid Emotions even serves up tips for novice and experienced writers to manipulate readers’ emotions and draw them into the story.
Two to three useful assignments accompany each chapter, which include real-life observation, scene prompts, deconstructing scenes you’re writing.
Hall ices your cake with a Thesaurus of Body Language Cues as well as Visceral Responses to stimulate your descriptive powers. Need to show readers how the ignorant will react to your wise-cracking hero? Look for body language cues. How will your hero react to the news the ignorant cop wants to arrest him? Hall suggests a number of visceral reactions.
I’ve never begrudged Hall the price of her eBooks ($3-$4, although she occasionally offers special discounts). It’s a modest price to include easily accessible topics for me to review when I’m unhappy with a scene.
Rating system:
5 = Delicious dialogue, crisp prose, clever characters & compelling plot
4 = Great read, won’t want to stop (5 for many reviewers)
3 = Worth buying but…
2 = I will tell you what audience will like this, but other readers might want to look elsewhere
1 = If I review a book this bad I felt seriously compelled to warn you
Phillip T. Stephens is the author of "Cigerets, Guns & Beer," "Raising Hell" and the new release "Seeing Jesus."
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See full series- Kindle Price:$47.90By placing your order, you're purchasing a license to the content and you agree to the Kindle Store Terms of Use.
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There are 38 books in this series.
Kindle Price:
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About the author
Rayn Hall books are fantastic EXCEPT -
Rayne Hall books are amazing. This one sadly doesn’t have a table of contents so low level star on that, but content wise its fantastic.
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2017
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- Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2017
- Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2019
Rayne Hall books are amazing. This one sadly doesn’t have a table of contents so low level star on that, but content wise its fantastic.
Rayn Hall books are fantastic EXCEPT -
Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2019
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- Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2017
Top reviews from other countries
- Cathy Lynn BrooksReviewed in Canada on October 22, 2018
Excellent Advice and Many Examples to Make Your Writing Sing
- E L HewittReviewed in the United Kingdom on April 25, 2017
This is a must read to the aspiring author, ...
- J.M. PalmerReviewed in Australia on September 13, 2018
Brilliant Guide for Fictioneers
