Becca Puglisi is an international speaker and bestselling author who has sold over one million copies of her Thesaurus series, with The Emotion Thesaurus being her flagship book. Starting as critique partners on Critique Circle, Becca and co-author Angela Ackerman discovered they both struggled with showing character emotions—Becca's characters were always shrugging and shuffling their feet. This led them to create lists of emotional cues that eventually became blog posts on Writers Helping Writers, then transformed into The Emotion Thesaurus when readers demanded a book version. A former first-grade teacher, Becca brings educational expertise to her workshops and tools, now available through One Stop for Writers, a subscription-based service with character-building tools based on the Thesaurus series content.In this episode:How The Emotion Thesaurus solved the "shrugging and shuffling" problemWhy every character responds to emotions differently based on personalityMining movies, books, and real-life observations for authentic emotionsStephen King's skill at creating compelling, realistic antagonistsThe importance of wounding events from backstory shaping current behaviorReserved vs demonstrative: the emotional spectrum for your characterPhysical cues, internal thoughts, and visceral sensations in showing emotionHidden emotions: what characters show others vs what readers seeEmotion escalation and de-escalation to avoid jarring jumpsMelodrama vs not enough emotion: finding the right balanceThe Emotional Wound Thesaurus for character change arcsThe Conflict Thesaurus for plotting and creating choice opportunitiesBuilding characters as mixed bags of positive and negative traitsThe Fear Thesaurus (Spring 2025): how fear drives character behavior and arcOne Stop for Writers: subscription tools based on Thesaurus contentResources mentioned:Writers Helping Writers blog: writershelpingwriters.orgOne Stop for Writers (subscription service): onestopforwriters.comCritique CircleThe Emotion Thesaurus by Becca Puglisi and Angela Ackerman: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1475004958?&linkCode=ll1&tag=pubperf-20&linkId=400c65572fa1761b41f901ed6233057c&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tlThe Negative Trait ThesaurusThe Positive Trait ThesaurusThe Emotional Wound ThesaurusThe Setting Thesaurus (multiple books)The Conflict Thesaurus (two books)The Fear Thesaurus (coming Spring 2025)Connect with Becca Puglisi:Writers Helping Writers blog: writershelpingwriters.orgOne Stop for Writers: onestopforwriters.comConnect with Teddy Smith:@teddyagsmithWebsite: https://publishingperformance.com/?ref=ywm3mtcFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/publishingperformance/Pinterest - https://nz.pinterest.com/publishingperformance/Instagram - https://instagram.com/publishingperformanceinstaYoutube -https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHV6ltaUB4SULkU6JEMhFSwLinkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/company/publishing-performance/ Support the showDiscover More with Our Curated Starter Packs: https://teddyagsmith.com/starter-packs/

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