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The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Psychological Trauma

(Writers Helping Writers Series #6)

Angela Ackerman (Goodreads Author),

Becca Puglisi (Goodreads Author)

4.71 · Rating details · 654 ratings · 96 reviews

Readers connect to characters with depth, ones who have experienced life’s ups and downs. To deliver key players that are both realistic and compelling, writers must know them intimately—not only who they are in the present story, but also what made them that way. Of all the formative experiences in a character’s past, none are more destructive than emotional wounds. The a ...more

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Published October 19th 2017 by Angela Ackerman (first published 2017)

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Nov 12, 2020 ☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

An instructive edition for writers on how to get one's writing the emotions up to shape. The approach is innovative (if jarring a bit): we got all the bells and whistles borrowed from regular psychology, remade to fit our current discussion about fantasctical characters.

We got a lot on emotional sensitivities, tying up the character history and development, tha arc for the good guys and the villains, past influences, jadedness, embedding fancy triggers and twists, denied emotions, acting out de ...more

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Oct 24, 2017 Jennifer Lane rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: caught-my-eye, psychology, nonfiction, for-review

The Wounds That Shape and Strengthen Your Characters

As a psychologist, I work with individuals bravely striving to heal from emotional wounds. As an author, I hope to bring to life this authentic journey that I witness in the therapy room. Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi have provided a wonderful resource to translate the pain and trauma of the human experience into our fictional characters.

I sometimes grow frustrated when authors flub psychological concepts, but Angela and Becca nail it in th The Wounds That Shape and Strengthen Your Characters

As a psychologist, I work with individuals bravely striving to heal from emotional wounds. As an author, I hope to bring to life this authentic journey that I witness in the therapy room. Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi have provided a wonderful resource to translate the pain and trauma of the human experience into our fictional characters.

I sometimes grow frustrated when authors flub psychological concepts, but Angela and Becca nail it in this writer's guide. Their descriptions of disempowering beliefs such as "There's something wrong with me", personality changes that result from trauma, and positive coping practices remind me of effective trauma treatments like Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, and Prolonged Exposure.

There are helpful examples of how to reveal wounds like being mugged or molested in an emotionally compelling way. Major props for mentioning one of my favorite movies, The Cutting Edge:

The audience sees a lot of clues as to what makes Kate tick, but the wounding event from her past is never overtly stated. It's hinted at mostly through her personality and actions; she's perfectionistic, extremely competitive, and impossible to get along with. These clues, combined with a meaningful scene with her father toward the story's end, give us a clear picture of her wound: growing up with a parent whose conditional love was based on her ability to perform.

Thank you for that insight into The Cutting Edge! I knew I loved the movie, mostly for its sizzling hate-to-love romance, but I now realize that Kate's character arc is what hooks me most of all. And that demonstrates the authors' point: layering emotional wounds into your characters makes readers relate to them and love them as if they are real-life friends and family.

There is an impressive breadth of wounds covered, and I challenge any writer to read this book and fail to find a relevant emotional wound. My own work-in-progress benefits from sections on discovering a sibling's abuse and growing up in foster care.

An excellent resource! ...more

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Feb 21, 2018 Neuravinci rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: good-writing-books

This book is phenomenal. Not only does it provide pages of different emotional wounds and their elements, but it gives you psychological feel to all of them. I noted a number of wounds that I was already building up in a character I'm writing about, but this book has helped me think more deeply about the emotional trauma and the behavioral impacts it has.

Perfect reference guide, and will likely be one of my go-to books for every book I write, until I've memorized the pages by heart.

I can't rec ...more

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Oct 18, 2017 Stacia rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: creativity-and-writing, reference, own-digital

This book is an amazing resource for writers. The authors take a lot of time and care in defining emotional wounds, as well as explaining how this book is to be used. In short, it's not a book for diagnosis, and writers are cautioned to exercise self-care if any of entries are triggering.

Leafing through the pages, I immediately found specific ways in which I could strengthen characters in my WIP. Both protagonists and antagonists (as well as secondary characters) will benefit from the rich backs ...more

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Oct 27, 2017 Christa Allan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This latest thesaurus will join the others by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi as my absolute, can't do without, go-to writing resources. What separates this book from any others is not only the extensive list of wounds provided (childhood, betrays, injustice, traumatic, crime...), but the specific examples and detailed explanations. I also appreciate the flow charts that are included to help with working out how these wounds impact my characters.

An essential book for every writer's library. ...more

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Oct 19, 2017 Karen Sargent rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The Emotional Wound Thesaurus gives writers a comprehensive understanding of the emotional web that entangles a wounded character. Understanding backstory, flaws, and needs allows us to develop multi-faceted characters with emotional depth as well as create an authentic sequence of actions and reactions as a character moves through our story. Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi continue to challenge us to elevate our craft by equipping us with a unique resource that makes a complex skill easier to ...more

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Oct 29, 2017 Donna Weaver rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Another fabulous addition to this great writing resource series.

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Nov 07, 2017 Roanne King added it · review of another edition

Shelves: writing-resources

Because the fiction I write is based on my own past and overcoming emotional wounds, the discovery of The Emotional Wound Thesaurus was all the more important for me to learn to develop unique and layered female protagonists. Even though the conflict and themes of my current and future novels will somewhat reflect my own experiences, I also desire to write for and create relatable characters for women of all backgrounds.

I've heard the notion that parts of who we are as people are reflected in th Because the fiction I write is based on my own past and overcoming emotional wounds, the discovery of The Emotional Wound Thesaurus was all the more important for me to learn to develop unique and layered female protagonists. Even though the conflict and themes of my current and future novels will somewhat reflect my own experiences, I also desire to write for and create relatable characters for women of all backgrounds.

I've heard the notion that parts of who we are as people are reflected in the characters we write. Often, our first novel represents ourselves in part or in whole more than any other. I see it as a form of therapy as we work out our own personalities and struggles in the safe space of a fictional world. However, eventually, I'd like to write characters that are not like me at all! Perhaps an alter ego, or a story inspired by something I see on the news or hear about from friends.

For my current fiction project, I’m writing from the POV of three sisters. Here are five ways I see The Emotional Wound Thesaurus can help writers create characters of depth – even when those characters are different from themselves or anyone else they know.

1. Forward and Intro Sections. Whether you think you know your characters or not, read the first 40 pages of this book! If you're not sure about your character's wounds yet, skim the table of contents and choose a few that seem to fit with your story concept. But then, go back and read the beginning chapters which offer exceptional insights on Self-Care for Writers (especially important if you'll be exploring wounds that are close to your own personal experiences), The Mirror of Fiction: a Reflection of Life and Our Deeper Selves, What is an Emotional Wound?, Character Arc: an Internal Shift to Embrace Change, and more. Even though I'd already used the online database of wounds to develop my characters, I still had several breakthroughs and "ah-ha" moments in understanding my fictional sisters and how to convey the various parts of their journey in my story.

2. Consider the PRIMARY Emotional Wound and choose two additional wounds. You may--as I did and especially if you're basing your main character after a part of your own life--begin to see overlapping characteristics related to multiple wounds. This will help you to discover the dominating negative and positive traits, triggers, fears and responses for your character. In turn, you'll be able to highlight these for fiction and the purpose of your story without overwhelming your reader with too many issues for your character to tackle. However, this process will help in knowing your character on a deeper level that should help in developing scenes, writing dialogue, or even choosing hobbies, family status, or a career path.

3. Multiple POVs. This is the first time I've attempted writing a novel with the point of view of three distinct women. Having access to The Emotional Wound Thesaurus has been a vital part in giving each woman a unique back story, personality, and voice despite the fact that they are sisters.

4. Add Your Own Elements. I'm certain this resource isn't intended to be an end-all-be-all, but more of a spring-board of potential. Though there are realistic and unrealistic manners in which someone will respond to an emotional wound, there are ways to modify these responses depending on your character. For example, say a character is still in the process of overcoming the wound of "Becoming a Caregiver at an Early Age". As a result, she's avoided becoming a parent herself. Instead, she has a dog to fulfill her need of caring for another being, but also sees it as "safer" than becoming a mom and she can practice being "overprotective" without rejection or push back. I came up with this detail on my own as it seemed to fit her personality.

5. Emotional Wounds are Directly Related to Positive and Negative Traits. Even if you don't analyze your characters or dive as deeply into their wounds as I have for mine, you'll find this resource helpful in creating rounded characters. This goes for your protagonist, supporting characters, and even the villain. On the most basic level, choose a wound and a few associated negative and positive traits and you've got yourself a unique character attempting to overcome the past while battling a conflict in the present. ...more

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Sep 27, 2018 T.L. Cooper rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The Emotional Would Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Psychological Trauma by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi lists a number of events that cause emotional wounds and provides a list of how those wounds affect one's psychological well-being and place in society. Acherman and Puglisi give insight into how to write characters who have been through a variety of traumatic situations. It's a reference book that any writer could find handy from time to time. While much more research might be necessary de ...more

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Apr 22, 2018 Evette rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Great resource for writers

This book provides so much more than just a list of traumas to throw at characters. As always, these authors are thoughtful and provide context and tips. There is also a nice blurb on self care at the beginning of the book.

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Oct 23, 2017 Allison Collins rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Every author wants readers to be pulled in to their books, to fall for their characters, to root for them to overcome obstacles and have their happy ever after. In order to do this, writers need to dig past the superficial to the baggage their characters carry around, to find out why they are the way they are, and what caused it. Hence, the creation of The Emotional Wound Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi.

The Emotional Wound Thesaurus is hands-down my new favorite writing resource. Every author wants readers to be pulled in to their books, to fall for their characters, to root for them to overcome obstacles and have their happy ever after. In order to do this, writers need to dig past the superficial to the baggage their characters carry around, to find out why they are the way they are, and what caused it. Hence, the creation of The Emotional Wound Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi.

The Emotional Wound Thesaurus is hands-down my new favorite writing resource. I know it will be the first book I go to every time I start a new manuscript.

Not only do I have a new resource for discovering the emotional wounds in my characters, I now have a much better understanding of some teachings by other writers. For instance, the “lie” and the “essence”, and the Fatal Flaw and how it ties in to your character’s conflict is another point that the authors have made clear to me. After reading the EWT, I actually understand how these work for characters, and what is driving them to their goals.

But this new reference book doesn’t just give you a laundry list of emotional wounds and traumas. Oh no, it goes way deeper. I highly recommend reading the first part of the book before you jump to what your wounding event could have been so that you gain a better understanding of how to put the information to the best use in your manuscripts. This book explains what an emotional wound or trauma is and how it can affect someone’s life either forever after, or until they recognize the behaviors and problems stemming from it and decide to make a change in themselves.
The authors of the EWT walk you through character arcs, brainstorming your character’s wound, factors that impact the wound, but best of all HOW TO REVEAL it through behavior to avoid the dreaded issue of backstory or info-dump.

The rest of the book is broken down into categories of emotional wounds, running the gamut from disabilities and disfigurements, to crime and victimization, injustice and hardship, betrayals, specific childhood wounds, which let’s face it, can be some of the most damaging wounds to characters.

Within each category is a breakdown of the types of wounds or traumas that could take place. For instance, a carjacking. Examples are given of how someone’s car was jacked, the basic needs sometimes compromised by this wound, false beliefs that could be embraced, fears the character may now have because of the incident, responses and results that could form later on, personality traits that could form—positive and negative, triggers that could aggravate the wound, finishing up with how the character could face or overcome the wound.

At the end of the book are worksheets writers can use to help them discovering just what trauma wounded their protagonist – or even their villains! There’s a Wound flowchart, an Arc progression tool, a backstory wound profile tool, and finishing up with wounding examples from popular stories.

The authors of the EWT had to dig deep into emotional traumas of all types, dig into the behaviors and personalities that stem from the wounds. Ackerman and Puglisi lived with their research so much so that the book opens with Self-Care for Writers, suggestions for how authors should take care in case any of the wound entries hit them where they are most vulnerable.

I’ve been a long-time fan of Angela Ackerman, Rebecca Puglisi, and their entire series of books, as well as their blog, and the One Stop for Writers website. Not a week goes by that I don’t use at least one of their other thesauruses. So speaking from personal experience, I can tell other authors that the Emotional Wound Thesaurus is a groundbreaking book that everyone can benefit from in order to write richer, more complex characters and stories. I send a huge thank you, and endless hugs to the EWT authors. You have my endless gratitude for not only putting together all your research, but for continuing to add to your series of thesauruses!

I am very excited to have won an advance copy of this book in order to review it. I can honestly say it’s the best reference book I’ve ever read! So don’t wait – order this book now from your favorite retailer. I know you’ll find it as invaluable as I do!
...more

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Oct 16, 2020 Rayner Ye rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This and the emotional thesaurus are both amazing books. I use the emotional thesaurus (written by the same author) several times per scene! What I do now, is dictate or type 'show gratitude/show anger/show terror/etc throughout the whole scene/chapter, then, during the second draft, I go through the beautiful and wonderful thesaurus (I have a couple more, written by different authors--though, for me, this writer's is best,) and pick various sentences for showing the emotion. I'm a keen one for ...more

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Jul 12, 2020 Lynelle Clark rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A great tool for an author who are looking for greater depth in a story.
The practical guide is useful and a must have.

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Oct 25, 2017 J.C. Harroway rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I love this series of books and have them all in my reference library. The latest volume The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Psychological Trauma, is the best so far. Perfect for character driven stories, the Emotional Wound Thesaurus will help you brainstorm your characters past, their emotional conflict and what motivates their actions and behaviours.

The introductory pages—an excellent craft book in itself—explore the impact of an emotional wound on the character's personality, ...more

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Nov 10, 2017 Carolyn Miller rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

One of the best writing resources I've come across! The Emotional Wound Thesaurus delves into the reasons why characters act the way they do, through exploring over a hundred different traumatic and challenging situations that shape people and give reason for the false beliefs they embrace and how this affects them and their relationships. If you write fiction, and you want to create authentic characters, then you need to read this book. ...more

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Jul 15, 2018 Wendy Wanner rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Extremely helpful

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Nov 22, 2017 Katia M. Davis rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Where did I find this book? I purchased it from the Kobo store online.

Why did I purchase this book? I bought this along with a couple of other Writers Helping Writers guides. I read it first because it will help with the backstory and motivation for a main character I am currently writing.

Layout and should the book be read in a particular way? Aside from the introductory section, this book doesn’t have to be read straight through. There may even be parts of it you will never need or don’t want t ...more

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Oct 27, 2017 Traci rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Book Talk…10/27/17
Traci Kenworth

The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Psychological Trauma by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. Oct. 25th 2017. I received an arc for review.

I was approached by a team of writers whose thesaurus works and website have been an amazing plus to my writing to do a review of their newest tool for writers. As I’ve learned, plot isn’t just about theme or an idea. It’s about complications, the more you can dig down deep into the character the better. So, let ...more

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Nov 07, 2017 Jordan Lynch rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

All writers can use some help from time to time, and I myself find I need most help when it comes to building characters that aren’t like me. Since my life experience is usually at least somewhat different from my characters, I don’t have my own thoughts and memories to fall back on, so some research is required to build a realistic and accurate character. I’ve found that all of Angela and Becca’s thesauruses provide a wealth of information for building a story from the ground up, and the inform All writers can use some help from time to time, and I myself find I need most help when it comes to building characters that aren’t like me. Since my life experience is usually at least somewhat different from my characters, I don’t have my own thoughts and memories to fall back on, so some research is required to build a realistic and accurate character. I’ve found that all of Angela and Becca’s thesauruses provide a wealth of information for building a story from the ground up, and the information comes in one (or two) convenient books that go above and beyond what my own internet searches can find.

The newest addition to their line-up is the Emotional Wound Thesaurus. As the title would suggest, this thesaurus explores psychological traumas that may have influenced your characters to make them into who they are at the point you’re writing them. In other words, this thesaurus is to help with backstory. No character comes without baggage, and the Emotional Wound Thesaurus will help you unpack the past and figure out exactly who your character is.

As with all of Angela and Becca’s thesauruses, this book is well-researched and incredibly thorough. The entries contain not just examples of traumas, but also a number of possible character responses to the trauma. These responses include false beliefs a character may embrace, fears and traits the character may develop, and triggers that may aggravate the wound. If the descriptions aren’t comprehensive, they’re pretty darn close, and they provide information in almost area that you would want in order to write a realistic character.

To make things even easier, Angela and Becca also provide appendices and worksheets to help you work out your character’s backstory and emotional wounding event so that you can easily include this information in your story without dumping a lot of backstory on your readers.

The Emotional Wound Thesaurus is a must-have resource for writers. It’s comprehensive, it’s convenient, and it’s reliable. Angela and Becca have done their work, and it really shows. Their hard work makes it that much easier to create believable characters with complex backgrounds that will pull readers in.

*I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of this book for review. I can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy! ...more

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Oct 07, 2019 Elle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: writing, non-fiction, owned, kindle-ereader

The Emotional Wound Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi is a fantastic edition to their growing series of help books for writers. The Emotional Wound Thesaurus collects and categories 121 different emotional wounds or traumatic situations. It analyses why people or characters might have these wounds, various ways they can manifest in actions/behaviour, both positive and negative personality traits that may form as a result, situations that could trigger someone who had suffered this tra The Emotional Wound Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi is a fantastic edition to their growing series of help books for writers. The Emotional Wound Thesaurus collects and categories 121 different emotional wounds or traumatic situations. It analyses why people or characters might have these wounds, various ways they can manifest in actions/behaviour, both positive and negative personality traits that may form as a result, situations that could trigger someone who had suffered this trauma, and potential ways to deal with the trauma and move beyond it. Ackerman & Puglisi also list fictional characters who suffer these wounds, so readers can either obtain a brief understanding of the wound in play or research further on their own for fictional examples/behaviour.

Useful on its own, but even more-so when paired with The Negative Trait Thesaurus and The Positive Trait Thesaurus. By linking this book to others in their series, Ackerman & Puglisi are definitely building their brand and maximising sales, but also providing a source (their own) of more information to better round out characters.

Of most interest is the fact that this isn't an easy 'copy and paste' list from their books to your character profile. So many potential options are listed that writers still need to apply critical thought and planning to building their characters -- which of the possible 20+ behaviours from one wound might your character display? Which personality traits are most likely to be adopted, given their base personality from before the trauma occurred? There's still plenty of room for personalisation.

I think this is the most useful of all the writer help guides/thesauruses by Ackerman & Puglisi, but also works great in tandem with the Negative and Positive Trait Thesauruses. If you buy only one, buy this one. If you've got the money for three, this and the two Trait Thesauruses (because their definition of the traits aren't always what I associate with the trait/name, so is worth checking if you're selecting some traits based off the wound suggestions). ...more

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Jun 05, 2020 Echo rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, writing-books

I hate not reading books all the way through, but there was no way I could make it all the way through this one.
It wasn't bad as far as writing books go, and I could see how it could be useful to people with different writing processes than mine. I didn't quite no what to expect with "thesaurus" in the title, but it makes sense now.
The beginning (about 20% of the book) discusses emotional wounds and how those things move your character and the plot forward. That part was somewhat interesting an ...more

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Oct 24, 2017 A. M. Kimber rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: writing

I got so lucky being chosen to read and review an advanced copy and all I have to say to the authors Ackerman & Puglisi is THANK YOU! Thank you for having the foresight to write this series and thank you for adding this book, EMOTIONAL WOUND THESAURUS, to the series.

Okay, enough of the sappy stuff, on to the review... umm, it’s great. The end. No really, if you’re a writer and have difficulty adding description and a richness to your writing because you tend to write short (ex. She was happy) t ...more

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Jun 01, 2020 David Lamb rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: "Planner" writers

Recommended to David by: Referenced repeatedly on writers' blogs.

This book is aimed at writers who want to develop a firm basis for their character's motivations and actions, rooted in the psychology of mistaken beliefs ("Lies") that arise from traumatic events ("Wounds") in the character's past; I recently researched roughly 50 websites advocating variants of this approach. This can guide the creation of meaningful and compelling character arcs, which I'm told most readers expect in most genres. It seems more suited to planners (those who prepare extensively ...more

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Nov 10, 2017 Dorothy Davis rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I'm going to be 100% honest when I say this: I ABSOLUTELY LOVE BECCA'S AND ANGELA'S THESUARI!!!!! I am a proud owner of four of the six paid Thesauri and I most certainly DO NOT regret it in the least bit. The purpose of The Emotional Wound Thesaurus is to give an explanation of what said Wound is as well as giving an endless number of examples of what could happen, possible fears, wants or needs, cause and effect, so on and so forth. What's worse is that a lot of these still happen to this very ...more

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Jan 08, 2018 Willow Woodford rated it it was amazing

Shelves: writing-craft-books

Well, our characters, the best ones, have deep emotional wounds that drive their behavior. Those wounds drive their psychological responses to everything they encounter. As good authors we need to understand those wounds and how they manifest in our characters daily lives. The Emotional Wound Thesaurus provides a great starting point for me to begin to understand my character, in both the development and the writing phase.

Each possible wound is broken down, first into how it might have happened. ...more

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Oct 24, 2017 Sacha Black rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

What sets this apart from other writing craft books is the way it gets to the core of humanity's psychology. If you want to understand a character, like truly, deeply and fundamentally know what pushes your protagonists to save the world time and time again, this is the book for you. But the magic of it is that it won't just teach you about characters, it will teach you about people too.

This book is so many things: writing mentor and tutor, an encyclopedia of human psychology, inspiration bucket ...more

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Mar 09, 2018 Julie Hiner rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

If you are a writer, you NEED to read this book. It was SO helpful that I am reading it a second time.

Angela and Becca absolutely nailed this one on the head!!! I found this book really smooth to navigate. The descriptions and examples really solidified my understanding of what was important and how to achieve it. This book has made a tremendous difference in my ability to really get to know my characters, and has enabled me to write from each of their perspectives with a much deeper understandi ...more

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Mar 09, 2018 Julie Hiner rated it it was amazing

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Oct 27, 2017 Samara Parish rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: writing

I got this book simply because all of the authors' other books have been amazing, so I bought this without questioning what might be in it. OMG. Seriously. I was struggling with my character's GMC for awhile, and this book helped so much. My only regret is that I have an e-book edition. I want the paperback so that I can go to town on it with my highlighter and post-it notes.

What I particularly liked, is that though many of the emotional wounds in this book are modern day life-based, it still r ...more

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Nov 08, 2017 Bertjj rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Well, a value add for the readers of The Emotional Wound Thesaurus is free THERAPY! While using this guide to give my characters more dimension, I recognized some of my own behaviors and was able to link them back to emotional wounds from my past and use the information provided for some needed self-awareness and self-compassion.
But, back to intended purpose of this guide - the comprehensive scenarios (from common to extreme) will help authors define and reveal characters through the provided tr ...more

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About Angela Ackerman

Angela Ackerman

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ANGELA ACKERMAN is a writing coach, international speaker, and co-author of 8 bestselling books for writers, including The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression (now an expanded 2nd Edition). Her books are available in eight languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world.

Angela is also the co-fo ...more

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Writers Helping Writers Series (7 books)

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