Creating Character Emotions

Rating:
Summary: Very Helpful
Review: This book discusses every aspect of human emotion in short, concise chapters. Ms. Hood gives bad examples of writing that is either overdone, cliche-ridden, or just plain awful. She follows each of these examples with a better approach. Then she assigns exercises at the end. The sections on grief and forgiveness remain with me, two years after I read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Worth reading once
Review: This book does an adequate job of cataloguing the numerous feelings a writer might write into his or her characters. Think of this as an emotional reference book for the writer, not a menu of emotions to employ in your work.

I found this book valuable for a handful of reasons, notably the author's "good example" sections, which contained contributions from notable authors from a wide literary basis. These collected "good examples" help the reader identify exemplary manifestations of emotion.

However, in some cases her "bad examples" seemed repetitive and simplistic. In other cases the examples didn't seem so bad in my opinion (i.e. in a certain context, the text would be perfectly acceptable).

In the end, her advice on trying to write emotions freshly and from new perspectives is a useful reminder, making the book a worthwhile read.

Rating:
Summary: Could Provide More In-Depth Info
Review: Though this book does discuss character emotions, it does so with seemingly as little depth as possible. Not to say that the book is no good; it is an interesting read & helpful as well. However, I believe more depth is necessary in creating character emotions than this book provides.