The Occupation Thesaurus
by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi

I have to say I'm a huge fan of the thesaurus series by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. The entire series sits on a shelf within my reach while I write. When they announced the Occupation Thesaurus, I jumped right on the bandwagon. I devoured the digital ARC I received and salivated over the actual book, waiting anxiously for its arrival.

I was blown away by the variety of occupations they chose to include. (If they'd included them all, it would have been a five-volume set.) It's a great tool for character development. The details in each job entry give plenty of ideas for developing a three-dimensional character. You get ideas on what may cause friction in their job or why a character might have chosen that particular job. Don't limit yourself to the character occupations, there's a ton of useful advice at the front of the book that should not be skipped. Just imagine that character at a party who can't answer the common question "What do you do for a living?" even spies have a ready-made explanation, and theirs is often a part of their cover story.

This book will be close at hand while I'm developing characters, but not necessarily during the writing stage where I'm more focused on showing the action and emotion. (Out comes The Emotion Thesaurus.) I highly recommend this reference book as it's a wonderful addition to the series.

The other books in the series

The book I use the most often from the series, and the one that lives on my desk next to my keyboard, is The Emotion Thesaurus. It provides suggestions on how characters might display certain emotions, including internal reactions. Then you have Emotion Amplifiers, which is very much like The Emotion Thesaurus, but available in digital format only. (Hint: You buy a PDF version from the Writers Helping Writers website. It's worth the nominal charge to have it printed, so I can keep on the shelf next to the other books in the series.)

The Positive Trait Thesaurus and The Negative Trait Thesaurus focus on character traits (funny that), such as empathy or impatience, and how these traits might be exhibited — with examples from film. Then there is The Urban Setting Thesaurus and The Rural Setting Thesaurus to help writers bring settings to life, complete with scent and visuals.

People, these books ARE worth having on the shelf. If you look closely at the photos in this post, you'll see that I have sticky tabs hanging out of my personal copies. I use these books ALL THE TIME. They are well structured to quickly find the information you need, without delving into a mountain of text. Of all the resources that are listed on the Black Wolf recommended resources page, don't pass by these.