Recently, I was able to get my hands on a series of creative writing craft books that have tips on writing setting and characters, which are some of the most important parts of a story besides plot. Here are some of my favorite books from the series, and a little bit on how they help writers.

1. The Emotional Wound Thesaurus This is one of my favorite books in the series because I like to write stories and characters with emotional depth. This book mentions many emotional traumas that you might not have thought of, such as family issues and financial struggles. This book shows the signs or reactions when someone has these traumas but remember that everyone acts differently. I’ve been experimenting with this book in the series for writing stories.
2. The Negative Trait Thesaurus This is my second favorite book in the series because it shows how to balance positive characteristics out with imperfect traits to make the character’s more realistic. It gives examples of negative these traits from other stories in literature and gives you multiple ways to convey them in your own story. There is a partner to this book, “The Positive Trait Thesaurus,” which like this book gives personality traits, but focuses on the positive side.
3. Urban Settings Thesaurus– This is my final favorite book of the series because of all the possible settings that the book gives you that you may not have thought of. The book gives you sensory details for each of those places and tips on how to make your setting more unique. This book also gives you ideas on how to have conflict in the different types of settings.

All of these books come with worksheets and valuable information in the front and back of the book, such as tips and advice on how to make your writing better or stronger. This is how I learned tips and tricks for writing my characters and setting. You can get these books in a hard copy format or the pdf versions.