Back in September, I published Emotional Beats: How to Easily Convert your Writing into Palpable Feelings. As promised, I will be posting the book on my blog. So, here is the next installment, continuing Part 3 of the book: Other Beats. This chapter deals with:

Seafaring

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A few seafaring-related beats:

• Below her, the stormy waters of the ocean rose and fell with a thunderous crash, while torrents of rain cascaded downward in slanting, wind-driven sheets. On the horizon, ships sailed in a formation like birds flying south. They bobbed upon the waves, their sails billowing under the strain of harsh winds. The powerful winds were pushing them toward their destination faster than expected.
• The ship skimmed over the water, picking up speed on its race toward shore. The sails billowed fully, propelling the ship faster. Four minutes later, the ship ground to a stop, its bow embedded in the gravel-like sand of the cove’s shore. Cries and shouts rose from the deck.
• From shore to horizon there was nothing but angry, churning gray slashed by whitecaps that looked keen-edged enough to slice through a hull.
• Beneath them, water dropped at least four hundred feet down, churning in monstrous eddies and spitting up foam.
• She caught glimpses and stretches of the turbulent blue sea as it spewed against a wide, sandy curve of beach.
• The sea foamed against the sand, dotted with boats, rough or calm and every mood in between.
• Beneath us, angry black water swirled and spat, demanding respect from anyone foolish enough to wander along its muddy banks.
• Boat whistles of differing octaves competed for attention down on the river. Paddlewheels slapped at the murky water. Seamen hollered orders meant to be followed.

San Giacomo’s Review

Author Ernesto San Giacomo recently reviewed Emotional Beats on his blog, for which I’m grateful! You can read the review in its entirety on San Giacomo’s blog.

I am not one of those authors with a veritable library of craft books, because I tend to be quite selective in my choices. However, Emotional Beats: How to Convert Your Writing into Palpable Feelings by Nicholas C. Rossis is a writing resource that I can heartily recommend.

…

Part I: Feelings and Emotions

For me, this section comprises the genius of this book. The different beats used to convey emotions are fleshed out. However, unlike the famous emotion thesaurus, each emotion is sub-divided into the separate body parts.

For example, the first emotion is Anger. The many ways to describe Anger are broken down by eyes, face and head, hands, and voice. To make things even better, all emotions are presented as different from each other. The different ways to express Joy are feet, hands, laughter, and smile. Joy is explored through a completely different subset of body language from Anger.

…

So far, I’ve referred to Emotional Beats several times in the course of editing my novels and short stories. However, at times, I’ve made changes to an existing manuscript simply because this book has sharpened my eyes. I was able to spot something dull and augment the quality without referring back to any lists.

Emotional Beats: How to Convert Your Writing into Palpable Feelings is a must have craft book for indie authors who have to do a lot of self-editing. I have to congratulate Nick Rossis. He has thrown down the gauntlet in the war against indie-author stigma by giving us this valuable tool.

Read the review in its entirety on San Giacomo’s blog.

Next week: Walking and Moving (I). View all posts on the subject, or buy the book on Amazon – free on KU!

Emotional Beats: Seafaring

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