The Rural Setting Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Personal and Natural Places (Writers Helping Writers Series Book 4)

Here's why I love this book -- and it's sister the Urban Setting Thesaurus: in addition to having the usual information about a setting to involve all the senses -- Sights, Sounds, Smells, Tastes, Textures and Sensations -- this book also includes inspiration. The section within each entry titled Possible Sources of Conflict is very helpful for brainstorming or idea-generation. So while I can use the assistance with remembering what my last cruise was like in all the visceral ways (who takes notes on vacation? not me!), reading through the additional, writer-related sections has my muse working overtime. In addition to that, the Setting Description Example really makes me want to write setting THAT well; it helps form a goal for me by showing me how it can be done. I highly recommend this book for everyone writing in every genre because even fantasy and science fiction have familiar settings.

The thesauruses in this series are auto buys for me since I read The Emotional Thesaurus. I like having the physical book as opposed to the kindle version. It's much easier to flip through. Setting has always been a struggle for me in my writing and this provides great ideas about how to paint a picture of where the action is talking place. On the rare occasion I am looking for a place not specifically listed in the books, there is something similar enough to give me a solid place to start from. I read this cover to cover when I got it. The books are so interesting and have such great information. I refer to it frequently when editing. I like that it was broken up into urban and rural or the book with be a bit unwieldy. Definitely get the companion book Urban Settings Thesaurus. You'll be all set to describe any location. I also highly recommend all the books in the series. Five stars only because I can't give it more.

I try not to give too much away about the content of books. I have various reasons for reading this type of book. One of these days, I'll finish writing a book or as my wife says, she'll publish it after I pass on. At my current writing pace, it's going to be about 9,000 pages before I finish it. Just kidding around. This book is a good, educating and entertaining read. The only complaint I have isn't really a complaint, but I've mentioned it on other Kindle books. I just think the flow of this book and many others in this field, break their flow, my reading flow, with the plugging of their other books. I normally would take a star off, but this one isn't too bad for it. If I could share an old business tip it's don't distract your viewing audience's attention to anything besides whatever you got their attention with in the first place. It's kind of frustrating to be reading along only to see "To see how to do this, see my book "(name)". That would require me to stop reading your book. Still, overall, this is a good book with lots of things in it to learn.

I own the entire series of Writer's Guide ebooks and I love all of them. They're concise, well-organized, and helpful to consider the dimensions of whatever content each thesaurus deals with. The newest additions—the rural and urban setting thesauruses—are no different. So helpful and so affordable—you can't pass them up if you're a writer. I'll also note that I'm glad I got the ebooks because you can jump to specific chapters based on what you're working with in your stories. Navigation is more user-friendly in the newer books than say the Emotional Thesaurus which is organized differently, but none of them are unusable.

I absolutely love this series of books. They are extremely helpful writing enhancement aids, especially when you are trying to make your work more unique and interesting. I really hope they make a thesaurus of facial expressions and body language sometime soon because; I believe it would be extremely helpful, it isn't something they have yet, and it is the one place left where I keep getting stuck. 😉 Thank you to the authors for taking the time to create these books. Thank you for reading my review and good luck on whatever project you are using these books for. 🙂

I love this series of books. They're great desk references for authors wanting inspiration for their writing. It helps spur new ideas and helps your writing from becoming stagnant and repetitive (just like having a regular thesaurus does for your word choice). I would highly recommend these books for anyone looking to improve their craft. I will say that I do struggle with this particular one in the series because I don't like how the information is formatted. It's not as easy to scan through for ideas, but the information is good.

I bought Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi's The Rural Setting Thesaurus (JADD Publishing 2016) to buttress my knowledge of the rural settings that make up so much of my current WIP--actually, the entire ecosystem that is the background for my trilogies in Man vs. Nature. Ackerman and Puglisi didn't disappoint. The authors cover settings at home, at school, in inhabited rural areas, and the very rural (the arctic tundra, the badlands, and more). For each of the dozens of locations, the authors cover sights, sounds, smells, tastes, textures, and sensations (all the sense) as well as possible conflict, people found here, and related settings. Then they give an example of what a description of the setting might be. For example, the example for river is: "I stumbled up the hill, my body baked as dry as the land I'd crossed. Flashes of liquid light winked through the trees ahead and my legs tremored. Cocking me head, I heard it at last: the gentle burble of salvation." If you're writing about a rural location you haven't visited or don't know enough about--especially the all-important sensory detail--there's no better book out there than this. Oh--this is part of a series by these authors covering: The Urban Setting Thesaurus The Positive Trait Thesaurus The Negative Trait Thesaurus The Emotional Wound Thesaurus The Emotion Thesaurus

There are many books on the market today that 'tell' an author how to write. One of the tried and true axioms in writing is 'show, don't tell.' Guess what? The Rural Setting Thesaurus (and its companions, which include The Urban Setting Thesaurus among many others) 'shows' you how to write. The Rural Setting Thesaurus doesn't tell us, "Write one’s setting in this place exactly like so." No, it includes a huge variety of everyday settings in which your characters might find themselves. Then, it proceeds to unpack those settings into sights, sounds, smells, tastes, textures and sensations, possible sources of conflict, people commonly found there, and even notes related settings (conveniently hyperlinked in the Kindle version). Further, these incredible references provide additional setting notes and tips and helpful example descriptions for each one. As if all that isn't valuable enough, authors Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi go even further by including key techniques and devices to employ in rural settings, and the resulting literary effects one can achieve by doing so. An author could spend every dime of their past, present and future royalties on a whole library of reference books and still not achieve a return on their investment as valuable as this thesaurus. I think I’ll creep into the root cellar and see what’s lurking in that musty corner under the stairs.

As an author sometimes I struggle to come up with authentic sounding phrases and descriptions of places, people and so on. This set of books - Character Traits (2) and Settings (2) are a fantastic aid. If you want to deepen your readers' experience and give them true and believable characters and amazing worlds and settings you will love these books too.

Andere recensies gaven het al aan, het is echt een boek bedoeld voor de US-markt. Dat is met veel schrijfboeken het geval, vooral dit soort zinvolle boeken. Daarbij zijn de voorbeelden talrijk, maar wel vaak gebaseerd op open deuren. Ik vond dit persoonlijk niet erg, omdat ik niet uitging van een copy and paste thesaurus. Dus het is een ongelooflijk handig boek om ideeën op te doen, omdat het je opweg helpt echt vanuit verschillende zintuigen een setting te creëeren.

Helpful resource

awesome and great book for beginners in novel writing.

Como os demais Thesaurus de Angela Ackerman e Becca Puglisi, este é um auxiliar direto da maior utilidade para quem escreve - ficção em especial. Apesar de estar em inglês, quem conhece a língua pode facilmente converter as indicações para o português, e enriquecer caracterizações de personagens e cenários em seus textos. E se considerarmos o preço, então, temos uma compra altamente recomendável.