CHARACTER MOTIVATIONS

Explore character arc from all angles by digging into what is motivating your protagonist, the obstacles that could stand in their way, and how sacrifices may be required if they are to succeed.

COLORS AND PATTERNS

Create a stronger visual image for readers by choosing the perfect descriptive matches to the colors of your world, helping readers make emotional associations that draw them in.

CONFLICTS

Conflict should generate problems for your character, cause internal crises, and force them to adapt and fight hard to win. This database will provide you with endless possibilities for fresh story complications.

EMOTION AMPLIFIERS

Altering a character’s mood through emotional amplifiers (such as hunger, illness, stress, and pain) is a great way to generate tension, turn up the heat, and complicate your character’s situation.

EMOTIONAL WOUNDS

While wounds generate fears, misbeliefs, and dysfunction, they also steer a character's decisions and actions. Understanding your character's trauma will help you plot a meaningful goal (which may include a path to overcoming this past pain).

EMOTIONS

Brainstorm fresh body language, visceral sensations, thoughts, dialogue cues, and actions to express your character’s emotions in ways that fit their personality and emotional range.

FEARS

Fears stemming from difficult experiences, mental health conditions, and emotional trauma can limit your character, holding them back from what they want most. Brainstorm how real-life fears will steer their behavior and hamper them in the story.

NEGATIVE TRAITS

Readers want to see characters who are flawed, complex, and far from perfect. Choose negative traits that fit the character, cause them problems in the story, and may need to be shed if they are to achieve their story goal.

OCCUPATIONS

A job or career is loaded with show-don't-tell details that reveal your character's personality, morals, skills, and more. It also provides a natural environment for work-life crossover friction and (if you choose it) goal achievement.

PHYSICAL FEATURES

Say goodbye to boring physical description dumps! Instead, use this database to choose meaningful details that seed hints about who your character is, their personality traits, preferences, attitudes, and much more.

POSITIVE TRAITS

To draw readers in, well-layered characters should have admirable qualities that showcase their identity, reveal morals, help them communicate, and assist them in achieving their story goals. This thesaurus provides you with endless options for unique personality combinations.

RELATIONSHIPS

Healthy and supportive or dysfunctional and toxic, relationships add drama and show readers who your character really is. So surround your protagonist with allies and enemies, mirrors and foils. Use their connections with others to infuse the story with tension, conflict, and meaningful stakes.

SETTINGS

Instead of choosing a generic location for a scene, scan our setting database to find one that perfectly fits the action, generates natural conflict, and triggers the character's emotions. Then, use sensory details to pull readers into the scene and the character's experience.

SHAPES

Convey shapes quickly with apt comparisons, saving your word count for other descriptive areas, such as emotions, character development, sensory details, and conflict.

TALENTS AND SKILLS

What special skills or talents make your character exceptional and unique? Bonus points if this quality is something others fail to see the value of...especially when it ends up helping the character achieve their goal!

TEXTURES

Touch is a vital sense for engaging readers. This thesaurus helps you choose details that will make important story moments more intimate, pulling readers into the character's viewpoint.

THEMES AND SYMBOLS

Not only will symbols deepen your story's meaning, they also turn readers into active participants as they gather the clues about your character's emotions, backstory, and more.

WEATHER AND EARTHLY PHENOMENA

Weather is packed with storytelling power, altering a character's emotions, creating mood, foreshadowing, and more. It also adds realism to the story, so make sure to include it in your scenes.