The Conflict Thesaurus: A Comprehensive Guide to Overcoming Obstacles, Battling Adversaries, and Resolving Inner Struggles for Writers

Ethan: This book is most helpful for people who are generating new story ideas. I found myself disappointed because I read it looking for new insights on conflicts that already exist in a story, and it's remained on my shelf in perfect condition, unlike the others that are bookmarked and highlighted and falling apart.

I wanted to love this book. The authors have helped me so much along my writing journey, and I have every book in the series. Unfortunately, I found it to be a less helpful version of the emotional wound thesaurus. I found myself needing multiple computer monitors to get much value out of this, as it cross-references the emotion thesaurus, positive trait thesaurus, negative trait thesaurus, and the emotional wound thesaurus on every page. I'm sure it's an asset to the one stop for writers subscription, but I like physical books! Without being able to click a link and see the referenced pages in the other thesauri, it's not as helpful.

I suppose that what I most wanted was, well, a thesaurus. Synonyms-- ways of showing that a conflict was happening without stating it outright. You know: "For sale, baby shoes, never worn." Turning a family picture around so one...

United States on May 16, 2023

Alma Mäke: As someone who has been writing fiction my whole life, I felt like I had the whole "how a story works" thing in the bag. Make some characters, slap them somewhere, keep it engaging, yadda yadda. "I already have a plot," I said. "I already have ideas."
I initially bought this book for collection purposes. But flipping through turned into mindful reading, and that reading perfectly connected all the ideas in my brain to form more structure, more meaning to the things that happen in the story. To fully conceptualize and understand a conflict's ins and outs, its done a lot more than get me out of writers block! I absolutely recommend to any writer, beginner or not, any book from this series!

United States on Apr 14, 2023

Kerry Downey: I regret the fact that I tried and failed to purchase this volume and the second. I did succeed on the third attempt though. These books are important to me in aiding my writing.

Canada on Mar 11, 2023

LBD: This is just another in a great series of aids for writers. Highly recommend for novelists and script writers as a prompt.

United Kingdom on Jan 21, 2023

Helen Scott: Found this to be a terrific source of inspiration, and confirmation I on the right tracks!! Definitely recommend.

United Kingdom on Jan 06, 2023

Robert: This is a great addition to the series. I have used these to inspire my students and get them writing. It also helps me when thinking of table top scenarios to fill out the details. It is a good series to get piece by piece as you need.

Canada on Dec 02, 2022

MAlvarado: This series of books are great! They’re perfect references for character and dialogue development.

I was having a difficult time developing a gray character—not quite evil, but truly flawed—and between this book and some of the others, I finally broke through. Can’t wait for y’all to meet this guy.

This book and it’s fellows are the kid you may not crack every day, but you’ll want to keep them close at hand when you’re in the midst of creating your characters and world.

United States on Sep 20, 2022

Pam Stephenson: A great book, like all in the series. I took off 1 star only because this is volume 1, and at the back it tells what will eventually be in volume 2, and I feel some of those are so basic (like being orphaned or having a family member die) that I think they should have been in the first volume.

United States on May 14, 2022

Adel Gastel: This book shows how long is the trip from the idea to the last point of the story. It's a great collection. Never seen before. It makes the reader humble. Writing is a full time job, not a game.

France on May 12, 2022

Vincent Jobson: I can only assume that volume two of this book is still in production because I have yet to find it. What a great reference! It occupies a place above my desk where I keep my most valuable references.

As a burgeoning writer, I often don't think of the minor details when working through conflict. This outstanding guide gives me something to sink my teeth into. While I am sure it is incomplete, it certainly is a worthwhile guide.

The start of this book is full of great reading about what makes for great conflict and how to make the most of it. I will be looking into other titles such as this one. This is an amazing reference that no up and coming writer should be without.

United States on Apr 22, 2022