Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of The Urban Setting Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to City Spaces

The Urban Setting Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to City Spaces
reviewed on + 205 more book reviews


As a fiction author, I am always looking for ways to improve my writing and draw my readers into the stories that I tell. I found this book to be very informative on using setting to do just that.

What I really liked about this thesaurus was that it gave me lots of sensory details and suggestions for a multitude of settings that I could use. Not just what my characters might see, but also what they might hear, smell, taste, and touch. I found the texture (touch) sections particularly helpful because that seems to be a sense that is often overlooked.

Also included with each setting is a list of possible sources of conflict, people commonly found in that setting, setting notes and tips, related settings, and a setting example. Just reading the sources of conflict set my mind to brainstorming all kinds of possibilities for my work in progress.

These authors have done a tremendous amount of work and I appreciate that their hard work will be making my writing life a little bit easier.

This book has become part of my permanent writing resource library. I highly recommend it to any writer. I will be getting The Rural Setting Thesaurus as well.