April Gardner Books

BODY BEATS TO BUILD ON is on a mission to nix the same old "he smiled" and "she shrugged," to transform worn-out beats into phrasing the reader won’t flag as been-there-done-that. Need help revolutionizing your tired beats? Now, there’s a resource.

 

It all starts with a gasp. Fifty-seven of them actually. In one manuscript. You probably just gasped. Or maybe you...gulped air, pulled a sharp breath through your teeth, sucked in a lungful of wind, or took a crisply indrawn breath

The truth is, having numerous inhales over the course of a manuscript isn’t so odd—we humans, even the fictional kind, do tend to breathe. The trouble comes with repetition, which readers will interpret as a lack of originality or, Muse forbid, laziness. And they’ll be right.

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Staying inventive isn’t easy, though. Especially when it comes to those actions an author can’t avoid repeating, such as gazing, raising eyebrows, making a fist, and the list goes on. Use this fiction writer’s thesaurus to add variety to repetitive body beats!

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BODY BEATS TO BUILD ON is an emotion phrase book that provides the bones for fresh, vibrant content. Layer with a little imagination, mix and match, and voilà—endless, unique beats. No more pet phrases. No more wasting time in search of a different way to write "she blushed." Just you and your manuscript climbing to the next level. This easy-to-navigate tool for novelists is a must-have for your fiction self-editing checklist.

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Bonus Material:

• thesaurus of 600+ adjectives used to describe gazes, smiles, and laughter

• library of 500 dialogue tags categorized for quick grab

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Reviews

"My go-to writing tool." -Amazon reviewer
"A true lifesaver for those hair-pulling hours trying to edit my overused and tired beats." -Amazon reviewer
"This book allowed me to look up an action and find tons of options to choose from, helping to make the writing less predictable and really come to life." -Amazon reviewer