Oh, Pinterest, how I adore thee! 

I know, I know…Pinterest is one of the MANY social platforms out there, and it’s been out there for a while. Still, I would like to profess my undying love for it, because: It. Is. Awesome! I can get sucked into Pinterest for HOURS – hours that I should maybe spend working on my WIP, but…it’s Pinterest!

The platform has a lot of potential for author branding and marketing purposes and all that good stuff, but I must confess that I only use it for inspiration and motivation (a.k.a. the day-dreaming stuff). 

Mood

Mood boards are the best! They are a GREAT way to imagine your story world and characters. They can bring your story to life in a way that writing things down simply can’t. 

I mostly look for images and quotes that relate to scenes, characters, and settings. I put them together to create my story vibe – the mood I want to convey. It’s a lot of fun and super helpful to fall back on when I’m having trouble “feeling” my story while I write.

Story Bible

Let’s take the mood board idea a little further, shall we? What if each character had their own mood board, with pictures about how they look and what they wear, and what they might say? What if each location had its own board? What if the magic system had its own board? 

In short, I make as many mood boards as needed and then I make them super detailed: battle scenes, kisses, magic – YES! 

These detailed boards serve as a visual extension of my story bible. For now, I mostly keep the boards hidden; only I can see them because I may or may not be slightly embarrassed about the things that are on there.

Motivation

Quotes related to writing, links to interesting blog posts about writing, reminders to be awesome and not give up: I have a Pinterest board full of these little reminders and handy tips to get me hyped up and excited to write. 

Also, I like to follow other writers on Pinterest. Seeing their storyboards, motivational quotes, and tips and tricks motivates me to get to work! Knowing that they are being awesome and productive makes me want to be awesome and productive. 

In the process, I try to learn from what they are doing, testing their methods on my own writing – hey, a girl’s gotta learn, right?

Inspiration

So, Pinterest is a big help for visualizing my story and for getting me excited to write. Lastly, Pinteresting (it totally deserves its own verb) is an amazing way to collect and organize my ideas for future stories. 

I started a “story ideas” board to pin some of the images I accidentally stumbled upon that got me all giddy and excited to uncover the stories behind them.   

I repeat: oh, Pinterest, how I adore thee!