Pinterest is great for finding tips and tricks to add to your writer’s toolbox, but it can also improve your personal project. Here’s how to create a mood board for your story.
I don’t know about you, but for me Pinterest has become one of my main go tos for Internet research accumulation. In case you’ve been living deep in the mines of Moria for the past six years, Pinterest is a magical website that allows you to save webpages via image “pins” or upload personal photos to specific boards you create. Writers use it to find writing tips, character templates, book reviews, and more. These kinds of boards are great for adding to your writer’s toolbox, but how can Pinterest improve your personal project? I think it’s time we consider creating a mood board for your story.
What Is A Mood Board?
A mood board is a collection of images, words, and colors that invoke a certain, well, mood. They’re used by artists and designers, corporate workplaces and community clubs to help center everyone’s focus on the project’s vision. It reminds the viewer about the themes, reactions, emotions, and end goals that the project is aiming for. Kind of like a visual mission statement.
For writers, a mood board can bring direction and focus to your work in progress. It’s a great place to visually gather artwork of your characters, setting, themes, the emotional response you want from readers, and research. What do you envision the climax looking like? How do you want readers to feel about your characters? Open up your mood board before writing, and you can see at a glance the type of story you’re sitting down to create.
What Kind of Stuff Should I Pin?
Like I said before, you can pin anything from pictures of what you think your characters should look like to research on how certain things work. Your mood board can be purely inspirational, or it can be a library of useful articles. If you have passages in your draft that you feel really capture the spirit of the story, use a quote generator like QuotesCover.com to create a graphic and put it on your board. Remind yourself why your story is worth the long, frustrating nights staring at the keyboard.
For my fantasy WIP’s mood board, I’ve pinned mostly links to different research articles I reference frequently, along with pictures of how I want readers to envision a scene. The beautiful landscapes mixed with horrific creatures, light shining through and darkness creeping in. I also pin different ideas for plot devices. It’s small, but I’m using my mood board as an at-a-glance mood setter with useful information at a second glance. Since I’m writing a fantasy with a lot of science woven in to the magic, it’s been a great place to keep my research straight.
Why Is Pinterest the Perfect Platform?
Because it’s so visual and easy to use! You can upload pins from any website that has pictures (try pinning one of the images from this post) to link to the site, or upload pictures from your computer, or find other images already on Pinterest to add to your board. It’s an excellent way to collect your ideas in one place, and if you have the Pinterest app, you can add to your board on the go. Also, if you’re trying to build an author brand, publicizing your story’s mood board is a great way to peak reader’s interests and show them what kind of story they should expect.
But maybe you don’t want people seeing your story’s mood board. That’s completely understandable. There could be major spoilers in the research and inspiration you pin. Or you could be worried about people stealing your ideas. If that’s the case, you can make a secret board on Pinterest that’ll only be visible to you.
What kind of images do you look for when collecting ideas on a new project? Share your methods in the comments!
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Amber Helt is the managing editor and writing coach at Rooted in Writing. She has her Bachelor of Arts in creative writing with certificates in French and linguistics. She’s the co-chair of the North Texas chapter of the Editorial Freelancers Association and teaches workshops on writing and editing throughout Dallas. Amber writes dark fantasy and is currently working on her novel, Grimm Reality.
You can hang out with her on Instagram @Amber.Helt and her personal blog www.AmberHelt.com.
