Today, I’m going to talk about how to Use Pinterest to Create a Book Vision Board. Who doesn’t love Pinterest? I started Pinterest so many years ago as a way of collecting random, pretty things. I had one for clothes and one as reminders to my younger self. I still do Pin stuff every week. In fact, I think its one of those things I see before I sleep, other than watching cute babies, cats and dogs.
How to Use Pinterest to Create a Book Vision Board?
Gradually, I started boards for writing motivation and my books. I feel creating a book vision board goes a long way for authors. I started doing it after my book was over to give my cover artists an image of what was in my mind but now I’ve realized its best to start as you conceive a book.
Convey Mood
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When you start a book, you’re simply thinking in terms of the book and its feel. You’re finding your way around the book. At most, you’ll have an idea, a beginning, and an end. With Pinterest you can capture the mood of the story. Dark and pensive or light and sunny. Mystery, or romance. By picking the right images on Pinterest, you can nail down the mood of your book. If you’re busy like me then often you don’t have time to dwell on the mood of the book until you’re actually sitting at your desk and writing. I like that after a crazy day, I can just look at my book vision board and get back that mood of the book. It will help you get in the zone!
Convey Tone and Pace
Now with videos added to Pinterest, you can even convey the tone and pace of the book. A fast thriller, or heist, a funny chick lit or even a historical drama, its easier to convey these details with images and video. Because your book does all the talking.
Location, location, location
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We’ve all heard that before. But adding images of the place or what it looks like in your imagination, can help you set the scene. It nails down what the setting looks like. Later when you share with an audience you can show them what you meant. I remember when I wrote Painting Kuwait Violet, people had no idea where Kuwait even was. Never mind that two Gulf Wars had been fought over it. And once they read the book, people’s idea of Kuwait was of a dry, arid desert but my Pinterest book vision board showed them the cosmopolitan side of the country. The board will capture the location of your book and its setting.
Depicts Characters
This is so important. I have been working on my series and as the books progress and I work on other books, it can be hard keeping track of everyone’s eye color and hair color. If you create a Pinterest vision board, you will find that your character images can help you keep track of this. Just a quick glance and you can find details about the characters you’ve created.
Blueprint For Your Cover Artist
You know when you get your cover sheet and it has the same basic questions. Mood, tone, color of the eyes,, hair, color, physical characteristics and yada. There’s nothing better than showing a cover artist the vision board you created for your book. I’ve talked extensively about how important it is to show your artist what you see. And over the years my covers are remarkably better because instead of telling my cover artists, I just show them what my book is about.
A One Stop-Shop
On Pinterest, today you can do wonderful things, create pins with book quotes, blurbs, reviews, encouragement from other authors, recipes and tours. There’s no other site where you can create a huge board of all the things happening to your book concentrated in one spot; not even your website. I know because I have tried and failed. So I like that I can simply pin a review, or a video, a quote lifted from my book, etc in just one spot. When it comes time to share this board, my readers, and the publishing team can picture my vision exactly.
Get Pinning
I’m not plugging Pinterest and saying jump on this bandwagon. I’m not keen on asking anyone to sign up to something new. If you’re creating a book board on other social media platforms that’s great but for me Pinterest has worked great. And if you’re already on there, try creating a vision board for your book before you start writing just as you would chart your outline and character sketches.