Pinterest – the Untapped Story Development Tool for Creative Writers

Creating a story and writing it down on paper requires a piece of your soul. As writers, we’ve all felt it. But we don’t lose that piece of ourselves; it just survives elsewhere, kind of like a horcrux, as cheesy as that sounds. That’s how we make a story, a character, or a place come alive, with a small portion of ourselves, sacrificed for the greater good of the story itself.
 
Because it requires a piece of yourself to write, take a moment and consider how you find inspiration. Pinpointing your inspiration will allow you to give your best self to your story, and thereby, it makes for an even better story. Some, and you might be one of them, find music inspirational. They create playlists to listen to as they write.
 
For me, however, I’m inspired by photos and images – all forms of visual art. It’s all about finding a visual representation of what’s floating – or sometimes crashing – around in my brain, which allows me to build a world, create characters, and tell a story.

Discovering Pinterest – Creative Writer-Style

In 2012, I signed up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) for the first time. The goal of NaNo is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. I had never written a novel before, and I was a bit overwhelmed with the idea. This story was in my head for close to eight years. It tried to come to life in different forms – including picture book and short story – but it just wasn’t right. I had all these ideas in my head, but I couldn’t organize them.
 
I consider myself a visual learner, and in order to find focus, I knew I needed something that I could look at that inspired me to write the story I wanted and needed to write – the story that was begging to get out.
 
One day as I was pinning non-writing-related things, it hit me. Pinterest could be exactly what I needed to stay organized, clear out my mind a bit, and stay inspired. I created a board and then scoured the internet until I found images that closely resembled what was in my head.

Throughout the writing process, I kept referring back to my Pinterest board, and it kept me focused and on track for the full 30 days. Because it was my first go at it, I only pinned a few photos, but it was my game-changer. I even found people repinning or liking some of my pins. It helped me realize that even though these pins were meaningful to me and my story, art touches others, too.

Stepping it Up a Notch - Finding What Works

When it came to the second NaNoWriMo adventure, I was ready to tackle Pinterest all over again. This time, I made it a private board, just to see if I would have a different, more personal experience keeping it all to myself until I was ready to share the finished product.
 
For my second book, it was all about the places the characters traveled, and because they were in a different world, I needed some visual inspiration. I was looking for unique, magical, and beautiful. I found the most inspiring images, and I wrote the book around them, always having Pinterest open and viewable as I wrote.

Writing a Book without Pinterest – Disaster from the First Page

My latest attempt at NaNoWriMo wasn’t as successful as my previous years. Because I didn’t decide what to write about until the day before the event began, I didn’t create a Pinterest board to guide and inspire me. I figured I was experienced enough to skip this step and simply write from my imagination.
 
As you can imagine, it didn’t go so well.
 
But I continued. I pushed through it. Even as I was writing the novel, trying to get in that daily word count, I knew it was chaotic and quite the mess. Because of the short timeframe to complete the novel, I didn’t feel like I could slow down and create a Pinterest board once I doubted my ability to do without. Sure, it was a first draft, but I didn’t feel I had a firm grasp on the characters or even the story until almost the end. If I would’ve used Pinterest the way I had previously, I think the story would’ve been more natural and streamlined, from the very first page.

Moving Forward – Learning From My Mistake

The closer November gets – and the closer I get to starting a new novel – I find myself thinking more and more about how to use Pinterest better this year. After last time, I’ve learned my lesson. Pinterest will now be my #1 tool for developing characters and my story, and I’ll never write another book without creating it its very own Pinterest board. And you can’t go wrong with free.