Pinterest for Writers

If you’re anything like me, you love to save things. Pictures, old notes, that weird looking rock you found on a trail that one time.

But did you know there’s a digital way to make that work for your writing?

Yup, I’m talking Pinterest here. Digital hoarding. Er… digital collecting.

You may already be familiar with Pinterest, but if not, basically it’s a place where you can save (pin) pictures linked to websites, or just pictures you upload yourself. It’s just like the corkboard you might have over your desk, but you can also use it to link back to websites you want to remember.

And that opens up worlds of possibility for us as writers. But what ways can we make this work for us?

To start, we can create boards with subdivisions… basically the way I handle it is to create a board for a book or topic, then subdivide it into things like the world, specific characters, etc. I did this a lot for my WIP, Sea of Broken Glass. Check it out!

By using it this way, you can give yourself ideas for how to describe a certain character or things to place in your world. For me, it helps me to flesh out each element of the world. It helps me organize my thoughts and ideas (in conjunction with my handy story notebook).

When I’m researching, I can add or create pins with information I may need later, like statistics. I did this when I was working on Life After College, an adult mainstream book that I have on hold right now.

And beyond that, it helps me set the tone for my writing. It gives me feelings and inspires my mood to set me in the right mindspace for the world and the characters. It puts me there.

And that’s another way you can use Pinterest boards. You can create mood boards, like I did for This Cursed Flame which include elements that are simply meant to inspire you and place you in the world, rather than just help you with worldbuilding.

And if you look at that mood board again, there’s another thing we writers can use it for: marketing and sharing our work.

Once I complete a work, I make sure to include an image of the cover with a link to purchase it in the board. I also use Pinterest on occasion to share bits of my blog or pictures I’ve made for writers.

Really, there are tons of possibilities. All you have to do is sit down and start scrolling and pinning. There’s plenty of time to organize and pare it down to make it be the board you need it to be. And I do want to be clear here: I am not getting paid to endorse Pinterest. I am simply sharing it as a tool I use and have heard other authors lamenting their confusion. Hopefully this clears that up and gives you some ideas to kick-start your own work!

Happy writing!

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Your turn!

Do you use Pinterest? Do you use it for your writing? What are your feelings on it? Has it helped you? Or is it more of a distraction? Tell me in the comments!