Pinterest for Writers

I have been an avid user of Pinterest for several years. As a mother I have found it to be very helpful in finding fun activities for the kids, birthday party ideas, age appropriate science experiments that even I can do successfully, and healthy meal recipes even the kids will eat. I can't say all my Pinterest attempts have been successful. Some of my recipe and craft attempts would easily have qualified as Pinterest fails. But I will continue to try because this great tool saves me the time and frustration of scrounging around the endless resources of the internet. Instead I can enter a simple search and find recommended results.

What I didn't realize about Pinterest until about a year ago is how helpful it can be as a resource for my writing. I have discovered a world of fantastic articles about anything from plot and setting to common dialogue. It is also a great spot to find writing prompts to keep your writing moving. My writing board also includes useful infographics that clarify parts of a story in a simple document. Some of my favorite pins have been inspirational quotes from some of my favorite authors or anonymous quips that encourage me to keep writing. I also pin majestic landscape, animal, and human interest images that can inspire setting and characters.

One word of caution when using something like Pinterest to propel your writing is to consider the reliability of your pins' resources. After all you can't believe everything you read on the internet. And as with most rules pertaining to writing you have to take some articles with a grain of salt. For instance I recently pinned a blog post by Hannah Heath called 7 Cliche Characters in YA Fiction That Need to Stop. The article was enlightening in that it highlighted some great points about character development and what to stay away from when writing your own characters. However, having an orphaned teenage character that struggles with self-confidence as my current protagonist I had to appreciate Hannah's article for what it is - a personal opinion. I can't say I disagree with Hannah, but I'm also not changing my character just because I came across her article on Pinterest. My character, Andy, has her own unique story to tell that will help keep her from spiraling into the black hole of cliche characters.

Pinterest is also a great source for writers to be found. Take Hannah for instance. I probably wouldn't have come across her well written article if I hadn't found it on Pinterest. I've come across other helpful bloggers like K.M. Weiland's helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com and Joe Bunting and team's thewritepractice.com. Weiland is one of my favorite author coaches who I follow regularly. Recently I've been studying her infographics on the first, second, and third acts timelines as a way to structure my own story outline. I had felt something was missing in Andy's story and by examining each piece of the novel by using Weiland's timelines, I have found the holes of my story and am filling them with the best word glue I can muster.

No matter where you are in your writing or your goals, I highly recommend starting a Pinterest board to help you meet those goals. While writing is a mostly solitary objective, we cannot do it completely on our own. Helpful artist teachers, images that invoke a story, and motivational quotes are all at your fingertips with Pinterest. Good luck and keep writing.