Making Pinterest Storyboards

One of my favorite ways to use Pinterest is to storyboard my novels. Pinterest is a treasure trove of inspiration. It can be time consuming because one thing leads to another and then you've spent an hour on it. (It's a great way to procrastinate, in other words.) But its value of it is amazing.

What is storyboarding?

The word storyboarding technically has two uses. In film, it's a series of pictures that give an early idea of the movie. It's a way for directors to figure out how they want to frame shots and all that.

In writing, however, it is more of an inspiration for your story. A storyboard is a collection of images and information pertaining to your current story. Another name for it is an inspiration board.

Before Pinterest, these had to be made by hand. You'd have a folder or bulletin board full of images that inspired you. With Pinterest, all that has been digitized. You can now find almost anything you need and save it all on your board. It's so much easier than printing everything out.

How to do it

The first step is to create a board for your story on Pinterest. All you have to do is hit "Create a Board" right at the top and name it after your novel.

Once it's created, you can pin images or articles onto it from anywhere on the web, as long as it has a picture. You can even put pictures you've taken on it by uploading them from your computer.

The hard part is actually finding the pictures that inspire you. Ideas include things like characters, animals, places, furniture, and more. Each of those can be even further divided.

Knowing what you're looking for is necessary. I like to start with my main characters. I look for their eye and hair color, hair style, clothing style, and things they like. Then I move on to other things. When you're done, if ever, you'll have a board full of many of pictures that help you visualize your story.

Using Pinterest for storyboarding is super fun. But it doesn't count as writing! That's why I often like to do the majority of my storyboarding during the pre-writing or editing stage. It's less distracting that way.

Just searching fantasy or sci-fi brings up hundreds of cool images that might inspire you later. That's why it's nice to have a board just of inspiring pins. I have one that I use to keep pictures of anything that inspires me for writing or drawing.

Do you have Pinterest storyboards? What do you think of them? Let me know in the comments.