Mood boards are brilliant. There’s something so pleasing about the aesthetic of it. And more importantly, mood boards can be a really useful tool to inspire you, and motivate you, while writing your novel. Here are just four ways to use them:
Character Mood Boards
Character mood boards are great fun to make. They enable you to delve into the character, and pick out images that represent them. You can do it for each character, or just the main characters, whichever works for you. But either way, it enables you to delve into their own aesthetic.
Location Mood Boards
Setting the scene isn’t always easy, especially when you’re at home, staring at a blank screen. Location mood boards can be used to absorb you back into the world you’re writing. You can make a mood board for each scene, or each location in the story, to inspire your mind and encourage you to write vibrant descriptions.
Emotion Mood Boards
We’re told, as writers, to show not tell. When writing character emotions it’s much more authentic to describe facial expressions and body language, rather than simply state the emotion. Again, mood boards can help you bring these emotions alive. Having the images in front of you enable you to take note of what you notice, and how you recognise the emotions without words.
Lyric Mood Boards
A personal favourite of mine! I love listening to music, and matching songs to my story. Not only does listening to these songs inspire me, but so does reading the lyrics. And so I like to have a lyric mood board too.
Do you create mood boards? I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions and ideas, so comment them below.
Until then,
Keep writing,
M
x
Uninspired Writers 
What a fun post! I’ve only just started experimenting with mood boards so we’ll see if I find them useful! I’m creating them for my main characters but I choose photos where they show certain emotions – so I’m combining two of your suggestions 😉
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Thanks for reading! That sounds awesome! x
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I am fairly visual, and have used something similar – pasting up pictures of people and places. It didn’t work that well for me; it seems I need to build the images in my head. But it’s so individual, and all sorts of techniques are worth a go. I have based fictional places in real ones, though, to get basic geography and layout in place, then fleshed out the ‘bones ‘.
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I love making mood boards on Pinterest for each novel. 💜💜💜
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I bet they are beautiful! xx
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Reblogged this on Claire Plaisted – Author and commented:
Creating Mood Boards which Inspire. Do you make them? Have a read and leave a comment. Personally I don’t make them. I’m more into lists for characters and only so I don’t forget what a character looks like.
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Thank you 😀
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