BY JESSICA SHEN
Vision Boarding:
Oftentimes we may find that we lose inspiration, or have trouble visualizing parts of our story, whether it’s a character, or a room, or the whole scene itself.
For you crazy creative types with overactive imaginations, this probably isn’t ever an issue for you (lucky you!). But if you’re like me, pretty good at putting two words together, but sometimes maybe not so great at picturing exactly what it is I’m trying to say, you may find vision boarding to be helpful.
The term “vision boarding” is typically used to describe a process in which you articulate a vision or inspiration for your life by literally cutting and pasting things to a board—whether it’s a picture of the beach or a pithy quote.
These visions can be anything from “I want a new car!” to “I want to form deeper relationships with my family!” You then choose words and images that help you achieve these goals, and refer back to the board to affirm that vision.
Now, this may sound a little hippy-dippy to you—I know it did to me when I first heard about it—but hear me out. Let the vision for your board be as broad as your story, or as focused as a single character, and you may find that it can help and inform your writing.
If it helps you to be hands-on, go back to your science-fair days and pick up a posterboard from your local drug store, a couple different magazines, some stick glue, and go nuts! If you’d prefer to use a tool from the digital age, Pinterest can be an amazing resource (and it’s free!). One of the authors I am currently working with is using it for this exact purpose—to help her articulate what her story looks like.
If you have the time, I would encourage you to vision board each character. What are his or her likes or dislikes? What does he find inspirational? What actor would you choose to play her?
There are endless ways to make use of a vision board. It may not work for everyone, but the next time you’re having trouble finding inspiration, try it out. It may help you visualize your story in a way that you might not expect. And, as a bonus, when that book gets picked up for publishing, you have ready-made inspiration for your cover art!
Jessica Shen lives, works, writes, and edits from her laptop in northern California. Her latest project, Mr. Gunn & Dr. Bohemia by Pete Ford, was released in October, 2013. Her next project, Kingdom City by Benjamin Ireland, is slated for release in February 2014.