ARTICLE

ARTICLE Muse Boards: A Visual Writing Aid Muse Boards for All Genres by Jill Hedgecock

When distilled down to its very essence, a writer’s job is to immerse their readers in a three-dimensional world through words. Just as fine artists often find it easier to paint from a photograph or by placing their easel in front of a live model or in a landscape setting, many writers find that prose can be inspired by looking at images of their subject matter. But what is a muse board exactly?

A muse board is a versatile visual aid designed to create mood, assist in character development, inform book structure, and inspire descriptive text. A muse board can be specialized to fit any genre. One of its most powerful features is assisting writers in keeping details straight. This article describes how to make and use a muse board in four easy steps and the many advantages of investing the time to create one.

Step 1: Select Your Format

Muse boards can be digital or physical. Regardless of the media preference, there are many ways to organize your images: collage, sequential images that outline the book, topic- or character-specific, or mood driven. Physical muse boards can be created from corkboard, whiteboard, or trifold cardboard (e.g., child’s science project exhibit boards). The trifold is brilliantly designed for novelists because spatially, the 25%, 50%, 25% area distribution of the board is perfectly in accordance with a well-balanced, “three-act” plot structure. Another advantage of a 36- by 48-inch trifold format is that it can be displayed at author readings and book signings, which makes this my favorite option. The digital world offers many types of platforms that can be used to create this tool, including Pinterest (www. pinterest.com), Photoshop’s collage feature (https://digital-photography-school.com/make-photoshop-collage-9-steps), Sampleboard (www.sampleboard.com), and Milanote (https://milanote.com/ product/writing-software). I’m partial to Pinterest because your followers can monitor your book progress, creating buzz during book development.

Step 2: Assemble Materials

For a digital muse board, Step 2 will largely entail using computer search functions. While digital media is convenient, content is limited to Internet images and digital photos. A physical medium provides more options for materials such as: • Photos • Post its • Magazines • Maps • Fabrics/textures • Scented cloth • Photographs of your own

text

• Family genealogy trees • Geographic maps • Your introductory paragraph • Synopsis and book cover— great for advertising your book at signings • Internet images

• Inspirational quotes • Isolated words • Written sound bites (think movie trailer) or elevator pitches

Color coding the images by mounting them on vibrant scrapbooking paper (red for intense topics and green for setting) can be useful for plotting. When you are not using your own photos, be conscious of potential copyright issues. A few examples of sites that provide royalty-free photography include pexels, (www.pexels.com), pixabay (https://pixabay.com) and Unsplash (https://unsplash.com).

Step 3: Define Your Goal and Create Your Board

Identifying your goal(s) will maximize the value of this tool for your specific writing needs. For example, a writer who struggles with character development could collect images of clothing and facial expressions to help define their protagonist. If descriptions are your Achille’s heel, you may want your board to consist largely of photos of people or objects.

Do you need inspiration to jumpstart your writing day? How about a sticky note showing text you’ve written that you’re proud of? Maybe you could study an image on your board and write a paragraph on why you included it. The text might not ultimately be part of the book, but this quick exercise may launch you into your work-in-progress or possibly take your book in a new and exciting direction.

Is travel a key element to your book? How about adding cultural and iconic images of the important destinations? Depending on your project, you may want to create multiple boards. Memoirists might want to consider creating more than one board or assigning each panel of a trifold to different family members, period details, or genealogy charts. Character-driven novels may benefit if the author creates an entire muse board for their protagonist and villain.

Remember, assembling a muse board can be a fluid process. For my trifold muse boards, I use scrapbooking paper and loose tape so I can move things around. I have also learned to leave space for my book cover image and my elevator pitch to maximize marketing potential during book signings.

Step 4: Reap the Benefits

Here are some of the many potential advantages: 1). Corrects weaknesses in your writing style 2). Identifies key themes and help set tone or mood 3). Focuses chapters and helps overcome writer’s block 4). Improves ability to describe objects and people 5). Prevents time-consuming rewrites 6). Keeps text true to a time period 7). Organizes your chapters 8). Creates balance in the story arc 9). Ensures consistency of descriptions of people, objects, and settings 10). Assists in foreshadowing 11). Helps define your beginning and/or ending 12). Circumvents writer’s block

While you might be concerned that creating a muse board will consume precious writing hours, the planning and energy spent creating this tool can actually save time. Plus, the process of designing a muse board can stretch your creative brain and elevate your work to a whole new level. Best of all, it can be an effective marketing tool at author signings after publication.

Jill Hedgecock is an award-winning and internationally published author. With the aid of a muse board, the first draft of her debut coming-of-age suspense novel, Rhino in the Room, was written in about six weeks. Her two Doberman-inspired novels (Between Shadow’s Eyes and From Shadow’s Perspective) were published within two years of each other. For more information, visit www.jillhedgecock.com.