Tuesday 4 February 2014

Pinterest

It must be over a year since I last mentioned Pinterest and social media has moved on as always. I tentatively joined at first, unsure if it would be just another time waster. In the past few months, however, I've been really enjoying it and hope to use it even more.

If you're a visual person, like me, you probably like looking at pictures and images, many of which can be hugely inspirational for writing ideas. I wasn't using the boards properly but I've now started a new one for each of my novels and pin anything relevant to that story on the appropriate board. I also have a board for Inspiration; Victoriana; Regency; Scottish Scenery; Scottish Historic Sites; Writing.

It's great fun, although I tend to limit my time on it at the moment and I keep learning about new ways to use Pinterest. One of my daughter's good suggestions was to begin a board for the Victorian crime novel I've yet to finish and fill it with pictures that might inspire ideas - photos of the area and any items from the period. This can be kept hidden if I don't want to share it for now. 

The idea is to follow other people's boards and for people to follow yours, then you'll see a good variety of images when you log in and you can re-pin any of them to your own boards. You can also search for subjects and re-pin anything that catches your eye.

There's a good overview of the reasons why we should use Pinterest in this blog post on Word Serve Water Cooler, if you're thinking about trying it!

If anyone wants to check out my boards, you can find me here (they're still a work in progress!): 

Enjoy if you join and don't forget to follow me so I can follow back.
Rosemary

7 comments:

Wendy's Writing said...

Oh help, Rosemary... I haven't got to grips with Facebook yet!

Rosemary Gemmell said...

Don't worry, Wendy - Pinterest is more for fun!

Vikki said...

It's definitely a great inspirational tool that all writers could benefit from using!

Julia Thorley said...

Interesting idea, and it sounds as though you are using IT, rather than it using YOU. Don't think I have any spare brain for this at the moment, though.

Mary Smith said...

i've been wondering for a while about joining Pinterest, Rosemary, so I was really interested to read your thoughts on it. I must try to fnd the time to do it properly. I had a quick look on your Regency board which looks great. Do you have to spend time arranging where to pin the images or does Pinterest do that?

Rosemary Gemmell said...

I knew you'd love it, Vikki!

You're right, Julia - it's actually a relaxing, fun site rather than one that adds more stress!

Rosemary Gemmell said...

I think you should, Mary, as it's a great tool both for inspiration and for making boards for your publications. Pinterest arranges the images when you pin them, but you can move them around if you wish and change the cover image of each board. If you like visuals then you'll enjoy it!