What is
Pinterest? It’s a display of (hopefully) themed pictures. It’s a terrific place
to share photos from vacations, family, favorite artwork, room designs and even
event planning.
So what good
is all this to an author? Plenty, especially if you work it right. First of all
you can make photo boards PRIVATE and share those with only select individuals.
My daughter-in-law, her mom and I shared a private board with wedding flowers,
favors and other decorations; absolutely no reason to share that board
publicly. But my PUBLIC boards, now those have interest to my readers and other
authors. I have multiple boards including my book covers, friends’ book covers,
and boards for separate books. In the book boards I have pictures that are
relevant to the story – for instance I have scenic pics from the town where
cousins Caitlyn and Tom grew up, and pictures of actors/actresses I would cast
in the story IF it were to be made into a movie.
I have a few
other public boards and I carefully pick what I show – remember NEVER put anything
on the internet that could potentially embarrass you or make people think about
you in a way you do not want them to. Remember be real but know that the image
you cast is one that readers will associate with you. Do not post pictures to
your boards that might infringe on someone’s copyright and also realize that
the pins you post to your boards may be “borrowed” and posted to other’s boards…
don’t post anything on a public board that you want to keep to yourself.
To help you
get started on Pinterest, here is a YouTube Tutorial https://youtu.be/vQP2dBMoCQ0
In short, go
to Pinterest.com; you can sign up using your email or link it to FaceBook
(linking to social media helps find friends to follow and invite to like your
board); it’s a good idea to use the same profile name and pic as you use on
your other social media accounts (remember — Branding!); use your settings to
choose how many notifications you get or if you don’t want them filling up your
email box. Install the “Pin It” button to your browser to make it easy to pin
fave items directly to your Pinterest account (check “Goodies” for this). If
you like a Pin that someone else has put on one of their boards just hover the
cursor over that picture and you’ll see three icons, Pin, Like, or Comment; if
you click pin you can post it to one of your own boards.
What happens
if you have a favorite photo you want to pin to one of your boards but it isn’t
online (yet)? You will have to upload it from your computer. Click the “Add+”
button on the upper right side and just follow the directions.
Remember to include
your Pinterest URL on your website, social media profiles, or with any blogs on
how to contact you. You can find me at http://www.pinterest.com/chellecordero/
Writing Exercise:
If you could tell the story of your life in pictures, NO words, select
up to 10 pictures (the pictures can be found online or in your own photo album)
that would do the job. When you have ALL the pictures write a one sentence
caption for each picture. Finally review the pics and captions, IS THIS THE
STORY OF YOUR LIFE?
Writing Prompt:
Set your timer for 10 minutes. Take a blank piece of paper and write any
random word (the first one that comes to mind), count to 10 and write a second
random word that is UNRELATED to the first word; continue this until you have
approximately 5 words per line.
Challenge Assignment: Interview your main characters from your
latest book or WIP (work in progress) and find out as much about them as
possible. What was their best and worst childhood memory? What is their current
goal and where do they see themselves in 10 years? If they could have lunch
with anyone (living, dead, or another character) who would it be? [these are a
few sample questions, think up more of your own].
