Nine image collage featuring outdoor scenes, war, tear gas, a pregnant woman, a young couple kissing at sunset, an airplane, an old house, an old barn, and a journal

Creating a Mood Board for Your Work in Progress

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When you’re working on a piece of writing, especially one that’s involved and/or long, it can be helpful to expand the way you think about it through different mediums. Sometimes this may involve making maps (hi, I’ve definitely done this), music playlists for your characters (also guilty), or mood boards. I didn’t know just what a mood board was until recently. It sounds like something a celebrity hangs in their giant walk-in closet to help them pick out what to wear, right? Not quite. According to diy MFA, “…a board where you post images that set the mood for your project. You use the mood board to capture the emotional core of your project and to figure out how your audience will connect to it.”

Sounds simple enough, right? Let’s dig in a little bit. I think there are several ways you could approach such a project.

Paper or digital?

My Plume partner, Jennifer, teaches a kick-ass workshop on what she calls “dream boarding”, which has a lot in common with mood boards. Though she understands it in much more depth that I do, I see it as a the creation of a physical inspiration board for your writing, using things like magazines and mindfulness.

But you can also go electronic and make the board from pictures you find online. I use a free photo site called Unsplash and then use an app to build grids of the pictures.

I think either option is great. It really just depends on your preference and how tactile you want to get. We do love physical things here at Plume!

Mood Board as Setting

For whatever reason, when I start writing something new, I almost always begin with the setting. Something about where and when a piece of writing takes place is key to how I approach writing it. Here are some images I’ve collected to put me in mind for the settings of my novels:

soldier from another era walking away from the camera
Unsplash: Stijn Swinnen
Old barn in the snow
Unsplash: Richard Hoskins
Old barn flanked by two tall pines
Unsplash: Mick Haupt

These images enable me to focus on overall themes in my work, and also help me to see similarities between projects…like my apparent penchant for old barns!

Mood Board As…

You could break a mood board down so many other ways: via character(s), plot points, voice…really anything that speaks to you! I like to mix and match, too, and put in various aspects of a project, just to set the tone. I’ve seen people use these to market their finished work, but I think mood boards can be a great tool for creating. Here’s a physical mood board I’ve had going for a while (it’s more just about life in general, but it’s very similar to one I would create for a WIP):

This mood board hangs by my writing desk.

And here’s a digital one I created recently for my first novel:

There’s a lot of setting and plot here, with some character glimpses.

Have you ever made a mood board? Try it out and tag us in the picture!

While you’re here, don’t forget to follow us on our socials– Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook,–where we’re talking about Spooky October. Happy writing!