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| Credit: Mumford & Sons lyrics, from losing-every-extra-pound.tumblr.com |
Using visual aids for your writing is always helpful. Between nice quotes or aesthetic photos that remind you of your book or the mood you want to convey for that certain scene, it's always helpful to look up reference photos--nor is it shameful or unimaginative to need visual aids for inspiration! I didn't begin compiling images for the Faith, Hope, and Love collection until recently, but it's been very useful. On the left, you can see an excellent photo with lyrics from a Mumford & Sons song, "After the Storm." I was very excited to find this on Pinterest, because it solidified a major theme throughout these books.
As you may know if you've read Welcome Home, you'll know that it was inspired by the entirety of 1 Corinthians 13. The idea for it came around in a funny way, actually. My church's youth group was challenged to memorize the entire chapter, and for everyone who memorized the chapter, the youth group leader would donate some money to Samaritan's Purse. As I was reading that chapter over and over again, it struck me that everyone needs to understand the depth of it; what love really is, not just the lustful, selfish ideals that are tossed around in society today. I decided that every book I ever authored would have those themes featured prominently, but since this series was built around those verses, they are exemplified and magnified. Whether in chapter openers or through the themes woven in the content, 1 Corinthians 13 is the foundation of the Faith, Hope, and Love collection...in case you didn't know from the title of the collection itself!
Anyway, back to the song: this group of lyrics relates to 1 Corinthians 13 as well as the storyline for this series because it seems as if the person that the song is about has been hurt deeply on several levels, including love. Lucy and Spence have both been affected by poor foster/adoptive homes, and in the forthcoming books, Morgan and Levi will be exploring their rocky past relationships in light of new ones. Yes, they must find the difference between lust and love, and in today's society, more people desire a lustful, casual relationship than selflessness, commitment, and loyalty--which are hallmarks of love as described in the Bible. And yes, of course they have grace in their hearts--God's forgiving grace; they just have to find it and seize that forgiveness and love!
Finding God's grace in the disasters of life is always difficult, and that's another thing you'll find on my Pinterest board: a lot of quotes about heartbreak and pasts that can't be healed, nor forgotten. It's fairly self-explanatory that these themes are explored in my books as well, but part of loving like God loves us is to understand that we can heal and that we're loved even if we don't feel like we are.
On another note, one thing you won't find on my Pinterest board (at least, as I write this post) are character reference photos. I saved them on my computer once upon a time, but didn't pin them, and then my computer's hard drive crashed and I lost everything. Back up your files, guys!
Click HERE to view my Pinterest board dedicated to the series as a whole.
All in all, Pinterest is a fantastic resource to use when you're planning out a book. Not only can it give you visual aids, but it's also useful for exploring quotes, music lyrics, and photographs that might spark your imagination.
Do you run Pinterest boards for your stories? Do you have other methods of compiling story inspiration? Share them in the comments below!
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