When I typed “The End” at the end of my draft, I knew it wasn’t. That was April and now it’s almost September. I will discuss revision at some point, but last week I grew weary of the process and started to doubt myself.
A key chapter needed to be rewritten to better service the story. There was “info dumping” in another chapter. The protagonist needed to express deeper, more heartfelt emotion in some places. I could not argue with any of the critiques, and all the positive energy and encouragement seemed to evaporate (only in my head, really). Apparently, this is common in the angsty life of a writer.
So I needed a psychic break. I created that moodboard that is on the home page. I used Adobe Express to make a collage and remind me of the key elements of the story. And that it was a pretty darn good story. Adobe Express, Envato Elements and Canva have thousands of templates you can use. The samples pictured above are from Envato Elements. Just drop in your own images and text.
It helped to channel a different creative outlet. And I needed a place to put the moodboard, so I created this website. OK, maybe I am officially procrastinating at this point. But I think I am mentally ready to return to the revision process.
I got the moodboard idea on Twitter. On April 7, I started seeing the MoodPitch hashtag, inviting writers with query-ready polished manuscripts to pitch their work visuallly via moodboard. Agents with their interest piqued asked to see more. Another #MoodPitch was planned for November but with all the chaos on Twitter it’s up in the air. Anyway, I hope to be ready for a future pitch.
