Wall of Inspiration for Writing

Writing Wall of Inspiration

I've been working on an idea to make my writing more enjoyable and I hope this will help me to become a better writer.  As a writer, the goal is to write books that people want to read. Otherwise, I can't make a living. I am constantly looking for ways to do this.  I have tried to stay centered on my work and am often lost along the way.  I can't stress how hard it is to stay focused when one is so unorganized.  Lately, I've been working to improve that as well.  I have cleaned out my office, removing anything that does not belong and now have found my office to be a sanctuary of sorts.  I say this because with two kids and a husband who don't know how to pick up behind themselves, my house tends to become overwhelmed with junk.  By cleaning my office, I'm no longer distracted by the mess.  My mind does not stray to housekeeping and I am better able to concentrate on imagining a fantasy world in which I must write about.  I have tried to organize my writing, so that I don't become lost in it, forgetting who is who and where they came from.  I often find myself frustrated when I come back to my desk the following day and I have to reread everything just to assure myself that I have written the right name and the right occupation of a character.  What I've done is made myself a plot board.  I looked at several ideas for plot boards on Pinterest before making my own.  I may still tweak it some but for now this is what I have done.  I went out to Walmart and picked up a three foot by two foot magnetic dry erase board.  I bought a pack of markers to go with it and have decided to use the different markers to color coordinate it.  I set up my board on a blank wall then divided it by drawing three vertical lines and one horizontal line at the top.  This gives me four columns in which to write down my characters and my scenes.  The first column is for my Characters.  The second column is for the Introduction, the third for the Body and the fourth is for the Conclusion.  I got this idea from a Youtube video where a woman used a cardboard story board like the ones you buy your kids for their reading and science fair projects.  Anyway, she had it set up in four acts, making the two middle columns the same act in two parts.  I just figured it would be a little easier for me to use that extra column for my characters and use introduction, body and conclusion, the way we did in high school.  I'm not kidding when I say I often forget their names.  The last name is the worst for me.  Well I told my husband what I wanted this board for and even though it cost twenty dollars for the board alone, he agreed.  The reason I went with a dry erase board instead of the cardboard storyboard is because I don't want to constantly have to replenish my supplies such as note cards or even the board it self.  For the same reason I did not buy the big cork board of the same size, even though it was ten dollars cheaper.  In the long run buying notecards, thumbtacks, ink pens and whatever else will begin to add up.  The dry erase board allows me to wipe it away and start over.  I did purchase some sticky notes.  I thought I could use them to write down ideas for later books or even for conversations in the book for which I haven't quite gotten to yet.  I plan to use the whole wall in which the dry erase board hangs on, for writing improvement.  I have written out words to use instead of said.  For example: "I want to ride too," Tommy said. I would be able to replace Tommy said with something else, such as; "I want to ride too," declared Tommy.  I also wrote a list of descriptive words I would like to use more often in my writing.  Words like lovely, absurd, lousy, dandy and sorrowful are just a few.  There are around fifty words on my list. I got the idea for the list of words on Pinterest. I have also placed a quote from another author on my wall, that I felt touched my heart.  At the top of my wall, it is still pretty darn bare.  I just don't know what to put there.  I might hang a beautiful work of art there, something to inspire me. Eventually I will make all of these handwritten list look better by printing them out and framing them, but this will work for now, until I can get some ink.  My local Walmart has been out of my ink the last couple of times I went up there.  Anyway, I realize it's hard to see what I've done in the picture, but I didn't want to show what I am currently working on.  I don't like to reveal these things until my work is done and the book is published.  That's why I blurred it out a bit.  You can still see how I split the board into four columns.  That's all you need to see.  Maybe, once this book is finished and I have started over with a clean slate, I will take another picture to show you all what I mean.  Let me know what you think and please share any ideas that you think will make my wall more inspirational.  Be creative with your ideas.  I would love to hear them.