Collaging for Inspiration

I first learned of collaging for inspiration about ten years ago when I began reading a lot of self help books related to creating the life you want and how to manifest the things you want in your life. Some called it a collage, Shakti Gawain called it a “treasure map” in her seminal book, Creative Visualization. And then The Secret came along and it became a “vision board”. The idea is to make a collage on poster board using pictures and words to convey the type of life you want to live. This appealed to my creative side and actually, they are quite fun to make. It was easy for someone like me who wasn’t necessarily crafty. All you need is poster board, scissors, glue and some magazines. Glitter optional.

Imagine my delight when a writer friend introduced me to the idea of making a collage for whatever book I was writing. Why hadn’t I thought of that before? It is the same concept except instead of making a collage to create the kind of life you want you make one to create the type of book  you want to write. Your book collage conveys anything and everything from how your characters look to setting to the general feel of your novel. It can be basic (like mine) or be very involved like Jennifer Crusie’s collage.

Not only does Jennifer Crusie do it, but  so does Barbara Samuel. And Tera Lynn Childs even has a video (via WriteNow) of how to make a collage:

It does not have to be anything fancy or involved. The idea is to inspire and keep you focused. Besides, as someone once pointed out, staring at a collage of pictures sure beats looking at a blank computer screen any day.

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Topic Links

• Jennifer Crusie on collages
• Barbara Samuel on collages