writers corner: creative ways to support your writing with digital aesthetics 🎨
from inspiration to creation and all the extra resources in one place for your short story, novel, fic, or pitch ✨
Hey y’all,
Today’s letter is a little specific to writers who want to learn more about creating digital aesthetics to support their stories. But in general, if you’ve ever been curious about making mood boards, collages, and playlists, I think you’d also enjoy this resource! It’s my longest letter to date, with no lack of information and all the context included.
One of my goals this year was to publish a novel, and although I am familiar with the online writing space, the idea of print excites me more than ever. However, I haven’t completed a full-length work since 2020, and my imposter syndrome has been fighting for its life. (A pandemic happened, okay.) So, I came up with an idea!
I’m calling this project my “bad pancake.” 🥞
My burned, unedible pancake of a story will be published on my Substack in a different section. It’s a fast-paced new adult coming-of-age story set in a small town, with romance interwoven. I’ve finished the entire outline, which is only 13 chapters, and wasted no time diving right into writing.
I’ll share more updates as they come — but shifting the mindset of this project to this format has really lifted unwarranted anxiety and stress from my shoulders. I love the challenge of a short story, and I can’t wait to bring it to life.
Until then, I hope you enjoy the following letter. I’ve always loved creating mood boards and aesthetics while writing. It’s one of the best ways to find inspiration and battle writer’s block. Let’s have fun where we can!
With love from Austin,
Mariah
INTRODUCTION
What are digital aesthetics?
Digital aesthetics are forms of digital media that communicate a vibe, evoke an emotion, or visually tell a story. I like to divide digital aesthetics into visual and audio.
Visual: graphics, mood boards, video
Audio: music playlists
Why is this useful?
They’re fun
They’re inspiring
They serve as a point of reference
When sharing with others, they help communicate your idea/look and feel
They keep you excited (which is the most important)
Where are you in the journey of your project?
Digital aesthetics can be made at any part of the journey. Be okay with them changing the more your story evolves and remember they are one of the best ways to hook an audience.
Ideation: you’ve mostly settled on plot and character (in your mind)
Outlining: character profiles (bringing to life)
Writing: (hard part, but more enjoyable when you have a north star or visualization)
INSPIRATION
Sometimes, you know exactly what you’re looking for and envisioning. Other times, you might need some visual sparks—a.k.a. inspiration. Here are places to get started.
One of the easiest and most accessible places to get inspiration is Pinterest.
Create an account and set up a mood board with the title (or working title) of your project.
Use their search function to look up keywords or themes that describe what you’re looking for, such as “Dark academia” or “Western desert.” I find using words like “aesthetic,” “mood,” and “style” helps.
Save pins (individual images) to your mainboard or subboard. (I suggest you set the main one to be an overarching board and then set up subboards for characters and places.)
Here are different ways you can use Pinterest boards:
Overarching mood board: This encapsulates the whole vibe. You mix in setting, plot, characters, the whole ciabatta!
Character-specific mood board: This is one board for one character. Think persona and energy. It might include pins like style, fancast, favorite things, a certain color scheme, relevant quotes, and places. (Sometimes, faceless images are actually better than having someone in mind, especially when sharing with others. They might not connect with your exact selection. Although everyone should love Gillian Anderson.)
Setting mood board: When you need to visualize the space your characters are in, a mood board for the setting or a specific location is useful. This works well for small towns, city vibes, and anything based on our physical reality. I find it a little more difficult when creating fantasy worlds, but never underestimate Pinterest creators!
In the year 2024, Instagram can be used similarly to Pinterest. Think of it as a search engine platform for images and videos!
Create an account.
Use their explore page to search for things just like you would on Pinterest. OR find creators and people who post content that you connect with for your story.
You can save images and reels to folders by pressing the bookmark icon at the bottom right of each post.
Only you can see what you’ve saved, and you can navigate to your saved posts on your profile.
TikTok
I encourage saving sounds and any videos that even slightly connect to your story. On this platform, you kind of have to let your intuition guide you a bit. Here are some examples of sounds and videos I have saved and why:
Location/Sense of Place: These videos serve as a reference for real-world places in the story or to convey a vibe of places you want to be similar to.
Emotions/Feelings: Iris (see hyperlink example) is obviously an iconic song. However, the drama of the rain and the rawness of it being performed live gave me a really strong emotional response. I began to imagine a pair of my characters stuck in a car with this playing while the rain poured around them. Even if videos like this don’t turn into scenes, you can save the song for a Spotify playlist.
Research/Character Study: TikTok is a great platform where people can bond over a niche or silently common experiences on a deep level. Whether it’s the order of birth or Meyers-Briggs, some video examples are always helpful.
Twitter/X
This app is a garbage bin on fire (I live here), so I’m going to be super specific about how I use it for inspiration and how you can, too.
Film, fan, and screencap accounts are the gold mine. Power to the accounts that screencap clips immediately! If you’re ever watching something and you’re like that’s great, I like that. There’s someone on Twitter who has it in a GIF already. I recommend looking at accounts with “out of context” or “no context.”
In closing, the great thing (at least in this case) is that algorithms for each of these platforms will start to notice what you’re looking for and begin to serve up content to your feed organically. This means you won’t have to search as thoroughly once you start telling it what you want.
So, once you’ve been inspired and properly collected these things, we can move on to creating digital aesthetics. ➡️
VISUAL AESTHETICS - COLLAGES
We love collages! The great thing is that they range from simple to organized chaos. It all depends on your preference. I’ve broken down this section into two types of collages: clean and scrapbook.
Before we get into that, you may be asking, “What should I make my collage about?”
Characters
Relationships
Settings + Locations
Overarching
Clean Collage
This is an oldie but a goodie. Clean collages have been around since the invention of Tumblr and most likely even before that. A clean collage is a set template of six squares in a grid formation. Think Instagram profile. They don’t always have to be six squares of equal size and symmetry; I’ve seen this done with added images and various-sized frames. For the sake of this tutorial, we’re going with my favorite, the 3x3!
I made these years ago. But this is what I consider a “clean collage.”
Set color scheme
When making collages, consider how the collected images come together visually. On the left, I used warm hues of yellow and mixed in some pale blues. You’ll notice the warm hues are set in a “+,” and the pale blue hues are on the corners, opposite each other. This balances the graphic.
You can also consider using the same filter on all images.
Create a grid template
For each graphic, you can see that I set the character images diagonally across. The characters are supported by aesthetic images that suit them in the other spaces. I balance “word” images across from each other like I balance “sky” images and “detail” images.
Leave a white or black border in between photos
This is the backbone of a clean collage. But make sure the space isn’t too wide or too thin.
You can make this graphic using free software like Canva and Adobe Express. They will 100% have a template ready for you! Most software is available for multiple devices.
Scrapbook Collage
This collage takes a bit more time, but it definitely fits more images. I think it's a great collage for maximalists!
I made these graphics in two completely different ways. (They are 1080x1920, but Substack shortened them for this article.)
The graphic on the left was made using Procreate - a free digital illustration app available on an iPad.
Open Procreate.
Set your canvas size. (I like 1080x1920 pixels, which is the size of a phone screen or vertical social app.)
Choose a background color. I suggest something neutral.
Import photos and adjust as needed. This means erasing parts of the image as if you were using the lasso tool in Photoshop and sizing the image.
Use the pen tool to write and add little graphic details.
Export as .png or .jpg and share!
The graphics on the right were made using Shuffles, a Pinterest app. It allows you to access your public Pinterest boards and easily make a collage with them! This is amazing because you’ve already done half the work finding and saving images to your boards!
Open Shuffles and connect your account.
Press the purple “+” button at the center bottom of your screen. It will automatically create a new draft for you. I believe all canvases are 1080x1920.
To access your Pinterest boards, click the Pinterest logo at the bottom of the screen. You’ll notice there are different options available to you besides your Pinterest boards. One is the pen tool, so you can draw and write on the canvas! Another is the camera tool, which allows you to access photos saved on your phone. Honestly, just play around with the app, and you’ll learn what you like and don’t like.
Okay, choose a photo from one of your Pinterest boards. (This is the fun part.) Decide whether you want it lassoed or as is. I suggest the lassoed image, as that’s what makes it look like a scrapbook.
Once inserted, you can resize and edit with the functions available on the app. One that I like is adding a tape graphic to the image. You can do this by selecting the imported image and then choosing the small square in the editing functions labeled “Border” and then “Tape.” There are other options like “Film” and “Outline” that are cool too.
Keep adding and editing photos.
When ready to export, click the arrow in the top right corner. The app will walk you through the export options. I suggest simply downloading the image and saving it to your device.
VISUAL AESTHETICS - MOCKUPS
I’m not going to lie to you. Mockups are both the bane of my existence and one of the most entertaining visual aesthetics to make. They are much easier to create now than ever, and the level of detail is always up to you.
First, what is a mockup? It’s a “high-quality” design that imitates a physical or digital product or platform. You’ve probably seen designers make them for app interfaces or fake products like skincare or juice boxes. One of the most popular mockups I see is social media profiles and posts.
Instagram Profile Mockup
The Instagram profile mockup is a great way to show a character’s life, perspective, or point of view. It works similarly to a mood board or collage; when you see it, you get a vibe or feeling for the character. A neat plus to this mockup (vs. a collage) is that you can add fun context to their bio and stories.
Various templates are available on websites across the internet, or you could make your own using design software. The two places I get mock-up templates are Canva and Creative Market. Usually, Canva has both free and premium templates. In Creative Market, you can buy mock-up templates that use Canva, Photoshop, or Illustrator.
Canva
If you have a Canva account (which is free to create) you can search for the templates below by searching “Instagram grid.” You’ll notice one of the examples below has a crown on the far right bottom have a crown icon - this means you have to have a Canva Pro account to use the template.
Creative Market
Creative Market is a great resource for designers of all levels. You can purchase fonts, graphics, templates, etc., for a variety of prices. I recommend using their search filters to help narrow down your price range and preferred tool. Once you purchase a digital product, it will download to your device or be emailed to you.
Tips & Tricks
If you have limited Adobe experience, I find Canva more user-friendly than Photoshop. Additionally, the drag-and-drop function for images in Canva makes creating a mockup faster. I usually have to have a lot of patience when working with Adobe products. (I’m also not a professional designer, so!)
Try placing detail or wide images between character-facing photos.
Have fun experimenting with different ideas. You can always export multiple versions and decide which ones to keep or share.
AUDIO AESTHETICS - SPOTIFY PLAYLISTS
Okay, it doesn’t have to be Spotify. But that’s what we’re doing today.
A Spotify playlist for your story, characters, or relationships isn’t ground-breaking. They’re almost always made in tandem with your story. Playlists are used not only to support certain emotions and feelings for your story but also to actually get in the mood to write.
Writing Playlist—Some writers only like instrumental or atmospheric music while writing. Others don’t mind writing to music with singing. Of course, everything is preference. Often, either matches the tone of your story.
Relationship Playlist—It’s fun to create Spotify playlists for pairings, such as romantic, familial, or friendship.
Overall Playlist—Of course, we have a playlist that covers the vibe of your whole story!
Also, Pinterest is my favorite place to find playlist cover images. If there’s anything you get from my whole letter, it’s that Pinterest is the backbone of so many aesthetics.
EXTRA RESOURCES
We’ve talked about many platforms that help with inspiration, collecting images and videos, and creating aesthetics. Here are some extra apps I’ve used consistently to edit images and create graphics:
I hope you found this letter about creating aesthetics to support your story helpful! Good luck, but also don’t sweat it! 💌
P.S. If you’re looking for a Notion template to help organize your next novel, I got you. 👀
The Lily Gladstone photo is a VIBE. Also, I love your scrapbook collages and learned something new about how to use Pinterest to make them!