When I’m reading, sometimes I can picture the setting so strongly in my head, I need to get it out on “paper,” or in this case, Pinterest. Or, I can picture the characters so vividly that I find an actor/model/celebrity that matches and “cast” them in my head. I started this habit when I was reading Crescent City in 2022. I scrolled past a few photos that had the exact motifs and visuals I had imagined in the book - so I started a Crescent City pin board. After that, I was hooked. These are the photos that started it all:

Let’s talk about how and why this is a fun, easy, and personalized hobby to start whether you’re just getting into reading or you’re a lifelong bookworm. Before you get started, it’s important to know how to avoid spoilers!! Unfortunately, I had the Throne of Glass series completely spoiled after a search that I should've known would result with fan-art. Fan-art is the fastest way to get your read spoiled, especially if it is a fantasy series or popular fiction book/series. Fan artists typically bring to life emotional or prominent moments in the book, specifically love and death, which also happen to typically be pivotal storylines. Even if you’re not searching for the book at a certain moment, your algorithm can detect that you’re interest and feed you spoilers if you’re not careful. It can be tempting to want to search for fanart if you’re loving the book and really want to know how to visualize someone, or want to see how the clothing or scenery is depicted in other people’s minds. For me, I had the hardest time picturing some of the supporting characters in ACOTAR, and fan-art really helped. However, I waited until after I finished the books to search for direct art. Until then, I mentally fan-casted.

Fan-casting is a fun way to easily visualize important characters in a story without having to dive for fan-art and notifying your algorithm that you’re reading a certain book. For example, I imagined Jenna Ortega as the protagonist Corvina Clemm in Gothikana, and Callum Turner as Vad Deverell. Or at least used them as base-line characters and changed the features if needed, like Corvina’s eyes. Are these pretty popular and easy actors to fan-cast? Yes, but they matched the features well enough that I could see the story in my head without having to stop and form a picture.

Now that we have spoiler prevention out of the way, we can talk about the fun part: building your world based on your own imagination and interpretation of the story. This is typically based on personal preference, so I will share my examples and techniques to get you started.

I’ve created mood boards for genres ranging from horror to romance. This hobby is all about helping you curate a setting to help you immerse yourself in a story or visualize stories. For some readers, imagining settings can be difficult, and this is an easy way to carry a small, personalized reference.

As an example, I’ll be using my board from the horror novel “The Twisted Ones" by T. Kingfisher because there’s no spoilers and it’s all “vibey,” or inspirational rather than literal.

For this one, I was enjoying the Appalachian folklore and setting since growing up going to my Appalachian grandparents’ homes (both sides). I started by looking up the title of the book. Since its not popular fantasy or romance, I didn’t worry about fanart. I instantly had results with twisted trees, dark woods, and “small town” motifs such as churches and small cemetery’s.

From there, I let those photos inspire and guide me. The churches reminded me of Ethel Cain, so I searched “Ethel Cain aesthetic.” and was met with religious horror, dolls and abandoned places. Following this pattern, I eventually curated about 25 photos to fully immerse myself into the world of The Twisted Ones. As you read, you can add or change photos on the board. Stones became a recurring detail in the story, so I looked for photos including rock formations and odd carvings. Deer and other wildlife found in the region were also talked about, so adding those was an easy jump.

Here’s a reference clip of the description and cover of the novel to give you an idea: