Kelly ChastainJune 18, 2026

Why I Make a Pinterest Board For Every Character I Write

If you don’t remember the Binders full of Women bullshit from the 2012 election, don’t tell me. I’ve been feeling like an antique lately so just nod and smile, k? K.

I tend to write sprawling and complicated historical fiction with both real historical figures as characters, and a full suite of fictional characters. Sometimes keeping them straight in my head can be a challenge.

So keeping my fictional characters consistent is a high priority. By that, I mean:

  • Consistent mannerisms
  • A particular gait or bearing
  • Patterns of speech
  • Tics and Tells

And on and on. I want the reader to know this character from the way they clear their throat or step out of a carriage. This is where I turn to Pinterest to start creating a board for a fictional character. I know this sounds a little bonkers considering they’re fictional and only live in my head, but I promise it works.

Find the “Type” Closest to Your Character

You’re going to think of all of the people in the public eye that come to mind. Athletes, Actors, Models, Musicians, Influencers, etc… A great question to ask is: If this novel were ever adapted to film who is my dream actor for this character?

Here’s the goal.

  1. Find someone who looks similar enough to the character you’ve drawn in your head.
    1. I typically go for build and stature first. Eye/hair color are irrelevant for this exercise, but it’s nice if it all matches.
  2. Make sure they have a wide body of work.
    1. I’ve found actors and models are better for this because you see them in a bajillion different poses, outfits, and situations. However, you could make this same argument for Travis Kelce, Kelly Clarkson, and P!nk.
  3. Create a board (or even a folder on your computer)
  4. Pin (or save) the following:
    1. Pics of every facial expression you can find.
    2. Pics of them sitting, standing, leaning against the hood of a car and looking smooth. Think Poses. Relaxed or composed.
    3. Short video clips of them laughing, running, walking, interrupting, making out, walking across a field in the foggy dawn to propose one more time to that stubborn Bennet girl.

Use Your Celeb as a Reference for Your Character

This is going to help you better visualize your character and most importantly, how they move. If you have a massive character list, it will help you keep track of who touches their hair all the time and who can’t stop fidgeting. Why cries with a straight face and who bites their lips when they’re angry.

In a historical spy novel that I’ve been working on forever, and also shutting away in a drawer for years on end, I have a fictional character, Christoph, who’s the head of the secret police in Vienna in 1832. Yes, there was a secret police back then. Vienna was a police state. It was a whole thing. Anywayyyy…

Obviously this character was going to be an antagonist. More like Mr. Fisticuffs. If he had anything redeeming about him, it wouldn’t be found in his personality. Enter his gorgeous, auburn coppery hair.

Who did I use as the model for this character? Michael Fassbender. Not only are their statures very similar, but MF has played some terrible, TERRIBLE villains and very complicated characters. Plus he’s got that great red hair. I had no problem finding video and stills of him in every conceivable situation, and if you’ve seen all of MF’s work you know what I’m saying 👀

So when Christoph pops off, I watch a short clip of Michael Fassbender portraying an a terrible man. How does he move? What’s most menacing here? His face, his body language, the distance between him and the other person? And I simply describe what I see him doing. Then I adjust for my character and my scene.

I’ve done it enough times that I don’t need to reference MF any more. I know exactly how Christoph is going to move and behave, and I’ve woven in his particular quirks and mannerisms in too, because there are things about him that don’t perfectly align with MF. But using MF as a proxy helps to create instant consistency, and give me visual reminders as the writer.

I have a ton of boards for this book. The dastardly uncle? Rufus Sewell. The Abbess? Olivia Coleman. The Monk? Paul Giamatti. It has made my life So Much Easier and I hope it does for you too.

You can also:

Read More
Kelly ChastainJune 4, 2026

The Oldest Visual Storytelling Tool is Also the Best One. Maps.

They do way more work than simply look cool

If you write any genre of historical fiction, and that can include romance, fantasy, etc… you already know the power of a great map. Maps aren’t the only visual elements that you can add to your story, but they make it…

  1. Way more visually appealing and/or interesting
  2. Easier to write

We’re heading back to A Gentleman in Moscow, because of course we are. By the time I’m through with all this teachin’, you’ll know that book up one side and down the other. Just like the structural breakdown, this book does a ton of great work when it comes to adding visual elements to a story.

Load Bearing Imagery

I love maps so much that I have a giant book of rare and antique maps that I have to pack in a special box every time I move because of its gigantic irregular size. Worth it.

Yes, maps are cool and loads of fun to look at, but they do more for your story than simply give your reader the lay of the land. They can help us to visually understand distance and scale, the separation of class or social hierarchies, and see what’s important to the society. Open spaces, town wells, and alleys all give us a sense of what this place is like.

This is the opening page to AGIM. Most people would argue that the first page is the court transcript that immediately follows the map. Don’t be fooled. Because the first words we read in this story are right at the top of the map.

And just like that, we’ve established the Time and Place. It will be confirmed in the court transcript on the following pages, but right here, a ton of your work has just been done for you.

Visual Way Marking & Prioritization

While maps can tell us a lot about the society we’re about to immerse ourselves in, your novel’s map can also prime your readers for what’s to come. Notice the handful of places that are marked and named. Only the ones that are mentioned in the story and have relevance to Count Rostov, The Gentleman’s, life get a mention.

By marking these places, you familiarize your reader with your character’s world before they’ve stepped one foot into it. This is done remarkably well with the expanded inset map. We can see where the Count will spend damn near every single page of this book, and how so many amazing places are right there in the neighborhood.

Sourcing and Making Maps

You don’t have to be a cartographer, or lug around a giant volume of antique maps, in order to have a map of your own. Now if you’re writing historical fantasy, making the map is half the fun. However, we focus on historical fiction and romance here.

Sourcing

  • The David Rumsey Map Collection contains over 200,000 maps from the 16th-20th centuries. Mostly of places in North and South America, but there are also maps from all over the world in this set, and that were created outside that timeframe. It’s worth a search.
  • Don’t sleep on Wikimedia Commons and searching within their collection. They have millions of free images for use, including some maps.

Creating

You can also create your own map like AGIM’s.

  • MapChart online helps you create custom maps for your project
  • Canva also has a map generator
  • I’ve taken a map of Vienna from 1830, pulled it into ProCreate on my iPad, and traced an outline of the parts of the city that I needed. I even made an inset map.

If you’re attempting traditional publishing, having some semblance of a map is helpful. It will probably be redrawn by an artist or graphic designer. If you’re wanting to self-publish, you’ll need to provide the map yourself.

Join our Writing Community Hour over on The Rogue MFA YouTube channel (which meets every other Thursday evening at 4pm PST/ 7pm EST), where we’ll be building routine and community with YOU. Subscribe to get notified, and if you’re even a little bit interested, please fill out our quick survey so we can expand these in the future with you in mind.

Read More
Kelly ChastainMay 28, 2026

How To Give Written Feedback on Creative Writing Without Ruining The Friendship

The full roadmap from your fav English teacher

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I suppose we should get this part out of the way first. The more tenderhearted among us will always think you’re a dick, even when they’ve asked for your honest feedback. Even when you’re being helpful and kind, and not at all using “just being honest” as a weapon.

After giving feedback on hundreds and hunnnnnnndreds of pieces of fiction, there are some strategies that help more than others. Hopefully, you’re working with someone who’s given you some guidelines for what they want. And if they haven’t, send them here and you’ll save yourselves a whole lotta heartache.

Now, if they’ve given you a document with guidelines, good. And one more time for the folks in the back – If they haven’t send them here. For the love of God, do not pass Go. Do not collect $200 until they’ve done it. Now that that’s settled…

Copy Their List of Questions

And paste them at the end of their draft. DO NOT read them before you read their work. Didn’t I just tell you to make them fill out this document so you’d know what you were up against before you started? Yes, I sure did. But here’s why pasting their questions into the end of their document works in everyone’s favor, and makes you a more honest reviewer.

  • We’re biased bitches. The moment we know the writer’s concern, we start looking for ways for the work to make sense, because we’ve just been told us it’s supposed to make sense, or they’re trying like hell to make it make sense.
    • Even when it’s worded like – I tried to differentiate the men in the train car by giving one a mustache and the other a midwestern accent. Was it enough?
    • So instead of just reading it and allowing yourself to be honestly confused or not, you end up scrutinizing the scene as you go, looking for evidence and theorizing if it’s working or not. That’s not honest feedback. It’s a crime scene investigation.
  • Sometimes a question is – Does my plot twist work, where the woman tries robbing the ticket agent and he ends up robbing her instead?
    • Shit. A great plot twist is supposed to take you unawares. Only now you’re 100% aware of what’s coming and you’re suddenly back to theorizing if it worked.

In Text Notes

These aren’t line edits, but places where you’ll make a comment because you loved something, were confused, have a question, or want to remark on the work. Please, if you loved a part, say so. Writers will sometimes edit out the best parts because they didn’t know they were working. Feedback isn’t reduced to only telling the writer what’s giving you heartburn.

Here are actual notes I gave to a student on her short story during lockdown. Let’s go through them.

In her work, I highlighted particular lines of text and each comment corresponds to those lines. Instead of being vague with your writer, show them in the moment what you’re talking about by flagging the text. Here’s what works in these comments.

  • Providing context
    • I had to read this a few times.
    • I’m super invested and want to know more.
    • I’d like to know X right here because I think that would help me, as the reader, understand Y better.
  • Start every comment with something positive or reassuring. Taking the rest of the feedback is so much easier and it increases camaraderie.
    • I love this element because it gives an “everything is rotting vibe.”
    • “I have a habit of doing this too.”

In this case, I was the prof. So adding suggestions on how she might go about revising the work made sense. We were learning craft techniques in class. So here, you’ll see me say things like, “This is a great place to compare/contrast…”

BUT, I also add things like, “How would you feel about chopping this line?” Because at the end of the day, it’s not my story. The best written feedback asks questions of the writer instead of giving directives or getting prescriptive.

End Notes

First, answer their list of questions that you’ve copied and pasted here. Use the same tactics as the in-text notes if you need to.

After that, it’s a great idea to write a few paragraphs for the author. This is where you can explain your overall take and add comments about theme or elements of the story that unfolded over time and wouldn’t make sense line for line. These are the section headers I always use and that tend to give writers truly useful info.

  • This is what I read
    • Give a short summary of the story. This is the most direct way for the writer to understand what stood out to you, what you think their story is really about, and how the work was perceived overall. It’s massively illuminating.
    • Plus it’s great practice for writing your own synopsis.
  • Here’s what worked
    • This is pretty straightforward. You load the hell out of this with praise. And if you can’t find something to praise, you’re not reading hard enough. There’s always something good. Pacing, structure, word choice, the character’s epic neon green hair. Pan for gold in sewage if you have to, but find the nugget and put it on display.
  • Here’s where I struggled
    • Never: Here’s what’s completely fucked up about your story.
    • Always: Point to your struggle as the reader. This is the paragraph where you give overarching context around the places didn’t make sense for you. Where you might not have fully bought a character’s motivation, the underlying power dynamics, or a plot point.
  • Suggestions if you want them
    • And that’s exactly what you name that section. Do. Not. Deviate.
    • The first sentence is always something along the lines of – In case you’re stumped on how to rework the plot point/unbelievable power dynamics/character motivation/etc… I WONDER IF YOU MIGHT TRY…
      • Never: DO X to dig yourself out of this godforsaken hole you’ve dug yourself into.
      • Always: Have you thought about? OR, you know how in (Insert a book they know) character so-in-so did (the big plot point), I wonder if using a similar strategy might make your character’s motivation clearer BECAUSE…
        • Then you tell them why you think this suggestion might be something worth considering. And if you can’t tell them why it’s worth considering, then take it as a sign that it’s probably not.

I hope that helps you navigate the next time you’re asked to read someone’s work, and gives you a roadmap for giving written feedback that will actually help your fellow writer. All without being a jerk in the process.

Join our Writing Community Hour over on The Rogue MFA YouTube channel (which meets every other Thursday evening at 4pm PST/ 7pm EST), where we’ll be building routine and community with YOU. Subscribe to get notified, and if you’re even a little bit interested, please fill out our quick survey so we can expand these in the future with you in mind.

Read More