Using Mind Maps for Creative Writing
Do you find mind maps helpful for writing your stories? Here are some ideas on how to make them.
Girl with small rock somewhere in France. Photo: Tanya Clarke 2015
I’ve been reading about mind maps this week which may be helpful for you in your writing.
Austin Kleon describes a mind map technique he uses to make notes and brainstorm ideas through words and pictures. This leads me on a wandering trail as all things do on the internet. Author Janet Burroway in her book Writing Fiction, reveals a similar technique she refers to as ‘clustering’ which in turn is a technique devised by Gabriel Rico in Writing the Natural Way.
You take a word, I think a noun is a good place to start. For example, looking at the picture above you could choose ‘rock’. Write it in the middle of your page and circle it.
“Then for two or three minutes free-associate by jotting down around it any word - image, action, abstraction, or part of speech - that comes to mind. Every now and again, circle the words you have written and draw lines or arrows between words that seem to connect.”
p.5 Writing Fiction by Janet Burroway
As with freewriting, don’t spend time worrying about whether any of it makes sense. Let your mind find the words and you write them down. Let intuition be your guide. After you have a web of words, take a moment to look around them before starting to write in your notebook. Keep going until you feel you’ve come to the end or your timer alerts you. You may have something there you never realised was lurking in your brain.
“Clustering is an excellent technique for journal keeping. It focuses your thoughts, cuts out extraneous material, and reduces writing time. In composing fiction, I recommend frequent clustering, followed by free drafting and light editing. Then put the passage away for twenty-four hours.”
p.7 Writing Fiction by Janet Burroway
I haven’t tried this technique yet so I’m with you all the way.
Use the picture above to find your first word: rock, hand, plait, girl, the sea…and then go from there.
Have fun!
