Mind Mapping

Hi all! I’m bashing out posts at a pretty rapid rate at the moment, and will for a while – if only so people have something to actually read when they visit the blog. Today’s post is all about Mind Mapping.             
                MindMapping is a great brainstorming method. Done properly, it can significantly increase your creativity and cut down on planning time – it also changes the way you think.
                I tried this out once for my novel and found that the mind map just got way too convoluted to be useful. It also caused me to spend (an overly long) time planning rather than actually writing. When I got to about 70,000 words, my manuscript stalled and I decided to try mind mapping again. At that point, I didn’t have any chapters, and by mind mapping the events, I was able to work out what areas of the novel needed a bit more work, what my chapters were and I also got an idea of pacing. This helped me get back on track with my novel and I’m steaming ahead once more. 
                Mind Maps are great when done on a huge piece of butcher’s paper in colourful textas (apparently colours help us retain information better, and mind maps are better than linear lists). I quite often do mind maps on paper when I’m planning up an essay, but for my novel, I went with a great little program called FreeMind. FreeMind is one of those wonderful, open source programs created by people with programming talent and a love of sharing. This tool is a free download and is simple and easy to use – I highly recommend it.              
                While MindMapping can be used as a free flowing brainstorm tool, it can also be used for mapping information you already know. This is what I did. The central node was simply the title of my novel, and then the nodes coming off of that were labelled Main Characters, Minor Characters, Bit Players, Locations, and Chapters. Each of these nodes then branches off into as many branches as are required.          
                ‘What are nodes?’ you ask. Some fancy term for little dots connected by lines – download the software and try it out for yourself. It’s really quick to download and, I promise, you need about two minutes to get the hang of the basics. Here’s an example of what you can do using FreeMind (or good old pen and paper):

 

To keep with the current theme, my next post will cover a few different software programs geared towards writers.

Planners Versus Wingers (Plotters vs Pantsers)

                There seems to be very two different classes of writers (or three, if you count those that fall between) – people who like to plan their novel in meticulous detail, and those who like to fly by the seat of their pants.      
                Wingers (also known as pantsers) are those of you who like to wing it – start with a scene or a character or a vague idea and let things happen as they will. Let the characters lead, let the story surprise you as much as it will your readers. To put it simply, you like to go with the flow.
                What’s that you say – only dead fish go with the flow? Planners are people who like to sit down and write out a thousand (or so) pages of notes – on their characters, their world, their plot – before they get down to actually writing the story (or they might just write a skeleton outline of the whole story). The more extreme planners out there might have flowcharts and Excel spreadsheets, mindmaps and folders filled with loose pages of paper describing every single element in the story.
                I’ve seen arguments for both methods. Personally, I don’t plan too much – I don’t think I really have the ability to. My stories tend to evolve on their own and I have trouble sitting down and writing an outline for an entire story. That being said, I’ve gotten a considerable amount of my novel written now, and there came a time a few weeks ago when a bit of planning and shuffling of scenes helped me get back on track after a bit of a stall. Now I’m back to winging it.     
                Both methods have their merits, and both work. Not sure which one you are, or looking to give the other a go? Here’s some characteristics of each. I recommend giving each method of a try before settling on one for sure, but why listen to me – I haven’t really given planning a go. Perhaps on my next novel.

How can you know where the story is going if you don’t plot it out? How can you ever reach the end if you don’t know where that end is? 

• Start with a few scene that tickle your fancy, put them in some kind of logical order and fill in the gaps - dot points only.
• Prepare dossiers for every character and location that breezes across your mind - you won't be tripped up by tiny technical details later on when you're actually tring to write the story.
• Aiming for 150, 000 words? 25 chapters? That's 6000 words per chapter - no more and no less.
• Define your beginning, middle and end - knowing everything else helps, too.
• Write!

Not willing to be constrained by a rigid outline – or any outline at all? 

• Start from the beginning and GO!
• Why start at the beginning? Start at the end and work your way backwards.
• Or how about the middle - a scene here, a scene there. It's all good.
• Subplots? They work themselves out.
• Write!

    

Whether you’re one of those people who like to fly by the seat of their pants, of whether you like to write a five hundred page outline before you start writing, you’re not alone. Here’s two authors – one a plotter, one a pantser. Follow the links to their websites for some more writing advice. Both women are very well established, successful writers, which just goes to show that you should do what works for you whether plotter, pantser of somewhere in between.

Fiona McIntosh – pantser

Trudi Canavan – planner

Whichever method you tend towards, no excuses – get cracking and get that novel going!

Since we’re on the topic of planning, my next post with be in a similar vein – I’ll be relating my experience with Mind Mapping... and wherever that leads.