By Marcus Coates, @homeinriyadh, 11th March 2022
Blog No. 26
Image from Unsplash: Alvaro Reyes
Why Mind Map?
As your novel progresses, you may start to have lots of information circulating in your head: Where’s my setting? What’s the weather like? How do my characters feel about their situation? What are the obstacles? How does my heroine escape x, y and z situations? And so on — a case of not being able to see the wood for the trees as details crowd your headspace.
To stop your mind from swimming in details, try getting your thoughts on paper and creating a visual representation of your storyline and preliminary information to see if you have achieved a sense of coherency. In other words, create a mind map!
You might use a mind map to work out the broad details as to what to include in your story, as in the example below:
The visual layout of a vampire spoof’s structure using a mind map
Mind map 1: Designed with Microsoft Visio from Office 365
Or you might use a mind map to note down a primary piece of information, such as an obstacle that faces your hero, and then create a list of associated thoughts and solutions, as in the following example concerning a spoof vampire store, with a working title of Count Von Terror:
Mind mapping obstacle & solution 1 of the story
Mind map 2: Designed with Microsoft Visio from Office 365
Mind mapping can be as simplistic or as complicated as you choose to make it. However, the main advantage of mind mapping is that once ideas are down on paper, usually, more details spring to mind that can enhance your story. For instance, in mind map 2, having a driver ferry a team of vampire aficionados around town can create comical moments, especially if I make the vehicle a TuK Tuk (a detail that just came to me), and for the female lead to fall in love with the driver, only to find he's more interested in expanding his business than romance.
How to Mind Map
As mentioned, you can make your mind maps as straightforward or as complicated as you choose, and the same goes for the method you decide to mind map with. Here are a few different ways people choose to mind map:
Pen & paper
Mind map 3: Opening Sequence
In this pen and paper mind map, I've jotted down a potential opening scene for my imagined spoof vampire story. The advantage of mind mapping with pen and paper is that the ideas are free flowing and require no equipment or software (beyond pen and paper). The disadvantage is that it can get scruffy pretty quickly and could probably do with transposing to computer notes.
Whiteboards
Mind map 4: Count Von Terror’s Gang of Vampires
I love using whiteboards to mind map. I have several at work and a couple around the house. Whenever an idea pops in my mind, I note it down. The appeal is in the immediacy and the fact that it can be a visual reminder. The downside is that whiteboards offer limited space and the notes needs to be transferred on a regular basis to create more space for more ideas.
Index cards
Mind map 5: Settings
Index cards are another great way to organise ideas. In the example above, I've used index cards to sequence locations from my imagined vampire plot. The beauty of index cards is that you can write more detail on each card as it presents itself to you, and the order of the index cards can be easily shifted around if you aren't quite set on the sequence order.
Computer software
A selection of popular mind mapping software
Table 1: mind mapping software
When it comes to computerised mind maps, they come in all shapes and price ranges: anything from free to 'how much!' I haven't test run all of the above, but enough to get the gist of their capability. The advantages of mind mapping using computer software is that you can draw clear, precise and colourful, or colour-coded, mind maps. Furthermore, many of the paid packages have the advantage that the mind maps can be exported to seamlessly form plot outlines and beat sheets. Computer software automates a lot of the process for you. The disadvantage is that a certain amount of spontaneity is lost whilst focusing on typing and arranging shapes and connectors, no matter how well the software prepares the layout. Mind map 6 is an edited version based on mind map 1, concerning the overview of the imagined spoof vampire story. I used the free 'Visio' mind map that comes with Office 365. Table
1: mind mapping
The visual layout of a novel’s primary details using a mind map
Mind map 6: Designed with Microsoft Visio from Office 365
Observations
However you choose to mind map - whether it be the humble pen and paper, a bells-and-whistles, all-singing, computer-generated version or any of the other methods in-between - the concept remains the same: get those great ideas out of your head and into a visual format before they slip away from your conscious mind. You never know, you might just write down a great premise for a movie or add a killer detail to your plot in the process.
Extra resources
To help organise your story outline, a downloadable example of 'mind map 1' is available on my website. Visit www.mc-mindful-content.com and download the Word doc ‘Template: Mind Map Example’ (Why not subscribe why you’re on the site?).
If you are interested in the steps used to generate initial story ideas, create character profiles, choose a setting, find a genre generator or locate central conflict - and you haven’t already done so — check out my previous blogs. Blog 19: ‘Generating Story Ideas’, Blog 20: ‘Creating Novel Characters with Individuality and Depth – Profiling’, blog 22: ‘Creating memorable settings’, blog 23: ‘Genre generator’, blog 24: ‘Story archetypes and themes’, and blog 25: central conflict.
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