Ideas & planning · Tip 8 of 82 · 4 min read
Mind Maps: Grow Your Ideas
Put one idea in the middle and watch it branch out into characters, places and plots.
Sometimes ideas don't come in a neat line. They pop up all over the place! A mind map lets you catch them all on one page, and see how they connect.
How to make one
- Write your idea in the middle of a big piece of paper and draw a circle round it.
- Draw thick branches coming out from the circle. Label them Characters, Places, Problems and Things.
- Add thinner twigs to each branch with every idea you can think of.
- Keep going until the page looks like a tree, or a spider, or an exploding firework!
Middle: A haunted bakery. Characters: a ghost who loves baking, a nervous new baker, a greedy food critic. Places: the flour-covered kitchen, the cellar with the old oven, the rooftop at midnight. Problems: bread keeps vanishing, the critic is coming on Friday. Things: a recipe book written in invisible ink, a whisk that spins on its own.
Look for connections
Once your map is full, look for two twigs that could join together. Maybe the ghost wrote the invisible recipe book. Maybe the critic is the one stealing the bread! Draw a line between them. That line might be your plot.
Use colour and pictures
Mind maps are meant to be messy and bright. Use a different colour for each branch and add tiny drawings. Your brain often remembers a picture better than a word.