Comments on: Experimenting with the Mind Map Technique

By: deborah.woehr

deborah.woehr — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:30:18 +0000

You’re welcome, Kirsty. Mind maps are a great way to visualize your story. Thanks for stopping by.

By: Kirsty Gallagher

Kirsty Gallagher — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:24:26 +0000

I have just found this site when looking on ‘The desk of Karen Lee Field’ and Oh my god *claps excitedly*

I had found that just making notes on cards where not working, then I installed Mindmap and I have not looked back. My novel is taking place nicely. I use it for everything. Plotting, Planning, Layout, Character, Events, it is brilliant. Thank you so much for this. I will be recommending this to all my writing buddies.

Thanks again.
Kirsty

By: deborah.woehr

deborah.woehr — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:08:50 +0000

Yeah, it’s a totally different approach to what we’re used to. Looking forward to reading your post.

By: Karen Lee Field

Karen Lee Field — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 23:07:05 +0000

At first, there was a barrier, I found it difficult to get started and I must admit that I panicked a bit. I did a bit more research and came across an image that solved that problem. The image had five words – how, why, when, where, who – and that opened the door for me. Simple, every day words, but they are quite powerful really.

I’ll write about it in more detail on my blog over the weekend.
Karen Lee Field´s last blog ..Book Review: Perfect Victim

By: deborah.woehr

deborah.woehr — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:43:24 +0000

Mind mapping is a lot of fun, Karen. I’m working on a character chart right now. Let me know how you like it!

By: Karen Lee Field

Karen Lee Field — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:03:58 +0000

Another excellent post. Thank you for taking the time to share this with us and to provide the images. After reading your post, I feel excited about trying mind map in my writing. I know I do better with visual prompts, so this should work well for me.
Karen Lee Field´s last blog ..Book Review: Perfect Victim

By: deborah.woehr

deborah.woehr — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:14:43 +0000

You’re welcome, Julie. Let me know how this technique works for you.

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:49:41 +0000

Hi Deborah,

Ooh I like the look of that! I’ve been looking for some new ideas for planning… I’m having problems with my middle at the moment and I think this might be a good way to get through them.

Thanks!

By: deborah.woehr

deborah.woehr — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:32:43 +0000

Hi, Peter!

I’ve been testing out FreeMind, NovaMind, My Thoughts, Personal Brain and iMindmap. I love iMindmap but NovaMind will be offering the same graphics manipulation capabilities for half the price in October.

Yes, I’ve tried the notes facility on these programs as well as the export feature. Both are very good to have. I plan on using the notes feature to expand on my topics. It would be nice to be able to ditch my word processors.

By: Peter Roberts

Peter Roberts — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:59:50 +0000

Thanks for this. I use mind maps for anything I’m writing now and when I’m delivering a talk, I use them instead of written notes. My writing and public speaking have become livelier and more coherent and punchy. They haven’t made me less lazy (what could?) but when I do get down to writing, the whole process is far less painful.
Have you tried using the notes facility? I use MindGenius where having made your mindmap, you can then add notes to your branches. And then, and this is the clever bit, you can print out or export to a Word document, just the branches with notes, so that you have the essay, talk, story or whatever all ready to present for publication etc.