Mind mapping a story

I recently completed a writing course by C.S. Lakin called, "The 12 Pillars of Novel Construction - Your Blueprint for Building a Strong Story". It was excellent and I recommend it to anyone who is putting a book together.

I have mentioned in the past that I'm still in the learning stages of being a writer. If it takes 10,000 hours of doing something to be an expert, I figure I'm half way there. So I found this course to be great since I had written enough to understand where she was going,  but still learned a ton of  new information along the way.

One concept she introduced to me is the idea of "Mind Mapping". She described how she does it and it's one of those processes that everyone does a little different and there really isn't a wrong way to do it. I'll tell you how I did it, but you will work out your own way I'm sure.

I bought a piece of Coraplast about 24" x 18". Any business store sells them for making light weight signs. A piece if bristol board would work too. I used Coraplast so I could reuse it.

Now, either by drawing directly on the board, or using coloured sticky notes as I did, map out your story. Create a spot,, near the center, for each of your primary characters and put your ideas for your story on the board in a way you can move them around. Draw connecting lines between characters and plot points. As you go along, you will begin to see patterns form and linkages come together. You can add little character traits (or flaws) and connect them to the character.

I'm very much a pantser, not a plotter. However, my current WIP is more complicated than any of my previous projects and I find my Mind Map helpful with keeping the story moving forward. All those ideas that coming floating from The Muse at inconvenient times can be jotted down and placed on your Mind Map and then moved to the correct place later.

Each time I sit down to write, I start by looking over my Mind Map to orient myself in the story. I'm just doing the first draft now, so when I beging to edit, I'll keep my Mind Map handy to ensure I can keep the story flowing in the way as I want it and that I don't forget any of the tidbits The Muse sends me. Also, I'm finding it is keeping me on track as I work through the middle of the story. As many of you know, this is where writers go to die.

Hopefully this is something you find helpful.

Happy writing.