MindMapping to Prepare for a Novel

Having come up with an initial idea for a potential novel for my NaNoWriMo efforts, for the last few weeks I’ve sat floundered, unable to find the motivation to delve into the novel and develop it in preparation for the actual writing effort. Last night I turned to a tool which helped me refind the lost story, and energised my movement back into it. And it took less than an hour of work to do so.

I am following the principles found within Holly Lisle’s current How to Think Sideways (affiliate link) Bootcamp for writers online course also. From this I developed both the idea, and a sentence to explain it. Holly calls this “The Sentence“. I’ve seen the one sentence used elsewhere in some writing lessons, or plotting spreadsheets also.

As an introduction to my mindmapping below, you may be helped by seeing the sentence in its draft form - it’s a work in progress also. And I will also include an introduction to the temporary novel name and history behind it.

The Pod Novel II Note: This novel as yet does not have a name. But I can’t call it nameless (as I currently am using that for my main character). In April of this year I wrote a novel in a month which did not, for a long time, have a title also. Instead - as I’ve read on numerous occasions - that a writer’s first attempts at novel writing are often filed into a bottom drawer as a learning lesson but non-publishable attempt, I decided that mine too would be a throw-away. By intention. That way, I wouldn’t waste too many emotions on it’s quality or future. This was the novel I was going to write when I wasn’t writing a novel. I would have limited feelings for it, as it was disposable, an ugly poor little thing built simply to take me further along my own writing path, to learn from. It was, on its very birth, already consigned to my own dark slush-pile - in my own mind at least. It would live out its days in a cupboard, until one day birthing a workable novel a few generations later. This was indeed the novel I would write when I wasn’t writing a novel. A Clayton’s novel - for those of you who understand the simile. A non-novel which might, by happenstance, look a little like a novel, but really wasn’t on the inside. The concept reminded me of the Pods found in that cult horror movie, Invasion of the Body Snatchers. And so Pod Novel I was born. And so too, several months later, will The Pod Novel II come into being. And I already feel like he’s struggling to get out of my own body. The “Sentence” A successful career woman discovers and reads her own teenage journals to find that she previously had led a completely different but possibly happier life - will it all happen again? Got that? Good. Now forget it. Because I’m sure the sentence will change as my writing and November goes on.

My idea involves concurrent but multiple timelines, with different takes on world events through those timelines, and one main character making some interesting choices which affect those events and her own life. It’s not a straight forward idea, and does need some preparation beforehand to ever start working. I’m probably insane to attempt it, especially during NaNoWriMo.

Preparation. Hmmm. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it - does that count? No, didn’t think so. But it’s complicated, and I need to research some stuff to make it work, and…

However, in doing so, I find myself losing some passion for the actual writing to come. Knowing that over-planning can be the death of many novels, I don’t want to go down that route. Instead I just want enough to let me get on with the main character dossier (although I still struggle to have a name for her) and the main milestones that her story should surround through those timelines.

To start off with, I’ve done some quick mindmaps. Looking back at them, I now see that I could contain the character profiles or even setting profiles within these mindmaps, perhaps even set the scenes out as topics. But instead, I will shortly be moving my first thoughts into my writing application so that they all sit in the same area.

Below you will find my quick mindmaps and a mild discussion on how I went about developing these, relevant to the story itself.

MindMapping Software

Firstly, I’ve used Mindjet MindManager Pro 7 as my software of choice. I like it, and it offers some excellent templates and examples offered by user groups. This is professional software, which I am lucky enough to own a copy of.

However, many people don’t have the funds to access the more expensive professional software packages. Nor do I normally. Recently I have added quite a few other mindmapping applications - both computer software packages, and online applications, to my growing list of bookmarks held on Diigo. From the freeware opensource Freemind, to many capable web apps, my Mindmapping list contains something for every writer. And recently I posted about a free version of ConceptDraw’s Mindmapper which is currently available.

For those who don’t want to use more software for something like this, then there is always a good piece of paper, and some pens or colouring-in pencils. And sometimes the best ideas come simply from those tools, as we all know.

A Starter Map and Brainstorming (MindMap 1)

Like many mindmapping applications nowadays, Mindjet MindManager Pro has a good brainstorming function - which is all I needed to get all those ideas swimming in my head onto paper.

Here, I simply threw down idea after idea. If I had followed the ideal mindmapping or clustering route, I would have triggered or generated ideas which had links from one to the next. The brainstorming function in MindManager doesn’t allow this - which was good for me, as it literally meant I could throw down ideas without losing track, and going off on a tangent. It was an electronic brain dump, one of the truer forms of pure brainstorming. But from this came my basic premise, themes, and the one main defining element of my story.

Can you spot it? It’s there in the middle, simply labeled “Diary”.

I quickly added some groups to attempt a categorization of some of these elements - if they would let me (yes, I was already personifying some of them).

Clustering the Story Elements (MindMap 2)

Here was my next step. I dropped the elements peppering my page into a semi-organised cluster. It may not mean much to you (I hope it doesn’t anyway) but the clustering let me form some juvenile thoughts on some relationships and impacts between the two. I’ve also added in some additional secondary characters - simply because the clusters on those ones were telling me they needed it. (yep, still personifying, aren’t I?)

What I haven’t got yet is the basic events (milestones) I need to set my story across, or the scenes across the novel. The milestone events are like pillars, tying in both timestreams of the story. They are a crucial component to the story, and I need them.

As a writer, I’ve found that I do need some kind of map for where and how I am going to write. I need some rudimentary scene cards to keep me on track.

But what my heart was now telling me was I needed to develop the central character a little more, so that I could visualise her (even if she still has no name).

A Character Clustered (MindMap 3)

Here she is, then - presenting to you, Ms Nameless Character, in all her split-personality glory. This is organised mindmapping - start off with a topic, and add subtopics, churning them out as fast as you can. Then - organise them a bit. In my case I added boundaries around some with labels - physical versus personality and Character A versus Character B (differentiated by timelines and life choices, as these are the same person).

I hope this was as confusing to you as possible. Why? Because they’re my MIND, and my mindmaps. But the important thing is that as a tool, mindmapping let me approach my preparation for the Pod Novel II, with some enthusiasm and enough freedom to formulate where I need to go now, over the next few days.

Next Up:

That was enough to enthuse me to carry on and develop my next stages for the novel. Now I have the following work to get through before returning to my mindmaps for some more exploration -

1. Move the main character’s profile into my Writing Application and progress it.
2. Add some profiles for the important secondary character (there is only one at this point). I’m not worried about the settings at all. They can be built as I write.
3. Research - I need those events (milestones) before I can start defining scene cards, but only as little as possible. Just to get the timelines right.
4. Then the scene cards (plot itself).

Links from this Article:

• NaNoWriMo and Me at NaNoWriMo (please buddy me)
• Holly Lisle’s How to Think Sideways writing course - note - she’s not taking on a new intake until the New Year now. This is an affiliate link.
• My Diigo Mindmapping Software list - many of the applications in this list are free.
• A recent post at Juiced on Writing, linking to some free MindMapping software.

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