Hello mind mappers & writers.

In this blog I am going to combine mind mapping and writing.

I have self published 2 novels on Amazon and I intend to become a full time writer when I retire in 17 months time. I am currently writing 7 novels in what I call robust draft form. I am allowing myself 2 to 3 months to write each novel - I have completed one already and as a fan of nanowrimo I know I can write at speed even whilst working full time (yes, it means I have no social life).

Reference mind maps I have been a fan of Tony Buzan since I saw his TV series 'Use Your Head' on the BBC in the 1970s (of course I am only 21 so how can that be...?) I later bought the book of the same name which is still available and I think there was only one chapter devoted to mind mapping but I was hooked.

I have been drawing mind maps ever since and I often use them to make notes, to revise or to minute meetings which gets some odd looks. Now I am using them to write and I think the creativity that comes out of using them is so good I am going to share my ideas with you in this blog.

"But I can't draw," I hear some of you say. Nor can I, but I bet you can draw a circle, a square a rectangle, a triangle and a stick. We will use these to build up a wealth of images to put into our mind maps.

I will teach you what a mind map is. I will teach you how to draw them. I will teach you how to use them for writing and anything else if you want. I will be drawing mind maps by hand and uploading them. At a later stage I will also be showing you how to use some of the software that is out there that you can use to draw mind maps electronically; some of it is very simple and some is more complex but can produce beautiful results.

Also; yes there's more; I will teach you about writing and planning and plotting and outlining and characterization and dialogue and the 3, 4 and 5 act structure and the "Writers' Journey - Mythic Structure for Writers" and many other writing things and it will all be done using mind maps.

Next month we will draw a simple mind map by hand to take us from the point of 'I have a great idea for a story' to a rough idea of a plot and some characters. As we continue each month we will delve deeper into mind map world and also be learning lots of stuff about writing too. Great fun.