Mind maps are nothing new. A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing. There are several mind mapping programs available — one of the best is a freeware program called FreeMind, which has been available for almost two years. I discovered this wonderful tool, myself, a few months ago and even used it to brainstorm my NanoWriMo novel.
The screen, when you first open the program looks like this:
I chose "cars" as a topic because it seemed like the simplest way to demonstrate some of the features of the program. Starting here, I added a few "nodes" using [Insert]:
I added a second level in the hierarchy: Ford, Kia, and Nissan
I further broke the topic down by car model adding Ford Focus under "Ford" and Kia Soul under "Kia". I can break it down further still by adding the following topics to the hierarchy:
I added things like ford focus specs and kia soul photos. Notice these sub-topics are added as sibling nodes. There are a number of features to edit and dress-up a created mind map. Although it’s hard to see in the above picture, I added icons to mine to signify the importance of certain topics. In addition mind maps can be exported in a variety of formats including html, pdf, jpeg and png as well as xml and xhtml files. It’s also possible to add hyperlinks and graphical links connecting nodes. The developers are working on a variety of plugs-in for use on blog and content-management platforms.
Hopefully, as a writer, you can see from this little demonstration how such a tool can be of use when brainstorming characters and plots.
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