Mind Mapping: My Favorite Prewriting Technique
Have you ever experienced the following?
You suddenly realize that the article you’re supposed to write is due tomorrow, and you haven’t even started it yet. In a panic, you sit down at the computer and begin typing, determined to pull an all-nighter if you have to.
As the hours drag by, your head begins to throb, your stomach contorts into a mass of iron, and rivulets of sweat stream down your back. A voice in your head begins to whisper that the article is dead in the water, but you are determined to complete it, so you remain glued to your computer. You begin agonizing over every word until the few ideas flowing through your brain finally peter out altogether. In fact, it feels like you’ve dead-ended into a sulfurous, murky swamp!
What is wrong with this picture? How did you get into such a predicament?
What could you have done differently that would have led to more positive results?
In The Mind Map Book, creativity expert Tony Buzan writes:
Each bit of information entering your brain—every sensation, memory or thought (incorporating every word, number, code, food, fragrance, line, colour, image, beat, note and texture) can be represented as a central sphere from which radiate tens, hundreds, thousands, millions of hooks.
Each hook represents an association, and each association has its own infinite array of links and connections. The number of associations you have already ‘used’ may be thought of as your memory, your database, your library.
If this is true, it means you embarked on your essay working against your brain, instead of with it! If you had allowed your brain to function optimally, you would have given it the chance to make associations before you started writing.
Example of a Mind Map
Let’s suppose you have learned your lesson. How will you approach your next article differently?
You decide to work with the dreamy, creative part of your brain first by experimenting with some prewriting techniques, such as mind mapping. You might even curl up on your bed with a cup of tea and put on some slow, rhythmical music (adagios from Mozart and Bach work especially well here) to calm your mind and put you in the mood for creating.
To mind map, you take a blank piece of paper and a pen (maybe even some colored pencils) and write down the major topic of your essay in the middle of the paper. Then you draw a circle around it. As your mind starts to make associations (and it will), you write down the next idea that comes to you. You draw a circle around it, too, and connect it to the first word with a straight line.
You continue this process—without judging or criticizing your ideas—as quickly as you can until circles and connecting lines fill the page. Now that you have plenty of material to work with, you allow the logical side of your brain to come to the fore.
You’re amazed at how easy it is to see which of your ideas are the most important, which provide support, and which are weak and irrelevant. In just a few moments, the framework of your argument has become clear: You know where you want to start, you know your most important points, and you know your conclusion. Only after you have completed this process do you move to the computer and begin typing. Once you do, you’re amazed at how easily your ideas flow out. In fact, your article almost writes itself!
Much better than getting bogged down in a murky, sulfurous swamp, isn’t it?