A Small Writing Guide

Many of you might be familiar with different kind of visual maps utilized in schools to visualize a subject. These days it's common to use mind maps and idea maps in working life as well, especially in certain professional fields. Mind maps can be used to visualize a big project, and also to help with writing.

Mind maps can be useful in the early stages of brainstorming. They can also be helpful when the structure of a text seems challenging. Sometimes thinking about the entire text's structure can feel overwhelming, and even getting started can feel difficult.

Mind maps are used to gather ideas relevant to the topic together. The simplest way is to create a list of things that come to mind. The list doesn't have to be organized, and the writer doesn't have to think about how to present the ideas in text. After this the preliminary ideas can be used as an aid for writing, you can also combine ideas together.

Kimmo Svinhufvud (2016) sums up the basic technique for mind maps like this.

1. Start writing from the middle, write a word that is important for the subject. You can also draw a picture.
2. Brainstorm: write words that come to mind around the first word. Sum up thoughts into one or two words. Or a picture.
3. Let your thoughts branch out and combine them with lines. Draw branches for new thoughts.
4. Try to think fast.
5. Leave room for creativity. Try different kinds of pens, text types and different styles of lines.
6. If you can't find a spot for a certain thought, come back to it later.
7. More branches and thoughts as you find the connections.
8. Forget about being serious, play and try. You can always to the exercise again. (Svinhufvud 2016, 147.)

You can use different apps like these to help you create a mind map.

• Mindmaster
• Lucidchart
• Canva