- Image via Wikipedia
Where do you find inspiration? You’ve heard the old saws: “ideas are everywhere, you just have to look for them”, “write what you know”, “there aren’t new ideas”, etc. While each of these are true, they may not be all that helpful and when it’s Tuesday night and you still don’t have a clue what you’re going to run your PCs through on Thursday, these old saws just don’t cut it. You need some concrete advice and you need it fast.
One way of coming up with ideas is to use a mind map. Every successful GM has their own quick idea generating method and this is mine. A mind map (for those few of you who’ve never heard of it) is a diagram of your ideas. You can get fancy mind-mapping software (some free, others…not), but I prefer to create mine in hard copy, using common tools lying around the home: a pen and a sheet of paper. This is the method I’ll describe. As for electronic versions—RTFM is your best option to obtain quality results.
A mind map is extremely simple. Take your pen and in the middle of the paper, write what you’re trying to find or work on. The more descriptive the idea, the better your mind map will work. But don’t worry if you’re so stuck you can’t come up with a descriptive term. I’ve started more than one mind map with just the word “adventure” in the middle of the page.
[This is an excerpt from the upcoming Adventure Creation Handbook. We'll continue the mind mapping lesson next week 
].
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I like this map but don’t understand why the words have been put across or rather on the ends the branches effectively cutting any further development. I normally work in landscape layout, writing along the branches, I always use plain paper rather than lined or squared.
@mindmapper1. Thanks for the comment. This was an image I found for public use on Wikipedia, it’s not one of mine. I’ll be continuing this post with further examples of how I build my maps. I have noticed that some people write along the branches, but I tend to put the words at the ends of the lines and continue to branch out from those. But I also work in landscape format on plain, lined, or grid paper, depending on what I have on hand at the time.
If you follow any training that Tony Buzan offers you will understand that writing across a branch is a limiting factor while writing on a branch will enable the map to open up and develop very easily. Also the eye follows the branch naturally rather than having to twist at 90 to read the text.
i love the idea of using MM as a creative writing tool, Im not a creative writer but I can see how this would work. I will have to give it a go when I get a moment or two. You blog is very interesting and I am looking forward to seeing it develop…….
Here is a link to an iMindmap of a recently published government report on education reforms: http://wp.me/p9ikC-jb