Just the Words

Posts Tagged ‘Writing’

I’ve been asked a lot about this subject on twitter.  Mind map software, using mind map software and especially about using mind map software to write articles.  So here it is “how I use mind map to write articles”.  This won’t make much sense to you unless you understand the basics of what a mind map is.  Also, I use MindMapper there are a lot of different mind map softwares available this is just the one I use.  Different software will have different capabilities.

About My Articles

When I sit down to write articles I usually write them in sets of between five and 20 articles (usually between 10 and 15).  I use mind maps to help me organise my research and outline my articles.  I then use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to actually write the article, and finally I use the ubiquitous word to edit it.  My articles are usually in the 500 to 600 word range.  This is how I do it, I hope it’s helpful for you.  But mind mapping isn’t for everyone, some people just find it more trouble than it’s worth.  So take from this article what you can use and ignore the rest.

The Research

If it’s a subject I already know well I can mainly skip the very first part of the research and move straight on to titles.  If I’m writing about a subject I’ve recently written about them I can just pull up my research map.

For a subject that is new to me I open up a blank mind map and title it with my subject.  Then I go to Google and start my research.  Whenever I find a useful website I copy its  address into the mind map, for every branch of the mind map there is a note section — which is one of the reasons I use a mind map rather than simply bookmarking sites.  As I start to see subtopics then I can add branches to my mind map for these and organise each website into an appropriate branch.

This means that at a glance I can see how much information I have for each sub topic, what the subtopics are, and where I need to do more research.

Then The Titles

Once I have a grasp of the subject I will open up a new mind map that will form the basis of my outlines for actually writing the articles.  The title of my mind map will of course be the subject.  Then I will think of my titles.  I have a titles swipe file, templates swipe file, and of course my research to help me find suitable titles.

One of my favourite resources at this stage is my templates swipe file.  I have a mind map whose initial branches titles and whose sub branches are subtitles or parts of the article.  Four example a sample title will be “Don’t Make These (Blank) Mistakes In (Blank)”.  This will then have some branches of :

• introduction
• mistake one
  • About the mistake
  • Why it is a mistake
  • What you should be doing instead
• mistake two
  • About the mistake
  • Why it is a mistake
  • What you should be doing instead
• mistake three
  • About the mistake
  • Why it is a mistake
  • What you should be doing instead
• conclusion.

I can simply copy this branch over to my subject map and fill in the blanks.

Now The Subtitles

As soon as I’ve got all the titles and templates that I want I can look at each article individually and fill in its subheadings.  I should be able to fill in the subheadings from the research that I’ve already done, or because they come from one of my templates swipe files.  This is usually a very quick part of the process.  I know what I want to say in the article — because of the title.  A lot of my articles will be from templates so while I will need to do is fill in the blanks for the sub heads.

Final Bit Of Research — The Notes

A subject I know well, or that I find very simple I probably won’t need to make any more notes.  I will be able to go straight to writing the article at this stage.

If I don’t know the article well I will probably go into the notes section each sub branch, look at my research notes and make a few notes of my own stop I usually do this in bullet points format, after all it’s just from me.

Onto The Writing

Once I have all my articles and outlined I then export the mind map into word.  I then simply print it off, fire at Dragon NaturallySpeaking and write my articles.  Then I can edit them in word and have a finished article.

So there you have it that is how I do it.  If you have any comments, need any more explanations, or just want to tell me how wonderful I am please leave me a message in the comments and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.  I hope you found this helpful. If you want to follow me on twitter