It’s 10 in the morning and I’m back.
I did not wake up with any ideas in the morning. So right now I just have the concept down and still not even the faintest idea of who the main characters would be.
I got to the concept through simple word play using a thesaurus.
Now I’ll force myself to expand the theme using a technique called mind mapping. (No, I didn’t invent mind mapping). I use either software (there are both free and paid ones available) or a big whiteboard to create my mind maps (or sometimes just an A4 sheet).
In a mind map, you start with the central idea/theme/word in the center of the page (I find that positioning better) and then just start free-associating other ideas/themes/words to this central idea. Connections between words are represented using lines.
As you keep associating new ideas/words to other ideas/words, you start building a mind map.
For a visual representation, I’ll post the mind map in a little while on this blog (or at least a part of it).
During the mind mapping process I might come up with some ideas about the characters. Might. Else, I’ll use another process.
Filed under: The Write-a-book-in-15-days Challenge | Tagged: how to write a novel, write a book, write a novel
