My Pretties

I was finally able to open my mind map of my story world after installing Xmind on my netbook. The screen shot above shows the entire thing--what there is of it so far--on screen at once but to get it I had to shrink it to 40%. Truthfully most of the info in here duplicates what is already in my WhizFolder files for the story world. But this format allows me to see it graphically instead of hierarchically; to see it as an interconnected web instead of a series of outlines.

And I must say it is simply prettier with the color coded elements and gazing at it, manipulating its elements makes my fingers itch for the keyboard to get ideas down. Even though it is possible to write lengthy text documents in the mind maps, I don't wish to use it that way. I would rather return to Whiz for that. What the mind map helps with is fiddling with relationships among story elements--timelines and plot lines and family trees; character lists and place lists and novel/story/scene lists; and that pesky issue of defining the cult central to the story line--its beliefs, history, settings, culture.

I'm working with a roster of over 120 characters of which 70% at least belong to a few intermingled family lines of eight generations spanning 120 years or so. There are 16 to 20 separate stories in progress and I'm still unsure if it will be one huge novel or a collection of interrelated novellas and short stories.

Well it won't be anything but a private little hobby if I don't start translating the daydream in my mind into full blown scenes on the screen/page.