Solving my problems with Mind Mapping

One of the problems I constantly run into when doing assignments is that I feel like I have no good ideas. I end up staring at a blank google doc for over an hour just trying to come up with the perfect idea that is well thought-out and has significant proof. Even once I do have an idea, I have to worry about the possibility of me changing plans halfway through a paper. I once tried just making a bulleted list of all my ideas before I started and then just free-write, but that ended horribly with me having enough ideas for a book and the most hectic free writing I have ever done that had no flow from one idea to the next. However, thanks to this week’s mind-mapping exercise, I feel I have found the solution to all my writing troubles. Mind mapping is an exercise in which you brainstorm ideas, and then after putting all of them down on the page, you begin to draw lines to represent the connections from one idea to the next. As someone who has a lot of good ideas but has issues finding ways to connect them, this provided me with an answer to both of those problems. After I write down all of my ideas and make connections, I can take out things that aren’t important or don’t connect to the point I am making, which is crucial because I have a hard time letting go of ideas once I have them.

This was the issue when I was writing my performance analysis on We Are Proud. In class, our teacher led us in a free-write, which is a great way to begin developing ideas; however, for me, all this leads to is a headache and more material than I could possibly use in my paper, which leads to me staring at a screen for hours. Still, if I had taken all those ideas from the free write and put them in a mind map, I would have figured out what fits and doesn’t much quicker and more efficiently. So after realizing how helpful mind mapping is, I began questioning in what other ways I could use it. My performance and society teacher uses them instead of slideshows for keeping class notes, as does my Shakespeare teacher. So I tried taking class notes using a mind map on Thursday, and I have never understood the material better. I also have an essay coming up in my Shakespeare class. I have already made a mind map for it. Because of mind mapping, I am now feeling more comfortable with the material and have stronger essays. Additionally, I look forward to making a mind map for the creative writing project due this Thursday to help me organize my idea and prevent wasting time.