Mind-mapping in a fun way

Thanks to the NaNoWriMo-forum I have found a fantastic new site for mind-mapping. Not that I was looking for one, mind you. But so it goes.

And what was meant as a way of procrastination and delaying the inevitable (like writing my daily 2000 words) has instead helped me tremendously in actually finally getting a grip on where my story is going and organizing all those stray thoughts that were bumping around in my head into something resembling a plot.

Now, I don’t have much hope that this stuff I am writing will ever get to see the light of day in any form or shape, but I am convinced that bubbl.us is a site that will stay in my toolbox from now on.

I have never before had so much fun doing a mind-map. On paper they always tend to get too confusing for me after a while, because lots of things bunch up in one corner, whereas other parts are largely empty. Or I put so many lines through and around stuff that I can’t follow them anymore. All in all, paper mind-maps are just a huge waste of time for me.

So I didn’t really expect much from this online form of mind-mapping either, apart from killing a little time by playing around with these cute little bubbles. But, boy, was I wrong! Ok, it really is fun playing around with the bubbles, but it also actually works. Right from the start, without any lengthy explanations or anything. The use of the site is completely intuitive, I was up and going withing 2 minutes, even though there are lots of things you can do with it.

Not only can you easily make more bubbles, delete them (they very satisfyingly explode), move them around, delete the connections between them or connect them to others instead. Move the whole thing altogether just by clicking and dragging with your mouse. Zoom in or out just by scrolling. You can change the colors of the bubbles, hide the sidebar, export your finished mind-map as a picture or embed it in your website, you can save them, share them with friends, work on them together. And before you know it you have the whole outline for a complete project worked out.

Here is a complete overview of the current features, fittingly in the form of a mind-map.

It really is a fun and easy way to organize things and brainstorm creative solutions nagging pesky problems. (Like: where do I put the damn rats that keep wanting a bit part in my story? The answer to that would be chapter 6, but never mind.)