I love it when everything is in alignment! I’ve been doing a lot of writing recently for Mindjet…blogs, articles, etc… This morning I listened to a Get-It-Done Guy podcast about how to use MindManager to improve your writing.
Who is the Get-It-Done Guy? If you haven’t heard of the Get-It-Done Guy yet, he hosts one of the most successful business podcasts on iTunes. Stever Robbins is a successful entrepreneur, Harvard MBA, and MIT grad whose mission is helping people reach their dreams and be happy doing it. He’s a veteran startup survivor and published author.
In the podcast, the Get-It-Done Guy shared how he has been using MindManager to write his book!
How can MindManager help write a book you ask? For starters, it helps you see the big picture, organize your writing into a logical flow and allows you to focus your attention on one section at a time. You can map out all of your topics & sections and do your detailed writing in the notes pane. After creating and fine-tuning your map, you can use MindManager’s export to send your finished writing directly to Microsoft Word.
- Listen to (or read) Stever’s Podcast here.
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You can also check out his podcasts at the Quick and Dirty Tips site.
Update: Stever has shared a map template to illustrate his podcast example: My Big Book.
Are you using MindManager to help you write? Share your writing & mapping tips below!
#1 by Michael Deutch at March 14th, 2009
Bee, sorry to disappoint. You may try Roger Parker’s site as he often publishes many mind maps on organizing writing for books, articles and blogs. http://www.designtosellonline.com/mindmapping.cfm
I’ll also contact other writers for their input into our blog and templates for the future! Great feedback.
Michael
#2 by Bee at March 14th, 2009
This podcast was a disappointment.
Instead of “How to write a book using MindManager” it should be “I did write a book using MindManager.”
Which template is the best to use to get started?
I didn’t see anything helpful about the podcast other than the host announcing that he used the software. That’s it.
#3 by Michael Deutch at February 27th, 2009
Hans, that’s great. It sounds like you appraoched it the same was as Stever.
#4 by Hans Terhurne at February 27th, 2009
A few years ago I wrote my book ‘Process Mapping’ for 95% with MindManager. It gave me the overview and thus the possibility to rearrange items until the end. The export to Word, a review and some small corrections cost the last 5%.
#5 by Michael Deutch at February 19th, 2009
Fernando / Mark, great feedback & tips. I like the color coding suggestion. I use map markers to indicate % complete.
Michael
#6 by Mark Nieuwenhuizen at February 19th, 2009
Can’t see myself writing a novel this way but I use Mindmanager from building businessplans to currently editing a book on authentication.
The easy way of going back and forth in large amounts of text is so much easier in a mindmap. It’s also usefull that in one single view you can see what subjects need work.
Mark Nieuwenhuizen
#7 by Fernando at February 18th, 2009
I often have to create medium-large reports (50 to 200 pages) and I use MindManager for about 90-95% of it, just like you describe: see big picture, organize flow, create actual text in notes pane. A couple of things I do:
- color-code each major section to indicate status of completion (RYG) giving me a pretty accurate view of how far along I am.
- when writing the report, each key idea starts as a branch under the appropriate section. Only after I wrote the text related to that idea do I delete the branch.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Fernando