I’m very good at coming up with story “sparks” – too good, in fact – but I always find it a trial to develop those ideas into fully-fledged stories. One technique I use is to create mind-maps. I thought I would share my genre mind maps in case they can help you in your hour of literary crisis. Here are some suggestions on how you might use them:

• Create a giant mind map with your favourite novel “things” – settings, plot devices, character quirks, etc. Whenever you get stuck while writing your story, close your eyes and point your finger at your giant mind map. Then do the same with your genre mind map. If you want, spend 5 minutes using these two items to generate more ideas. Or just write, write, write!
• Combine disparate items from different genre mind maps to create a new genre, or at least to add some strangeness to your storyline.
• Subvert your genre. This is the easiest way to shake things up a bit if your plot is becoming a bit too predictable. Choose a genre trope and turn it inside out like an Escher drawing.
• Choose a node from a mind map and search for images with that keyword. Write a paragraph describing it in detail.
• Choose a node from a mind map and branch it out further. Where does it lead? What else does it link up with?
• If you take the notion of “literary abandon” seriously, I dare you to include every item from your genre mind map in your story.

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I recommend printing these mind maps out so that you can add to them yourself. You can also handwrite over them on a touch device using an app like Notability.

Not strictly a genre, but I also have a Religion Mindmap (PDF), and if you’d like to see some handwritten mindmaps I made for various themes in my steampunk series, you can find them in this post.