Article Writing – Articles I Can’t Write – Mind Mappings Limitations And Possibilities

Using View Your Mind, the open source mind mapping tool, seemed the answer to my quest for a source of unlimited article subjects. I started a map with the keyword “Articles” in the center. Within a few minutes, I had produced links to all sorts of ideas that popped up in my brain. This was the Holy Grail of What to Write About Today. All I had to do was produce a few hundred words on each subject and I would have hundreds of articles. My actual output fell far short of my fantasy. Some of the lessons I learned are summarized below.
1. The subject was too broad. My Trip Around the World may be of great interest but I wasn’t able to cover it in much depth in 400-500 words.
2. The subject was too narrow. There were some command line options common to linux and windows that I found interesting and useful. To list the command and the simple thing it did didn’t take many words. Adding to the explanation gave the appearance of excessive padding.
3. Some of the subjects were too technical. I realized that without devoting hours to really learning how something worked I was dangerously flirting with a mental cut and paste and some unintended plagiarism.
4. I was in love with a specific product. My copy read like a blatant affiliate marketing page. Not appropriate for an article. If I really want to write this then develop a niche site and use it as a web page. Affiliate marketing is not available for some of my most liked products.
5. My experience was not unique. I seemed to be writing an article that I had already read several times online. But perhaps my experience was unique. I needed to remember how my perspective, interests, and goals differed from others.
6. The idea needed a longer incubation period. Some of my thoughts were in areas new to me where I had just begun to scratch the surface. A little more time would clarify where the real focus was.
7. I needed to organize my research. Books, saved online sources, bookmarks, and ebooks were all there somewhere on my book shelves or various computers but I couldn’t find them.
Were any of these a valid reason to give up on mind mapping? No, I had thought of many viable subjects. I realized that it would help to be more focused. I needed to pinpoint the required research to write about new interests. And as I have noted so many times in the past, I really do need to get organized.