your own writing and speech


When asked about their methods , writers say that the writing process is a matter of at least two separate steps that sometimes conflict with each other: one productive and creative phase, often subconscious , and another monitoring, editing, censoring and very conscious phase.

Most of us were well trained at school to use the latter phase but not the first. By becoming aware of this dual nature of your way of thinking you can start using the creative side much more. This will increase your ability to write and speak in a more original and personal way.

The language area is located in the left hemisphere, the same hemisphere that is concentrated on structure and details. If we relied only on the language area in the left hemisphere our way of writing would be full of jargon, stereotyped and in a rather bloodless style, far from the potential of the brain.

Learning maps involve imagination as well as structure, pictures as well as logic. In the exercise on page 37 you will practise a method for developing your own writing.

The brain, like many other vital organs in the body, has a vast overcapacity. Everywhere in nature there is abundance . Think of the number of seeds a tree or plant produces and how few of those get an opportunity to develop.

The principle is: first abundance “ then a choice.

Creativity is really the same thing. By using many possibilities you can later make a choice of the most suitable in order to solve a certain problem or create a new idea.

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By thinking strictly analytically you tend to exclude all suggestions other than those that most obviously solve the problem.

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In reality people can t be divided into two groups “ those who are analytical and those who are creative. It is rather a question of being both, perhaps with a dominance of one or the other. Most people are trained to be analytical. Creative suggestions are often censored in the process that leads to the final solution.

It is necessary to separate these two ways of thinking. The model we are going to use starts with a creative phase and is followed by an analytical phase:

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This is how you start:

  • Start with the central word , a problem, a headline.

  • Put the word or a picture in the middle of a blank sheet of paper. Use colours to highlight it and make it clear.

  • Let your associations flow freely for five to ten minutes.

    Don t try to make a structure at this stage or to censor the words.

  • Write down every word that comes into your mind.

  • If you get stuck, open a new ˜fork anywhere , by drawing out new lines from existing words. It is very important to keep the associations flowing all the time. If you don t, you can easily slip into a structured way of thinking and then lose a lot of words that could give you brilliant ideas later.

  • Stop when you have a feeling it is enough or at a fixed time.

Most people don t allow new ideas into the writing process naturally because there is no natural way of including those ideas, especially if the ideas come at the wrong stage. By using a learning map you can add new words all the time. If you make a structure too early you get fewer words and you tend to come up with only ˜old words, ie words that are normally connected to that subject. It is better to start with uncertainty and chaos in your thoughts and let the structure emerge later in the process.

Surprising things happen when you allow your thoughts to drift and it is always interesting to see the result.

Let me show you an example. After having lived in Iceland for some time I was invited to a meeting to give a talk on that country. If I had used the ˜normal way of preparing such a talk it would have taken me a couple of hours to get ready. By using a learning map it took me less than 20 minutes.

This is how I did it:

  1. I drew a map of Iceland in the middle of a blank piece of paper.

  2. Free associations for five minutes.

This is what the map looked like after those five minutes:

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  1. I then highlighted a word that was suitable as a starting-point.

  2. I took five minutes to talk to someone about the subject. Reason? You think one thing, you write a second and you say a third! The person who was listening added information, asked me questions to open up or explain things that were not clear, etc. In short, it gave me an opportunity to get more ideas about the subject and add those words to my map.

    Another thing that happened during those five minutes of talking was that I got a fairly good idea about a possible structure.

  3. I looked at the map more thoroughly and picked out words that could be grouped together and then I tried to find sub-headings for those groups. I ˜invented words that were not in the map. In the process I used my coloured pens to mark the various categories.

This is what the map looked like at that stage:

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  1. I decided which words I should use as sub-headings on the thick branches in my learning map.

  2. I took a piece of blank paper and drew a new map of Iceland in the middle. Around the centre I drew six lines which are the thick branches and I added all the other words “ no more no less “ I thought I might need during the speech. I added pictures where pictures could replace words.

  3. I used my coloured pens to highlight, decorate or define the groups of words.

This is the final learning map and the manuscript of my speech. This took less than 20 minutes. When you go through the same process from idea to a manuscript the first time it might take a lot longer but each time you do it you get better and better.

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I can still add or change anything in the learning map, even make another structure very quickly by rewriting it. When I finally give my speech I can add or delete words, change the order of the ˜chapters or make any changes I like even in the last minute before I start talking.

exercise
start example

Imagine you are going to give a speech to a group of people and you are allowed to choose a subject of your own. It could be anything from ˜Economic planning in Indonesia to ˜My summer holidays in 1997 .

Go through the same steps as described above and in the learning map on page 41.

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Learning map for exercise on page 40

You go through the same steps for anything that comes out of your head to be used for speeches, writing, personal planning, projects, problem solving “ anything that involves your own knowledge or feelings.

This model is also excellent for use in groups. It works the same way but takes longer, especially the brainstorming session.

end example
 



Learning Maps and Memory Skills
Learning Maps and Memory Skills (Creating Success)
ISBN: 0749441283
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 63

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