Author Topic: Crazy Writing Strategies  (Read 8621 times)

Setherick

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Crazy Writing Strategies
« on: February 22, 2010, 06:40:16 PM »
A number of my colleagues and I are engaged in planning / writing our dissertations. I'm in the planning and proposing stage currently, which has meant a lot of brainstorming session, a journal full of random notes, and lots of post-it notes spread throughout my apartment (much to the chagrin of Karee). Lately, though, I've taken to mapping the thing a la serial killer investigation style on my office wall. I'll post pictures as it develops into the non-Euclidean monster I know it will turn into as I draft, but here is the current one:

"Something smart so that I can impress people I don't know." - Some Author I've Not Read

Tadanori Oyama

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Re: Crazy Writing Strategies
« Reply #1 on: February 22, 2010, 06:49:34 PM »
Interesting to look at considering I have no idea what any of those notes contains. I will remark that the right hand path takes 4 notes to arrive at the mutual point while the center and left take only 3 (and that thr 3rd step of the center and the 4th of the right appear to be the same note).

I also think it's strange that you appear to have two starting points and only one end point, which ends a note after your branching paths end.

Apparently you know how this will end but not how to begin or the path to reach it. Unless your notes flow from top to bottom in which case you'll need to read this post standing on your head for it to make sense.

Setherick

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Re: Crazy Writing Strategies
« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2010, 07:08:04 PM »
Interesting to look at considering I have no idea what any of those notes contains. I will remark that the right hand path takes 4 notes to arrive at the mutual point while the center and left take only 3 (and that thr 3rd step of the center and the 4th of the right appear to be the same note).

I also think it's strange that you appear to have two starting points and only one end point, which ends a note after your branching paths end.

Apparently you know how this will end but not how to begin or the path to reach it. Unless your notes flow from top to bottom in which case you'll need to read this post standing on your head for it to make sense.

I'm actually working from a web concept (Michel Foucault's "governmentality") that doesn't really have a set beginning or ending point, which is why the map looks screwed up. The contact node is the one that branches off in three directions in the top-center of the map. From there everything works in terms of terms of intersecting webs, I just haven't worked out all of the webs yet.

The contact node is a definition of governmentality that defines it as a contact between "technologies of the self" and "technologies of domination," which are the down-left and down-right cards in the triptych. The top-center card is an expanded definition of governmentality that branches left and right into terms of "counter-conduct" and "conduct" respectively.

If you continue down-left through the web, you arrive at another contact node titled "American Sentimental Literature" where all of the works I'm focusing on branch off from (and subsequently do and will connect to other nodes in the web).
"Something smart so that I can impress people I don't know." - Some Author I've Not Read

ristarr

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Re: Crazy Writing Strategies
« Reply #3 on: February 22, 2010, 08:32:09 PM »
Have you tried any of the mind mapping software?  I have not mastered the technique, but I think I may give it another try.  I used freemind before ( http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page ), but it looks like they just created a new version called freeplane ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/freeplane/ ).  They are both free and run on java, so any computer can run them.

Setherick

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Re: Crazy Writing Strategies
« Reply #4 on: February 22, 2010, 08:39:41 PM »
Have you tried any of the mind mapping software?  I have not mastered the technique, but I think I may give it another try.  I used freemind before ( http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page ), but it looks like they just created a new version called freeplane ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/freeplane/ ).  They are both free and run on java, so any computer can run them.

I'll check them out. I'm really looking for some prewriting software that will allow me to do concept maps in 3D.
"Something smart so that I can impress people I don't know." - Some Author I've Not Read