Sweet Spot Map

Instead of a series article as the third post for this week, I'm going to start something new - because we all know I can't cope unless I have too many things going at once :o)

Three weeks ago, I signed up for Holly Lisle's Think Sideways course. It's a six month online course, focusing on writing fiction with the aim of making a living from it - tips and tricks and strategies to get your career going and keep it going.

Three weeks into it, I'm loving it :)

As part of the course, we have weekly 'assignments', and a lot of people on the Think Sideways forums have been sharing their assignments for week two. I was kinda surprised, as well as interested and excited, in my own results, and I thought - where better to post them than here? :)

The assignment was to create a 'sweet spot map' - a random clustering of the first things that came to mind for each of six prompts: I love, I am drawn to, I get shivers from, I fear, I hate, I need. These are things that come (if you're really working 'randomly') from your subconscious, and are things that you can put into your writing no matter what genre you're writing in that will make it resonate with you; these are the things in your writing that are you.

I made my original map as recommended on six scrappy pieces of paper taped together - and I adore it, and am now carrying it everywhere with me, adding to it as things occur to me. However, for ease of viewing, I've used a nifty little program called Cayra, so that you won't have to decode my handwriting ;)

It's taking me a while to type the stuff in and detangle the resulting webby nets, so I'll pop the six maps up over the next few weeks. But first, for your viewing pleasure, an insight into what my subconscious - my dear little Muse *cough cough* - loves.



'Ears' and 'tails' were the items that amused me most :o) I have no IDEA what my muse is on about there - though I do have a propensity to greet close friends/family members by nibbling their ears while giving them a hello-hug, so maybe that explains ears??

And 'weather' I could have expanded on for hours... I adore weather. Food could have been expanded too, adding in more tasty goodness... But it was pretty cool to see what appeared :) This one's perhaps not as revealing as some of the other maps (I hate, I fear, I need), but it's fun nonetheless :)