Graphic Organizer: Create your own!
When young authors meet other authors, they nearly always ask, “Where do you get your ideas?” It is one of the skills of writing, along with building up a large working vocabulary, learning how languages fit together, and getting and understanding rhythm and pacing. Like all skills, you get better with practice. How do you practice getting ideas? Use a Graphic Organizer.
Make your own Graphic Organizer by choosing a big piece of plain paper and drawing a circle in the middle. In the circle, write a word to use as your starting point. You may select any word for the center circle, but I have always found using topic words works the best. You can use words like SPORTS, HOLIDAYS, PETS, FOOD, MUSIC, CLOTHES, SCHOOL, etc. Next, relax and try to let go of your thoughts, daydream, and let your imagination start working. Your Graphic Organizer is like a search engine for your creativity.
Now, draw lines coming out of your primary circle, attach smaller circles, and label them with your ideas that grow from your main topic word.
Some of the labels will help encourage you to have even more ideas. Those circles can lead to more lines that have more circles labeled with ideas. You may discover that as you look at your Graphic Organizer, you notice a connection you hadn’t thought of before. These can often set you down all sorts of “new” idea trails.
Remember to keep your Graphic Organizers in your Writer’s Notebook so you may come back to your ideas, add to it, or use it with other ideas to write.
When young authors meet other authors, they nearly always ask, “Where do you get your ideas?” It is one of the skills of writing, along with building up a large working vocabulary, learning how languages fit together, and getting and understanding rhythm and pacing. Like all skills, you get better with practice. How do you practice getting ideas? Use a Graphic Organizer.
Make your own Graphic Organizer by choosing a big piece of plain paper and drawing a circle in the middle. In the circle, write a word to use as your starting point. You may select any word for the center circle, but I have always found using topic words works the best. You can use words like SPORTS, HOLIDAYS, PETS, FOOD, MUSIC, CLOTHES, SCHOOL, etc. Next, relax and try to let go of your thoughts, daydream, and let your imagination start working. Your Graphic Organizer is like a search engine for your creativity.
Now, draw lines coming out of your primary circle, attach smaller circles, and label them with your ideas that grow from your main topic word.
Some of the labels will help encourage you to have even more ideas. Those circles can lead to more lines that have more circles labeled with ideas. You may discover that as you look at your Graphic Organizer, you notice a connection you hadn’t thought of before. These can often set you down all sorts of “new” idea trails.
Remember to keep your Graphic Organizers in your Writer’s Notebook so you may come back to your ideas, add to it, or use it with other ideas to write.