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Tag Relationship Viewer

The Relationship Viewer is a tool that allows you to visualize the relationships between different tags. It behaves something like a mind map or cork board, with relationships automatically populated from the Related Tags section.

Some useful examples of how you can use this tool include:

  • Relationships between various characters
  • Untangle promises, story goals, and subplots
  • Visualize the connections between different themes
  • Roughly map out different physical settings
  • Connect various objects to the characters that own or wield them

The tag relationship viewer can be accessed from the left sidebar. It will load in a three-column view with draggable sliders (similar to those described in the Writing Interface section):

Relationship Viewer

The left sidebar holds the list of Relationship maps you've created so far. The middle area will contain the currently active Relationship map, and the right sidebar contains information about the selected tag (identical to the Tag details section of the Write sidebar.)

Creating a relationship map​

Click the New Relationship Map button to create an empty relationship map and give it a title (I called mine "Character Relationships"):

New Relationship Map

Click the Check button to confirm the new map. It will automatically become selected. The left sidebar now contains a list of all the tags in the book, as well as draggable buttons to create new tags in each category:

Fresh map

The middle area is now a blank canvas (with some dots on the background to help you align things). It contains three buttons for adjusting the zoom level in the upper left corner (Zoom In, Zoom Out, and Fit View).

This particular relationship map is going to to be a map of all the characters in the book. Right now, that is Becky, Ralph, and Boris.

Adding existing tags to the map​

To add any of those existing tags to the Relationship map, simply drag them from their spot in the left sidebar to a free position on the map. Use the "Fit Zoom" button if you need more space (you can also use a mouse wheel or trackpad scrolling gesture).

Here I've dragged Boris, Becky, and Ralph onto my map and "Fit Zoom":

three tags

Notice how the tags are automatically connected with lines representing the tag relationships I had set up in the write page?

Creating a brand new tag on the map​

To add a new tag to the map, drag one of the New <Tag Type> widgets from the top of the left sidebar. In this one, I've dragged "New Character":

new character

The current name of the tag (as you can see in the right sidebar) is "New Character". I want this new character to represent Becky and Boris' mother, so I'll rename it to "Mother" by typing in the name box in the right sidebar. In addition, I'll select an Animal tag template and add two relationships using the "Related Tags" section of the sidebar:

mother character

Moving, removing, and selecting tags​

In the relationship map, you can use drag and drop to reposition tags at any time. The X icon will remove the tag from the map (but not the book, other relationships maps, or any tagged scenes).

To select a tag so you can access or edit details in the right sidebar, just click on it. This works both when the tag in question is in the left sidebar or in the currently selected map.

Panning the view​

To move the entire mind map around, simply click an empty area in the map and drag it.

Multiple maps​

It is not possible to add the same tag to the map more than once, but you can create multiple maps using the New Relationship Map button. Select a different map by clicking its title in the left sidebar. Here I've created and selected a second relationship map named "Plot Points":

second map

Deleting a map​

Click the X icon to the right of a map name to delete it. You will get the usual confirmation modal because this is a destructive operation. Only the map will be deleted; tags and relationships will not be deleted.

Tips​

  • Relationship maps like to take up a lot of screen real estate. If you don't have huge monitors, you will probably want to collapse the left navigation menu
  • Don't forget that you can drag the handles on the left and right sidebar to make the middle area bigger.
  • The "fit view" button is the quickest way to get an overview if you get lost in your wap.
  • You can edit tag details and reference images and delete the selected tag from the book (and from all scenes) from the right sidebar.
  • Any one tag can only be added to any one map once. If you feel like you need a tag in multiple places in a map, it's probably best to split it into multiple maps.