Relationship Map: Draw Your Characters' Connections

This article shows you how to use the Relationship Map to draw every character, faction, and the connections between them into one clear visual — wired straight to your character files.

What problem it solves

Once you have more than a handful of characters, your head can't hold it all. Who mentored whom, who has a blood feud with whom, which people are secretly on the same side — that information lives scattered across individual character files, and the web between them has nowhere to live except your memory.

The Relationship Map draws that web. Each character is a node, each relationship is a connecting line, and people on the same side get circled into a group. Mid-revision and can't remember exactly how Mr. Grey is tied to J. Doe? One glance at the map and you've got it.

A relationship map is its own file (the .map extension). You can draw one big map for the whole book, or a separate one for a single subplot or a single family.

Create your first relationship map

In the file tree, right-click on empty space (or on any folder) and choose New Relationship Map. Slima creates a new .map file and opens a blank canvas right away.

A fresh canvas is empty — no toolbar, no buttons. Don't worry: every feature lives inside right-click, drag, and double-click. Here's how to unlock them one by one.

Three ways to add character nodes (however you like to organize)

Everyone organizes characters differently: some keep every character in one file, some give each character their own file, others sort characters into folders by faction. The Relationship Map supports all three:

Option 1 — Add manually (works before you've written any character files)
Right-click empty canvas → Add Node, and a new node appears. Double-click it to rename. Great for the brainstorming stage when the character files don't exist yet.

Option 2 — Drag one character file in (one file per character)
Drag a character file straight from the file tree onto the canvas. Slima creates a node, names it after the file, and marks it with a 🔗 icon meaning this node is linked to that character file.

Option 3 — Drag a whole folder in (you sort characters into folders)
If your character files live in folders (say a "Townsfolk" folder), drag the entire folder onto the canvas — Slima creates a group named after the folder and turns every character file inside it into a node, neatly arranged within that group. Done in one move.

Tip: you can also select several character files at once and drag them in together — they'll arrange into a tidy grid.

Connections: spell out how characters relate

Nodes in place — now connect them. There are two ways:

Pull a line from the anchor. Hover over a node and a small dot appears at its bottom edge (the connection anchor). Press on that dot and drag to another node, then release — a connection is born.

Drop a file straight onto a node. Drag character A's file from the file tree onto character B's node on the canvas. Slima creates A's node and automatically draws a line to B. Handy when you're building relationships as you read through character files.

Label what the line means

Double-click any connection to open the relationship editor. The clever part: it writes the relationship as a full sentence for you to fill in:

M. Brown is J. Doe's "____"

Click the blank and type the relationship — "childhood friend," "mentor," "rival." Now every line reads as a meaning, not just an unexplained stroke.

In the same panel you can also:

• Change color to distinguish relationship types (e.g. red for hostility, blue for family).
• Change thickness — thin / medium / thick — to signal how strong or important a tie is.
• ↔ Swap direction to flip "A is B's" into "B is A's."
• ➕ Add reverse to create a second line in the opposite direction. Now one pair of characters can carry two independent lines describing each viewpoint — e.g. "J. Doe is M. Brown's 'rescuer'" while "M. Brown is J. Doe's 'childhood playmate.'" Both angles, clearly stated.

Groups: circle characters into factions

When your characters split into factions, families, or sides, use a group to circle them together so the boundaries are obvious at a glance.

Four ways to create a group:

1. Right-click empty space → Add Group for an empty box, then drag nodes in.
2. Right-click a node → Create Group to start a group around that character.
3. Select several nodes first (hold Ctrl/⌘ and click each), then right-click → Create Group from Selection — the box auto-fits around them.
4. As above — drag a whole folder onto the canvas to spawn a group instantly.

Add a character to a group: grab a node and drag it inside a group's box. As the node enters the group's area, the box lights up green to tell you "drop here and it joins." Release, and that character now belongs to the group — moving the group later carries it along.

Remove a character from a group: hover over a node inside a group and a red × appears at its top-right corner. Click it, and that character leaves the group and moves outside the box.

Other group actions:

• Double-click a group to change its color; the background fills with a soft tint of the same hue so factions read instantly.
• Groups can nest — put one group inside another (e.g. a faction with two sub-camps under it).
• Groups auto-resize to contain all their characters; you never drag the box edges by hand.
• Deleting a group asks whether to Delete Group Only (keep the characters and connections) or Delete All (remove the characters and lines too).

Use size and color to show hierarchy

Double-click any node to open the node editor, where you can set:

• Size: small / medium / large. Large for the protagonist, medium for supporting cast, small for bit parts — size itself becomes a visual hierarchy that makes the main players pop.
• Color: pick a border color from a nine-swatch palette; the fill auto-applies a lighter version.

The palette is deliberately limited to nine colors rather than infinite — the point is fast categorization, not falling down a color-picker rabbit hole.

Nodes linked to files: map and content stay in sync

A 🔗 icon on a node means it's linked to a character file. Right-click that node → Open File to jump straight to that character's profile. The map isn't just a picture — it's a doorway into the character content.

To break the link, right-click → Unlink File; the node stays, it just no longer points to that file.

Move, zoom, and tidy your canvas

• Move a character: drag the node.
• Move many at once: hold Ctrl/⌘ and click several nodes, then drag them together.
• Pan the whole map: press and drag on empty space and the canvas moves with you.
• Zoom: use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out (from 25% up to 200%). Zoom out for the big picture, zoom in for detail.
• Move a whole faction: drag the group's box and the group plus all its characters move together.

Your zoom level and position are saved with the file, so it reopens exactly where you left off.

Export as an image

Right-click empty canvas → Export as Image to save the whole map as a PNG. Perfect for dropping into an outline doc, sharing with a collaborator, or printing to pin on the wall.

A few notes for writers

• The map is a reference picture for you — it never edits your manuscript or character files. It's a tool, not a database that auto-syncs.
• You don't have to draw it complete on day one. Connect the main few characters and core ties first, then grow it as the story grows.
• One book can hold many maps. Rather than cramming everything into one, draw separate maps for separate subplots or timelines — it's clearer that way.

Related

• Guide: Entity tracking and the detail panel — Slima auto-detects characters and elements as you write, complementing the map you draw by hand.
• Guide: File tree overview — the map is created from the file tree, and that's where you drag character files in from.