XMind is an mind mapping programm which has several predifined templates one can use to structure their thoughts. I used it for a layout of a book plot, using the Org Chart template as a basis. On the top you put "World", country or city name, whatever suits you - this is where your story is happening. And then as a first branching level you set up your charater names.
XMind interface is pretty simple and quite intuitive: if you select a certain element of the system and click "Insert" button on your keyboard, you will add a sub-element to it. Such elements are called "topics". If you decide, that a certain topic relates better to another character, or to a different period in their life, you can select it and drag it to place under a different element. While doing this, all the hierarchical bounds are preserved.
As the chart goes down, the following hierarchical level marks life periods of a certain character: Childhood; Adulthood; Family life and so on. Each of these titles can then have further elements, where life event is shortly decribed. You can open or collapse your topic structures pressing "+" and "-" symbols on the lines.
When a tree of life events is set up, one can start linking interacting characters. This instrument is called "Relationship" in XMind. You can choose the design of the arrow and write a short comment to it. Topics can be also "floating" - placed in the empty space without any hierarchical order
You can then export your scheme as a jpeg, PDF (Pro version) or SVG (again, Pro version).
Using XMind helped me figure out the complicated relationship between characters and write down all the details about the society structure in one place. I like that one can keep the layout simple by collapsing topics - it helps me not to lose the big picture of the plot. But at the same time the scheme is interactive enough, meaning that when necessary, I can open all the topics again and view my events.
I would like to thank the Russian speaking community at http://pishuknigu.com/ for a hint on using this software for book plots.
