Romeo and Juliet as a concept map

What this mapping software can do for you and how to use it

This page offers an explanation of what SortYourThoughts can do for you. At the bottom, there's a link to the actual concept map.

The idea behind a concept map is to make information more accessible and therefore easier to understand.

A play, just like a movie or novel, is a linear representation of activities.

But other structures exist, which our brains have to work out, learn and understand.

For instance, we could ask ourselves when Juliet is doing something on stage. Or which roles belong to which families?

Or what are the main scenes in this play?

Here's one visualisation of the whole play with a LOT of information:

Obviously, this is far too much information to understand, but gives us a basic overview of the play.

The characters are listed on the left, and all the major actions are in a grid on the right. The play has 5 acts and up to 5 scenes per act.

To see when Juliet is on stage, we can click on her name, select the top element in the popup. The map shows us only the parts of the play when Juliet is on stage:

Another part of understanding the play is to know the family structures:

Or their relationships with the major interactions:

Another way to understand the play better is to use colours. Here, the most important scenes are

Or you can filter the items you want to see:

Before you use the actual map, here are the tools used in the steps listed above:

1. Click on an item (e.g. "Juliet"). Click the top part of the popup:

   All the items disappear which are NOT linked to Juliet, i.e. scenes where she is off stage.

2. To see all items again, click any item and then the bottom part of the popup.

3. To switch "Viewer", click one of the grey tabs:

   

   A fundamental point of SortYourThoughts is that all Viewers show you the same information. But some items are hidden in some Viewers.

4. Choose how the colours are determined:

   Click on the blue button "Choose how colours are set" and select one of the "aspects" in the dropdown list

ShowYourThoughts allows you to see structures in movies etc. which you would otherwise have to think about. You are saving yourself some work. And every time we work or think, we can make mistakes.

So, be kind to your mind and visualise information. And keep it in the web where you can always access it.

Of course, you can plan your own novel, play or movie using SortYourThoughts.

Enjoy!