Character Maps

I'm trying to plan for my Saturday WOD game. I'm putting thoughts towards what I want Eile to do and why.

I decided to use an older mechanism that I like a lot. I call it a "map".

I take a piece of paper and put Eile's name in the middle of it. Then I put the names of the other characters in the game in a rough circle around Eile's name. Then I draw "relationship lines"- direct lines to/from people she's directly encountering on a regular basis, dotted lines for less firm ones, and so on according to my personal system. (I don't have a scanner nor do I posses any sort of electronic artistic abilities or I'd offer a nifty illustration of said mechanism.)

Then I draw lines from characters to OTHER characters to help me figure out where their influence lies, who they interact with (as known to Eile), and what obstacles and/or objectives they might present.

I make notes to myself  about each character in question, usually thinking in terms of :

what happens if I continue in a straight line with my plot ideas with this character?
What if I put or encounter obstacles between here and where I want to go in my plot lines with this character?
What if I go in a circle/around this plot line with this character?
What if I look at this from every OTHER angle and try something different?

(This thinking mechanism is totally not of my own imagination. I stole it whole cloth from Piers Anthony- and I believe it's some form of logic formula.)

Right now I have a bunch of papers (there are 12+ characters in this game) that look like a drunk kid Spiro-Graphed all over them.

But it's a neat visual way to help me think during game.