There are all sorts of guides to building a fantasy world, but I discovered it was helpful to map out my own modern day suburb complete with schools, grocery store/strip mall, etc. I spent some time driving around looking at mid- and upscale neighborhoods (including one with its very own city center with a coffee shop, a corner drug store and a green grocer - think of a 7-11 in designer colors. I kept waiting for life-sized SIMS to appear on the sidewalk). Eventually I merged about three sites into one and created S'Foolville.
My map will never be an example of cartography at its best, but at least the sun isn't setting in the same place that it rose. (Yes, yes. It did. Three times. And one time it rose in the north.)
Now that I'm working on the first draft from the rough draft, I'm finding it helpful in terms of time to travel from point A to point B, what characters can see if they are looking from one place to another, places that bad guys can skulk without being seen, and even solutions to some plot problems. You know, the ones where you have a paragraph of single words and each? word? is? followed? by? a? question? mark?
Anyone else ever used this as a writing tool? Did you find it helpful? Or not?
My map will never be an example of cartography at its best, but at least the sun isn't setting in the same place that it rose. (Yes, yes. It did. Three times. And one time it rose in the north.)
Now that I'm working on the first draft from the rough draft, I'm finding it helpful in terms of time to travel from point A to point B, what characters can see if they are looking from one place to another, places that bad guys can skulk without being seen, and even solutions to some plot problems. You know, the ones where you have a paragraph of single words and each? word? is? followed? by? a? question? mark?
Anyone else ever used this as a writing tool? Did you find it helpful? Or not?