Floor plans, no this is not a Home Improvement blog
Do you find it hard to keep track of where your character is, physically in a room, city, world?
Everyone can benefit from a good floor plan or map.
Most writers have the mindset that World Building is JUST for science fiction and fantasy. This I am happy to say is totally not true, everyone can use these tools to help them.
Simple things first, when using the real world as a back drop, lots of writers add in their own city, town or suburb.
Getting a map of the state, and adding in this area is a quick but helpful task. You can see distances between main focus points, work out travel times and see what you have to work with.
More complex on this would be designing your city or town, which can be easily done on grid paper. To cheat on this would be to just do the parts of town your character visits or are mentioned in your book.
Characters address, all characters have neighbors and usually pop up in the story somewhere or can be potiential witnesses. So drawing up, the street your character lives in can provide insight into who can see what from which window. How many characters you do this for, is up to you. High fences, trees, bushes and house styles would be of benefit.
Key plot locations. Very helpful for mystery, horror or anyone really is to know how the house it laid out. You do not want romance novel where the characters have to tromp upstairs in the middle of an inimate scene or falling over a couch that was not there in a the previous chapter. How detailed you get is your choice, but big objects should be drawn in, doorways, windows, stairs and bathrooms.
Buisness locations, if you have a character running through the local Kmart, knowing what departments she will be going past can help or hinder. Knowing the eggs are at the back of the store will mean it wont be a 2 minute in and out dealing. This will also allow you to note where other people are in the store, if any are witnesses (gossip, saw them steal or saw them with the other woman).
When planning a murder where time is important, maps are the best tools. Seeing what roads you need to take, what other roads you can use and mark in the traffic lights will mean the difference between being 50 minutes late from work or an hour. Same with floor plans, if Jimmy the paper boy can see in the front window and be able to spot you stabbing the neighbors dog in your backyard, that could be a great plot twist.
Some writers are very visual people, others can picture this in their heads, but both benefit from seeing it on paper or screen.
Nothing would be worse then accidently killing your lover because you swung her over the side of the tub, forgetting you mentioned the shower stall being their.
Free program that allows you to print out grid and graph paper.
http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/
Free Online Map maker
http://www.izhuk.com/painter/map/
We have world builder links on our resource page.
