Since I’ll be spending so much of November working on my
NaNoWriMo project, I thought I’d show you a bit of my prewriting process. This is what I did during October. This post is about creating the major settings.
The biggest setting in this novel is Tadrol’s Villa on the
northern beach. It’s partially a school,
but it also houses children. I use
setting to figure out the story as well, and there was a major plot point
discovered while creating this place. I’m
not the greatest artist, but I do like to have a picture of what’s going
on.
My sister introduced me to Google Sketch, and I like to use
it when I create large settings. Here’s
a few pictures of Tadrol’s Villa.
I’ve used Google Sketch for many other settings. Once I needed to create a setting using
specific elements. I needed a lot of
water, a lot of dirt, a city on a raised surface and an area where people can
stray dry while it’s raining. Here’s
what I created. Once I could see it, it
was so much easier to write.
I wrote a story where the characters spent the majority of their lives in a castle. I had to know where everything was, the kitchen, the stables, the main entrance. With Google Sketch, I was able to lay it all out so that my characters didn't get lost. And more importantly, I didn't get lost while they ran around the castle.
What do you use to create your settings? Do you just have the image in your head?
I wrote a story where the characters spent the majority of their lives in a castle. I had to know where everything was, the kitchen, the stables, the main entrance. With Google Sketch, I was able to lay it all out so that my characters didn't get lost. And more importantly, I didn't get lost while they ran around the castle.
What do you use to create your settings? Do you just have the image in your head?
I mapped a couple of cities for my fantasy series out in Paint. However, I lived in a couple of different European cities, and have visited a number more, and for locations like that I use street plans - simplified or otherwise - with locations inserted. For instance, I can still visualise the part of Warsaw I lived in for a month while on a course - so I wrote that into my book.
ReplyDeleteHowever, this program looks awesome. I hope it is easy to use as I might be able to successfully map out a few more locations in preparation to write more easily rather than having to rely so much on memory.