Although I've left all of my Nanowrimo efforts online ever since I began participating in 2001, I've only had substantial comments to two of the novels: A Snake Among the Roses and Foxfire. Whether these are the best or the worst, objectively, I have no idea--although I'd like to think that I've improved during the intervening years. However, one comment about my 2001 work has stuck with me and honestly influenced the way I plan for the ensuing Novembrian madness and writing in general.
One problem with A Snake Among the Roses is the vagueness of the settings. While I knew, in my head, where everything took place (an alternate reality Southern California), I had a difficult time conveying with any accuracy where any of the locations were in relation to each other. As a result, readers were very confused.
So starting in 2002, I drew rough maps of the story locations in addition to outlining even if 99% of a particular story took place in one house. Has this made anything clearer to the reader? Since I haven't gotten any comments about it, who knows. But it's clearer to me--and it certainly helps when I'm trying to scramble for words as a map is easily a framework for a paragraph describing the surroundings.
While one can Google mapmaking and find all sorts of helpful tools, I prefer to draw my maps by hand. Sometimes, the map is very simple because few locations are needed. Other times, I base the map on the real world and model streets on real city plans. Or occasionally, I take the philosophical route. In the instance of The Reflecting Eye, the city plan was a spider's web, a symbol for what was happening in the story.
This year, I suspect I will be looking toward maps of real locations for inspiration--particularly mountain towns. There are logistical problems for building on a side of a cliff. And hopefully, the real world has already solved some of those problems for me.
