I love worldbuilding! Waving my magic pen (or pencil) is probably the most exciting aspect of writing stories. The real world is cool, but to design your own—cool plus infinity!
As a child, I lost myself in books, reveling in the interesting, magical, and utopian places where everyone was awarded happily-ever-afters. From tiny kingdoms to Middle Earth to curious real-life places like Stonehenge and czarist Russia—you name it, I likely visited there. Over and over again.
Recently, I found my old sketchbook, circa 4th–7th grades-ish. Inside was a map I’d created, inspired by The Legend of Zelda, Neverland, and Avonlea. Magical forests, beautiful gardens, even a mermaid lagoon! I lovingly and oh-so-cleverly named each place, as my favorite heroine Anne Shirley did. I was a sorceress, creating my own world—a world I would want to live in if magic was real.
And the interiors! Using my bookshelves, toy furniture, and LEGO bricks, I designed everything from grand ballrooms to the most luxurious bedrooms. Perfect settings for the stories swirling in my head!
When I found that map, a year or so after creating the Moon Mist Manor resort and grounds, it was uncanny how much of it had made it into that world after living dormant in my brain for decades. It further cemented my self-identity as a creative, igniting memories and goals I’d long forgotten about.
In this post, I’ll show you how sketching indoor and outdoor layouts and maps can give the writer—and the reader—a more immersive experience.
Why is sketching layouts for your story so important?
As a reader, I love when authors give enough description that I can easily picture myself in an environment with or as the character. Too much makes me snooze, but the right amount holds my interest and immerses me in the experience.
Some authors will give a few ambiguous or vague details in a sentence, but personally, all that does is leave me wanting more. My imagination reverts to a generic setting, and I find myself wondering about the little things that could give me more of glimpse into the characters’ personalities and environments.
Knowing where the character is in a particular environment as well as what or who is around them gives the writer more opportunity to enrich action beats and dialogue. Taking every opportunity to slip in details that can help connect the reader to the characters (and often, a particular setting is a character) is crucial to leaving a lasting impression on the reader.
They Add Texture to Your Scene
I’ll admit it, sometimes I’m a pantser (gasp!) when I’m writing dialogue. I used to get stuck when I needed a pause or dialogue tag—“she paused” and “he said”—gets monotonous for the reader. Breaking up dialogue with action beats moves the story along and holds the readers’ interest.
If you know the layout, you can have your character lean back casually against a marble counter (oooh, fancy!), spy a photo on a bookshelf (who is that girl he’s got his arm around?), pet a kitty on a cat tower (cat people are my kind of people), or turn off a lamp (how romantic!).
They Make it Easier to Move Your Characters About the Cabin
When I wrote Love on the Edge, I had no idea what I was doing, Cabin 7 at the Cliff Walk Resort was loosely based on a cabin my family and I had stayed in when we visited Helen, Georgia. One of the biggest criticisms from my editors was regarding “stage directions.” I had too much of “she walked to the door,” “he went over to the stairs,” and “she headed for the kitchen.” BOR-ING!
Once I sketched the floorplan and added furniture, my sentences improved. It’s easier to move characters around a space if you have the sketch right in front of you. Having the layout before you write allows you to be creative with your characters’ movement, and it’s easier to add sensory details if you know what you’re describing: “the scratchy doormat roughed up her bare feet/he skirted around the coffee table to the stairs/in a moment, she was through the dining room and in the kitchen.”
You Can Use Real-life Inspiration
I always sketch out the main characters’ living quarters. It makes moving them around their home easier. In my current work-in-progress, Love on the Fly, I based Caroline and Easton’s apartment on my own third-floor tenement walk-up I lived in during my late teens and early twenties.
Often, I’ll model an interior or exterior setting after a favorite place. The Cliff Walk Stables in my Crane’s Cove series is based on the Tri-Circle-D Ranch barn at Disney’s Fort Wilderness. For the purposes of the Cliff Walk Resort and my stories, I simplified the interior and designed the outdoor space to best work for where the characters would be. When the maple tree took out Mocha’s stall in Love on the Rocks, the angle it fell even helped me determine what sort of injury the horse would sustain.
In Love on the Fly, sketching a layout was an essential piece for helping me plan an outdoor wedding ceremony at the stables. The wedding party would pull up to the back door, walk a carpet through the horse stalls, and come out the barn doors. The seating arrangement was planned strategically. By knowing who was at the wedding and where they sat, I knew in which direction my hero would have to look to make eye contact with his love interest—and who he’d have to look past that might notice those glances.
You Can Create New, Author-invented Settings
Planning the wedding reception in the dining room at the Cliff Walk Resort was a little more difficult, because I don’t have a real-life location the room is based on. The resort itself is a mod podge of images of real places.
The bridal couple is a big fan of Star Wars, hence the themed tables. Knowing the guest list of their small wedding helped me to determine how much seating would be needed, where to place people, and who they’d need to walk by to get to where they were going.
How You Can Sketch Layouts
I like to start with a real place, if such a place exists. A favorite restaurant, your own house, a place you visited on vacation, etc. If the layout illustration is available, use that as your guide. If not, do your best to sketch from memory. Then, you can personalize with your own components—furniture, vegetation, fences—whatever it needs!
Sometimes I use graph paper or a spreadsheet, but sometimes just a blank sheet of printer paper is enough. Friends of mine use sketchbooks. Whatever works for you!
Once I’m happy with the design, I go over the lines I’m keeping with a marker, erase the rest, and store it in clear sleeve in my series binder. If your sketch is digital, just create a folder to keep all your layouts in.
My Best Advice: Just Go For It
Don’t worry about drawing skills—if you can use a straight-edge, you can do this! Practice sketching a room or place you know first, then dive into your story and pick a place. Having the layout in front of you while you’re writing can save you time, especially during revisions, because you already know things you can layer in.
Most importantly, unleash your inner creative and have fun!
Kerry Evelyn is an author and instructor in the Orlando literary community. She mentors students and teaches classes for Writer’s Atelier, libraries, and professional organizations. Kerry’s upcoming workbook, How to Binge Write Your Novel, pulls together decades of experience and empowers writers to make the most of their time. Her sweet romance novels feature small towns, a touch of the supernatural, and charming characters pursuing happily-ever-afters.
You can find her on Goodreads, BookBub, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Visit KerryEvelyn.com to subscribe to her newsletter and learn more!
This is great! I have a new series in my head and it is a perfect time to get some sketches going!