Idea to story

[caters]

I always wing it when I write. This means that I can have 2 completely different stories from the same idea.

I don't often map my civilization and the landscape except when I need it(like in the story about Kepler Bb).

Of course this means that all that I know about the landscape is in my head and from my own experience, even people with very good long term memory like me forget things.

Is there anything besides mapping that will help me remember where certain landforms and biomes are in my world like where the forests are, where the mountains are, etc. for when I go to edit my story and need to know where the characters are at any given moment in my story?

 

[Heliotrope]

Setting notes? I prefer setting notes to mapping. I like to write myself a detailed description or just point form notes of the settings, then I also surf Google for pics. I have a file load of pics of the New York subway system (one of my settings) as well as some cool artist renditions of fantasy settings I like and have used as inspiration.

 

[WooHooMan]

Keep in mind that maps don't need to be to-scale or anything.
In fact, this...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/T_and_O_map_Guntherus_Ziner_1472_bw.jpg

...qualifies as a map.

 

[caters]

Keep in mind that maps don't need to be to-scale or anything.
In fact, this...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/T_and_O_map_Guntherus_Ziner_1472_bw.jpg

...qualifies as a map.

I know that maps don't have to be to scale and they quite often aren't to scale, especially maps of things like outer space. I do however try to get as realistic as possible in my drawings including maps which is why I draw regional maps instead of world maps.

I know that fantasy maps don't have to be realistic(like they could have all bodies of water be saltwater or an upside down forest where the roots are like branches and the branches are like roots and other things that are impossible or very unlikely in the real world) but I am the kind of person that likes to have some nonfiction in the written fiction(usually it is a scientifically accurate setting with fictional characters) Sometimes it is more mathematically based especially when referring to things like birth rate and population of a civilization but usually even that has a scientific base.

 

[skip.knox]

Why make it harder than it needs to be? Maps are the best way to represent spatial relationships. No one has come up with a better way. Plus, you say you already draw maps.