Hey! So, I've got a city that I'm developing, that's going fairly well. The problem is, I have a lot of trouble visualizing it, being able to intuitively know what everything looks like, where everything is in relation to each other. Do you know any way to make this easier?
I’d definitely recommend drawing it, whether by hand or in a computer program. It doesn’t have to be fancy or anything! If you’re not a fan of art, even a simple diagram on a grid can do. You can mark X’s where certain things are, draw lines for the streets, etc. Grid paper makes this a lot easier, since there are two sets of lines going both ways. If your city is less organized and has curvy roads, I’d recommend plain paper instead.
If you’re not inclined to draw things in detail, I’d also recommend writing down little descriptions of the buildings/landmarks/etc along with your map. It’s a lot easier to look at something you wrote before than remember something from your mind alone. It’s also good to write things like that down to keep them consistent. You might write a certain building as being made of brick in one part of the story, but then you might forget and say that same building is made of cobblestones in a later part of the story.
Basically, I’d suggest having a little document (or in a notebook or something) of important things to remember about your city, and short descriptions of the major buildings/landmarks. This should be accompanied by at least a basic sort of map, even if it’s simple.
