Can’t Visualize Your Novel’s Settings? Use Floor Plans and Maps

Writers often talk about characters that are problems. But what about settings? When I use a setting multiple times in a novel, or thoughout a series, remembering all the details can become a headache. The geography of a setting, the layout of a room, or a room’s furnishings may be critical to my plot or character development, and I can’t have doors or whole mountain ranges moving. If you can’t visualize your novel’s settings, use floor plans and maps.

Borrow floor plans or draw your own.

My Rae Riley Mysteries series started with a short story, “A Rose from the Ashes”. When I sat down to write the first novel, I knew the farmhouse where Rae’s newly-found father and his family lived would be a major setting I would use during the course of the series. I had to imagine it as clearly as I see my own home. So I dug out a pad of graph paper and got to work.

That floor plan has saved me a lot of time and embarrassment. When I write a scene around the fireplace, I have a map of where the couch, recliner, and easy chair are positioned and how close they are to the dinner table. Also, I never want a reader to write to me with, “I thought the kitchen looked into the dining room. Where’d the wall come from?”

If drawing a floor plan sounds too complicated, give it a try before you discard the idea. Remember your drawing doesn’t have to be structurally sound. It’s just a guide for your imagination. You can also use floor plan books or look online for plans. The photo above is my collection of floor plan books I have acquired over the years.

These sites are helpful for finding floor plans for residential homes in a myriad of styles: Architectural Designs and Houseplans.net

Draw maps for geographic locations.

Again, you don’t have to be a cartographer to draw a map of your novel’s farm, village, or city. Use graph paper to draw a map with the details you need make your setting seem real. Wellesville, the county seat where Rae Riley works, is based on my hometown, but I’ve changed details to suit my series. While writing my fourth Rae Riley novel, I realized I had to go back through my previous novels and reread how I described Main Street because I’d never drawn a map of it. From those descriptions, I finally put together a map, and now I have a valuable reference tool for the rest of my series.

Here are more tips on writing settings in novels.

Writers, how do you keep the details of your settings straight?

August 6, 2026 0

Write a Haiku about August

This month on JPC Allen Writes, I’m covering aspects of writing that didn’t fit neatly in the previous monthly themes. The posts will be a hodge-podge and so will my Monday Sparks. I’ll be posting whatever writing prompts come to mind. First up, write a haiku about August. I love haikus, falling for them when I was in sixth grade. Haikus usually involve nature, but write about any part of August you want.

Sun, dust, bugs, sweat, grime–

Summer’s losing its appeal,

But do I want school?

Here are more writing prompts for haikus.

August 3, 2026 2

How to Write Unforgettable Last Lines for a Novel (And Why It Matters)

After spending months or years crafting the novel of your dreams, you don’t want to undo all that hard work with a poor last scene or last lines that vanish from readers’ memories. These final components of your novel are just as important as your opening lines and chapter. So here’s how to write unforgettable last lines for a novel and why it matters.

Why do the last lines matter so much?

The last scene and lines of your novel are your last message to your readers. We writers want our stories to stick with our readers. We gift them these final parts of the novel as a reward for reaching the last page. The last lines should also encourage readers to look up our previous novels and look forward to our future ones.

3 tips for writing unforgettable last lines

Your final scene and lines are like the final arguments lawyers present to a jury. They can’t introduce new evidence. That part of the trial is over. They can only sum up what the jury has already heard, but they can put their own spin on that evidence. That’s what writers do in the last scene.

Echo the major plot, relationship, or theme you set up earlier in the book. The final scene must deal with the point or purpose of the novel. All subplots should have been wrapped up by now. The final scene and lines should round off and amplify what your novel has been about. In my second novel, A Storm of Doubts, Rae wrestles with doubts that she may be calling the wrong man Dad as she tries to solve a mystery that involves questions of paternity concerning a family friend. The final scene and lines wrap up this theme of fathers and family.
Set the mood you want to leave with your readers. When readers close your book, what mood do you want to linger with them? I want my readers to feel like they’ve had a satisfying meal, and the last lines are those last bites of an excellent desert. To give them this feeling, I end on an upbeat note that fits with solving a mystery that revolves around the strength of faith and family. This upbeat note must be earned and make sense with the story that’s preceded it. If my amateur sleuth’s best friend has betrayed her during the course of the mystery, then my upbeat note will be very different from the one I’d use if her friend has saved her life during the climax.
Use final lines that let readers think over the novel. If your final lines do a great job of summing up your novel, it should give reader points that linger in their mind. In A Storm of Doubts, the final lines will make readers consider the nature of fatherhood, aspects like what makes a good father.

What’s your opinion on what makes unforgettable last lines for a novel?

Here are all the tips and prompts this month on writing endings for novels.

July 30, 2026 0

Write the Last Lines of a Less Than Happy Ending

Most readers prefer happy endings. I do. But I don’t mind less than happy endings or sad ones if the story earns those endings. The sad or tragic endings that readers object to are the ones that feel like the writer sat down to her computer and said, “I’ve had happy endings for my last three books. This one, everybody dies.” Those are the endings that feel forced, that don’t feel like the tragic events follow naturally through the story. So my writing prompt today is to write the last lines of a less than happy ending based on this character.

Her expression arrested my attention when I discovered this photo four years ago because it can be interpreted in so many ways. Here’s what I wrote four years ago for a less than happy ending.

*****

Amy, Rachel, and I descended the steps of the police station. I zipped my coat as a sudden gust tore down the street.

“It’s all over,” Rachel sighed.

At the bottom step, I said to Amy, “I’m glad I had the chance to help you, no matter what happened, to prove how sorry I am.”

Amy had been gazing down the street as fat flakes collected on her hair. Now her head swiveled to me, and I knew that stare. I’d seen it since we were kids.

“What makes you think you’ve proven anything?” she said in that ice-cold tone that sunk into me better than fangs.

“He nearly died saving you,” Rachel shouted. “If that doesn’t prove it, nothing will.” She blinked. “That’s the truth, isn’t it? Jake can’t reconcile with you because you won’t let him. Not because he doesn’t want to.”

That was the truth. All these years, I had thought I hadn’t tried hard enough to make up for the way I treated Amy, and it really came down to Amy didn’t want to forgive me. She liked wielding the power of unforgiveness.

I drug in a deep breath of frigid air, shoving my hands deep in the pockets of my coat. “If you ever want to act like a real sister, Amy, I’ll be ready.” I headed down the sidewalk, Rachel falling in step beside me.

“You were never a real brother to me.” Amy’s quiet voice sliced through the snowflakes.

I stopped. “Not when we were kids. But I am now.”

“You got that right,” said Rachel, giving me a tired smile.

We turned the corner at the end of the block, and I didn’t look back.

*****

Let me know how you would use this character in a less than happy ending.

Here are more writing prompts for endings.

July 27, 2026 0

How to Write Your Novel Resolution Right

Denouement or wrap-up is another critical component of the ending to any novel. These are the scenes following the climax, in which you resolve all the remaining loose ends of the plot. Below are my tips on how to write your novel resolution right.

Why is the denouement so critical?

This resolution part of your novel is another reward for your readers. The intensity of the climax and how well you pull it off is the first one. Once readers have enjoyed that, they get the extra treat of sitting back and enjoying how you resolve the other plot points that have contributed to the novel.

Pacing is the key element of the resolution

You don’t want a resolution that’s too fast or too slow. If you resolve the loose ends too quickly, readers will close the book dissatisfied because they didn’t get enough time to enjoy saying good-bye to the characters and the story. If you’re too slow, your resolution will come across like a houseguest who won’t take hints from the host that it’s time to leave.

How to write the correct pacing for the resolution

First, reread your manuscript and make sure you’ve caught all the plot points and loose ends of your novel.

Second vary how you tie up your loose ends. Since I write mysteries, readers expect a detailed resolution of all the plot points. So I tie up those points in various ways. A few I resolve before the climax, if it doesn’t hurt the intensity of it. For example, my amateur sleuth discovers one of the suspects has an iron-clad alibi before the climax, taking that character out of contention as the culprit. After the climax, I decide how much page space I should devote to a loose end depending on its importance. For example, if my teen sleuth and her dad have been at odds throughout the whole novel, then the resolution of their conflict should have a lot of space. But if the loose end is who moved the murder weapon after the murder, and it turns out the maid did because she did’t realize it was the the murder weapon at the time, then that resolution only needs a brief conversation.

Third, have someone who enjoys reading and understands your genre read your manuscript. I guarantee you will have overlooked at least one minor point that needs wrapped up. An author is so familiar with her manuscript that it’s easy to miss a loose end.

Fourth, you should also ask this reader about the pacing. If he or she feels the resolution is rushed or dragging, review your resolution to discover if you can add depth or tighten your writing.

What novels have you read which have a perfectly paced resolution?

Just wanted to let you know there won’t be a tip next week but I’ll be back two weeks from today.

July 16, 2026 0

Tag: Christian fiction author JPC Allen