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title, category, tags, contextKey, micro, quickTitle, quickSummary, screenshot
| title | category | tags | contextKey | micro | quickTitle | quickSummary | screenshot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Locations | Locations | locations, setting, continuity, movement | locations.overview | Track places, movement, spatial continuity and how settings affect scenes. | What are Locations? | Locations help you manage story places, keep character movement believable and make setting part of the plot. |
Overview
Locations are the places where your story happens. They can be broad settings, such as a city or estate, or specific places, such as a bedroom, kitchen, railway platform, office, cellar or garden path. PlotDirector uses locations to support both atmosphere and continuity.
A location is not only scenery. It affects what characters can see, hear, hide, discover and misunderstand. In a tightly plotted story, the distance between rooms may matter. In a mystery, who could hear a conversation may matter. In a romance, returning to the same place after an emotional change may matter. Locations give those details a stable home.
You can begin with a simple list of important places and add detail later. As your project grows, location relationships and scene links help you understand how characters move through the world of the story.
When Should I Use This?
Create a location when a place appears more than once, affects continuity, or shapes the action. A named house, shop, school, hospital ward or train carriage may deserve a record. A vague background street probably does not, unless it becomes important later.
Use locations whenever spatial logic matters. If a character enters from the landing, exits to the kitchen, overhears something through a wall, or hides an asset in a locked cupboard, location tracking can prevent confusion during revision.
How To Use It
Start by naming the location clearly. Add a short description that captures what a writer needs to remember: layout, mood, access, important objects, or story significance. If locations relate to each other, record that relationship. For example, a bedroom may connect to a landing, a cellar may be beneath the kitchen, or an office may overlook a courtyard.
Assign locations to scenes and scene characters where useful. A scene can have a primary location, while characters can have current, entry and exit locations. This is especially helpful when validation warns that a character has no location set.
During revision, use location information to check whether movement, sightlines and timing make sense.
Example
Location: "Blue Bedroom"
Description: "A guest bedroom at the back of the house, cold even in summer, with a locked connecting door to the nursery."
Scenes in this room might involve Rebecca finding a clue, Beth refusing to enter, and later the connecting door being opened. Tracking it as a location keeps the physical logic and emotional meaning together.
Writer Tip
Let locations carry story pressure. A place can become more tense each time the reader returns to it, especially if new knowledge changes what the same room means.
Common Mistakes
- Creating locations only as decorative settings rather than story spaces.
- Forgetting entry and exit locations when several characters move through a scene.
- Changing a building layout in revision without updating earlier scenes.
- Treating a location's emotional meaning as static when events have changed it.