Category Archives: Maps

Lost? “You are HERE.” Topographical and architectural layouts in ‘The Beastking Chronicles’

Redrawing Maps in Your Imagination

Posted by Seriah Black Sheep on

Well, I think I’m just about finished with the new material I’m adding to chapter 8. Now I need to piece together a couple of the older parts to the end, and the chapter will be complete. That might take me a couple days. But it feels good to have the majority of it typed up and patchworked together.

Chapter 8 doesn’t look much like the previous chapter 8. I’m stretching out the house chapters and interspersing them with emotional interludes to break up the monotony and build character at the same time. Hopefully this is laying the foundations for the rebuilding of the relationship. The more I lay these foundations, the more I recognize that I didn’t have to create all those scenarios where Rome and Labriella run away from each other in order to create distance to overcome; their initial parting put enough distance there that reparations could span an entire novel. Nobles are on the menu, so I don’t want the reparations to be novel-length (in case you got a little worried there), but…well, “spoilers.”

I started to redo the floor plans of the upstairs and the servants’ quarters to correspond with my revisions to the story, but now I’m thinking that maybe I should ditch the mansion maps altogether. I love creating stuff like that, and visuals are always nice, but the specifics of the layout are not real necessary to understanding the story at this point. And honestly, I believe that a good enough writer doesn’t need maps to illustrate where things are and what they look like (which makes maps only really necessary in an 800-page fantasy adventure novel, over which span you’re likely to have a hard time keeping track of all the realms involved). So I’m going to give you furniture placement, and general proximity of the rooms to one another, and let your imagination do the rest. I will, however, continue to detail about furniture, clothing, characters’ physical features–those sorts of things.

Maps Explained

Posted by Seriah Black Sheep on

doorsI realized I forgot to mark the doors on the map of the Servants’ Quarters that I posted. Sorry! It’s fixed now. Innocent

Going back over the maps of the Servants’ Quarters and Upstairs Hallway, I figured it would be helpful if explained a couple things. If you didn’t realize this already (from looking at the maps while reading the story), thick lines are walls, thinner lines coming out of the walls are doors (quarter-cirle lines show how far the door swings out when opened), and lighter grey patches within the walls are wall-doors. The little white circles are chamber pots, and the colored boxes (outlined in brown, with a white square on it) are beds. Most furniture are desks/vanities, chairs, nightstands, dressers, trunks/crates, and bookcases/shelving

Specific to the Servants’ Quarters: Brown ovals are washtubs; the ones for bathing are plain, and the ones for laundry have peach squares (washboards) on them. The black rectangle in the Wash Room is the stove to heat the water on. The different-colored blobs in the Supply Room just illustrate piles of random things (mostly cleaning equipment). The white lines crossing the Laundry Room are laundry lines. The yellow circle in the middle of the Great Room is the bell to wake the servants up. The black circles in the room off the Head Servant’s Room make up the set of chains hanging from the ceiling in the room where disobedient servants were punished (flogged, don’t get any weird ideas…). All the brown squares in the Store Room are crates (and some trunks).

Specific to Upstairs Hallway: The brown lines along the inside wall in each room is a fireplace (the same color as the rest of the furniture in the room; Rome’s fireplace is along the outside wall). Please note that the colored lines along the outside wall of each bedroom are drapes (notice their colors correspond to the color of the bed and the chair in the current room). The odd-looking red-and-brown shape along the outer wall of Rome’s Room is his windowseat. The flooring in the bathrooms is a different color because the floor is colored tile (the color being a lighter shade of the color of the bed/chair/drapes in the corresponding bedroom). The rounded white rectangles in the bathrooms are large bathtubs (Rome and his mom have bigger ones). Rome has a shower as well (big white square; not exactly like a modern-day shower, but we haven’t come to that yet…). The translucent rectangle (outlined in brown) in each bathroom is a tiled-topped counter. Brown rectangles in the closets and bathrooms are shelves. The red circle in the Office is a comfortable red armchair.

The Staircase drops off into the Entryway below (on the first floor).

Dark patches may or may not be made into hidden rooms in the future.

Noting wall-doors would be a good idea.  *COUGH*hint*COUGH*

Dungeon passages all have stairs leading down at the end of what you can see on the Upstairs Hallway map (don’t end there; you just can’t see/don’t know where they lead).

Rome’s Room, his Mother’s Room, the Master’s Office, and the Master’s Suite will all be touched on later in more detail. And, of course, so will the passages…

Hope that sheds a little more light! I thought most of the things on the map were pretty obvious in accordance with the story, but then again I’m the author, so everything makes sense to me. Tongue out

Upstairs Hallway Map

Posted by Seriah Black Sheep on

The map of the upstairs hallway in Rome’s mansion in Beauty and the Beast is now COMPLETED!!!!!!!! I created a new gallery specifically for maps for Beauty and the Beast, so if you want to see all the maps I’ve created so far and/or if you want to know a little bit more about the maps and where they fit into the house, you can go there.

Next map to be posted should be a map of the downstairs portion of the house, including the entryway, parlor, dining room, and kitchen, and maybe a little more… *hint*HINT*

Maps Update

Posted by Seriah Black Sheep on

I just updated the Servants’ Quarters map I posted on 6/13. I’m working on a map of the upstairs hallway and a map of the downstairs, which are both proving tricky (the latter more so). Chapter 8 has a lot about the house, so I’ve been forced to parallel work on the map and the story at the same time. It’s a slow and tedious process, because I want to make sure everything checks out, but it’s near completion, seeing as it may be a little while before I lay out in its entirety the remaining floor.

I think I’ve solved the Work → Romance transition problem. It will begin, I think, after chapter 8.

Servant’s Quarters Map

Posted by Seriah Black Sheep on

I’ve posted a map of the Servants’ Quarters. Long overdue, I know. I’ve been holding onto it because for some reason the web filter at my college blocked Angelfire—probably because of advertisements. In any case, it’s pretty self explanatory, if you have it handy while you’re reading the story.

I’m working on the “character gallery” thing mentioned in the previous post. But right now, I think it’s time I finished and posted chapter 8!

A map of the downstairs portion of the house should be posted soon after I finish chapter 8.

I decided my primary posting site will be FictionPress, though I will still be posting on MediaMiner. Links to both sites are now in the left navigational column of this site.