I love maps. Even though we have Google navigation, when we’re traveling away from home, I like having a physical map with the route highlighted in yellow to help visualize the journey before me. Marking the interconnecting ribbons of highways gives me a big picture perspective. The same is true when you’re writing your book. In my current novel, I created a map where key scenes took place. At-a-glance, I can see the NY Times headquarters, the Plaza hotel where the press conference took place, the restaurant on Central Park West where they met, the icy path they took through Central Park to Bethesda Fountain. Creating a rough version of your map early in the drafting process can help you as you write and will serve as a guide to your readers when you publish. Those special places where your characters met, the bookshop café where they worked on their first story, the Rockefeller Center skating rink, it’s all there for your readers later.
Highly recommended: Jill Williamson’s wonderful book Storyworld First: Creating a Unique Fantasy World for Your Novel. The award-winning author takes mapping a step further by showing how she creates maps for worlds that exist only in her stories.