Writing Hack: Zillow for Sense of Place

If you need to lend a sense of realism and sense of place to your fiction, especially realistic fiction, you can use sites like Zillow, Redfin, and the classic Google Maps to see real images of real places. Need to set a scene in a fancy house? Need to get a sense of how far it is to the train station? I'm sharing two of my favorite resources for establishing sense of place.

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[CedricM.Taylor]

I use zillow I also recreate my character's homes in the sims. One time I was looking at houses in Montreal for a story that was set their I found the voice actor of Mr.Ratburn's home and no I will not be giving out his address. he lives in a very small colonial home which I was surprised by. their were lot's of flowers everywhere on the porch. it felt like I was invading his space by looking at images of his home for a story.

[tessa]

Oh, good. I'm not the only one creeping on maps and Zillow 😂. I love this hack because I sat down and realized the same thing: that I knew the layout of like 3 houses.

[blOOdyLee]

This was really enlightening for me. I have always used Google Maps or other tools to figure out distances, but I've never thought about checking out real estate websites. Thank you for sharing your creepy advice! :D

[elizalagonia]

I had to look up what highways were near someplace in the late 90s. I searched old maps.

[augabachoo]

Using this tip immediately! There's a house I've been trying to get a realistic feel to but wasn't nailing at all

[LeeAnneRMT]

You tube often has videos on houses for sale with walk throughs now. These were brilliant tips!

[NeverAskedtobeMade]

There is a website that gives you house blueprints, but I'm going to have to go through my tumblr likes to find it. Personally, I use the Sims sometimes to figure out where things go. It's probably not as accurate as looking at real houses but it works for me.

[marahsoore]

Oh man I didn't even think about this until recently. My family and I are looking to move in the next few years and I've been using Zillow to creep on what is a normal house in our perspective areas. If you live in the U.S South and want to move to the North West, the buildings are going to be so different from each other. I'm going to have to use this tip to make sure the houses I want are in the locations I want for my current project. Thanks for the tips!

[Pericula_Ludus]

Ahh real estate pages are the best. I love working out where my characters could afford to live, then map their way home from work etc. I've gained plot points from when the last train back is. Plus floor plans. Because I'm cursed with excellent spatial awareness and it bugs me when houses and flats in books seem to have rather fluid layouts. Once they turn left from the kitchen and are in the bedroom and five chapters later they turn left from the kitchen and they are in the bedroom... And oh goodness, the random time travel when characters appear at a new location in ten seconds flat drives me up the wall (with the appropriate wallpaper and decor, of course).

[rosiethereader]

Love doing this! Writing historical, it can sometimes be helpful as some historic sites haven't changed much. For other things, or for the details that have changed, historic photos are SO helpful.

[amandasawyer]

Really glad I'm not the only person who does this!

[HobDobson]

Airline schedules and airport layouts are also useful for scoping out whether you can get from point A to point B, on Air Flybynite, with or without a layover, changing planes. With or without their luggage!

Weather websites or almanacs that provide historical data are good for figuring out what the weather was or should be for the story location.

[KnitFit]

Companies that sell prefab homes often have blueprints you can look at and use. Look for Real Estate photographers in the area you are setting your story in. I work for one in the Los Angeles area and a lot of the realtors pull the pictures from redfin and zillow once the house sells but the photos we post on our blog stay up. Remodeling companies are good if you want to look at detailed shots of a kitchen or bathroom.

[RoseKindred]

I like Google Maps because I broke apart America and some places got flooded/sunk, so nice to know what towns are not there so I do not screw it up. Hello, Isle of Flordia.

[MissAnglewolf]

Great for developing a sense of direction and where your characters are is actually checking the Metro sites for cities that you either want to have your characters inhabit or where you want to base your city on. The amount of time I've spent start the Busan city train map is very worrying. (Busan is a city in South Korea)

[marthawilley]

Can’t believe I never thought of using this but I didn’t. Thanks so much for this great hack.

[ELPages]

Omg those are just surprisingly good advices! I do use google maps but never thought about using something to see buildings from the *inside* Thanks a lot for the tip!

[ollie]

Genius, genius, genius. I already window shop on Zillow and just save the really pretty big houses 😜. I mean c'mon, dream it and work at it til ya get that big house! 😄😄. There are so many, I even saw one that came with a private lake *-* gorgeous. I love window shopping on Zillow and daydreaming having a place like that. Weirdly enough it made me feel like my bedroom is like the equivalent my own big house since I've never had my own room until recently hahaha

[WinterWind]

Thank goodness someone else does this! 🏠

[BayleyMae]

I definitely do this too! It is really so helpful to be able to really have a good description in mind when writing!