I gotta 'see' the place first...

[sleigh]

I suspect that starting a new writing project by creating a map is probably genre-specific behavior.  Or maybe not:  I remember that before writing my first WILD CARDS story -- set in modern New York City -- I first made certain I had a street map of NYC.  And in general, I just like maps...  I can spend hours poring over a chart of some place I've never been.  Way back in childhood, I made a map of the creek in our woods, as if it were some unexplored region of the world.  Maybe I missed a calling as a cartographer.

Does anyone else generally start a writing project with a map?