I've just begun the process of the visual design of our show for this coming season and got to thinking (as I was writing drill) about how others go about the process. Anyone have any methods for writing (I do everything by hand at the moment) or teaching drill for a WGI type indoor line?

Good topic. As an old guy, Ive never marched indoor, but the high school where I teach is starting an indoor program this year. We are all going through a season long learning process.

I made an excel spreadsheet that loosely resembles the floor size and made a 3' by 3' grid as a reference. We made icons for all the marchers and just move them around the spreadsheet for different sets. The current workbook has 40 pages so far. Seems to be working for us.

As far as the teaching, thats gonna happen just as we do it in outdoor. I know some groups do more of a ";go here and make a line in 8 counts, then spin around"; kind of indoor drill teaching with no charts.

I don't write the drill for my group, but what has been working for us is like a sketch book.  Each page has a sketch of a form, but specific placement may be determined by several factors (desired step size, velocity needed, etc.)  Each student gets a copy of the drill as a reference.  It's very malleable according to what the students can do and what needs to be done at a given phrase.

Both good ideas... right now I'm drawing my sets on printouts I made of our floor design. This is our first year using a design on our floor, I'm excited to actually be able to have marks the kids can use to set off of.

Keith, do you mean you design a formation or move and then just decide where to put it based on the effect you want to create during a particular phrase? thats a very interesting concept I would have never thought of.

Well, it's not as random as I made it sound I guess.  We go into a rehearsal with moves and sketches, but it may change slightly after we put it on the floor.  For example, we'll stretch a set farther than what the page calls for if we need more velocity than what's on the page. 

So we set what's on the page, and then tweak it if need be. 

I use lego people with numbers on them, then draw a drill book.  When teaching the drill, I adjust make sure they are moving far enough with a good step size so they aren't shuffling around the floor. 

The Guy who writes for the winter line that i'm in uses a program called Pyware 3D. It allows you to import/create a floor design, and it has a spredsheet like layout, and icons for tenors, snares, cymbals, bds. it is very helpful, you could probably check that out.

Website has demos, and all the info you'll need.
http://www.pyware.com/demodownload.html