Scratch

dude here's how I always make levels for my games, you get a pencil and a piece of binder paper, you draw a box representing the screen, then you fill it in with everything, sprite locations, enemies, switches, traps, doors, and whatever, if you're making a side scroller that actually scrolls you make one giant line (horizontally) and separate it with other lines vertically, each section represents one platform, it actually is a great thing to do when you're not allowed on the computer, plus you get better artwork and get the artwork done faster because you know what you're doing, might want to try it! 

I do it Dingdong's way...plus I write little notes and "pros/cons" lists to myself. Newareagle, have you tried looking for mazes online to adapt to the game?