^^^ What he said. Bend the legs of resistors and caps to help form the "path" that you want to take.
I spend about a week trying this method, and found out it was MUCH (for me anyways) easier to just do a toner transfer PCB etch. Unless you don't really care to go much beyond a breadboard set up, you'll have to learn a PCB Cad program eventually. And eventually you want to learn the toner transfer method.
But the toner transfer method does require a few more tools:
Clothes Iron $20
Laser printer $100(used)
Copper clad boards (~$5 each for 4x6")
Drill press ($100-200)
PCB drill bits.($20)
Muriatic Acid $10 for a gallon
Hydrogen Peroxide $3
Actually, now that I think about it maybe the bread board solution isn't all that bad! 