The Fine Art of Map Making
So sooner or later, in the process of writing a fantasy novel, I find that I have to figure out where the hell my hero IS. And I will admit, I can be a bit pedantic about the whole thing. I like my maps. I like to know exactly how long it takes my hero to go from point A to point B to point C. If I don't have maps, I tend to make fairly simple but devestating errors in the geography. It's just easier for me when I have it all laid out.
Over the course of my writing, I have gradually come to the realization that I like it when my maps make sense. They don't have to of course. In a world where magic and gods exist (as they do in mine) "because I want it that way" IS a possible answer to "why is that piece of terrain filled with jungle when it logically receives no rainfall?" But it's not really very satisfying and it feels exactly like the cheat it is. I would much rather have that piece of land be filled with jungle because its near the equator and it DOES receive rainfall, and lots of it, due to the large ocean current offshore that pulls in all the really fun storms.
So last night I sat down with a friend of mine, who is a marine biologist (okay, he has a degree in marine biology...quite naturally he works in IT administration,) and we looked over my maps. *sigh* Quite, quite unworkable. Areas that I want to be warm would in fact be very cold, areas that I want to be stormy would be anything but. Some of it I can live with, but some changes — like the idea that the Capital City would not experience a monsoon season — are simply unacceptable. It's a major plot point!
So there's nothing to be done but redo the maps. Fortunately, other than the relationships between certain countries (the Manol, the Scar, and Khorvesh must all border each other) and geographical features (the Argoná plains should be...well..plains) a lot of it is very flexible.
I'm just thankful I figured this out now, before I'd spent too much time figuring out the identities of the ancient God-Kings, something that is very much tied into geography.
7 Comments
Recommended Comments
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now