Should I draw a Map?

[svalbard]

I have done a few maps with varying degrees of success.They are, I believe, essential to any sci-fi/fantasy story. It really annoys me when an author fails to put a map of his/her world into their books.

I would normally draw the map by hand and scan it onto the computer. It gives the map a nice authentic feel when looking at it.

 

[Grimbear]

I am converted. I will make a map. I'll post it up for you guys within the next couple months to prove I did it (and give you all a good laugh)

Grim

 

[Chaoticheart]

I have done a few maps with varying degrees of success.They are, I believe, essential to any sci-fi/fantasy story. It really annoys me when an author fails to put a map of his/her world into their books.

I would normally draw the map by hand and scan it onto the computer. It gives the map a nice authentic feel when looking at it.

I dunno about sci-fi, given that they often cover entire planets, but for fantasy I agree, its definitely a necessity.

 

[Hex]

Oh dear. I never look at the maps.

 

[Ursa major]

I love maps and atlases, so I had to have maps of my invented worlds. Basically, I have these maps because I'm worth it.

On top of the pleasure of having them, I've found them very useful in planning on-planet journeys. The maps are of various sorts and of different planets: five city maps showing boroughs/districts, a road map of one end of a small continent, a map showing the terrain (shaded to indicate the height of the land) in the centre of a large continent on another planet, and a general overview of a contained environment on a third planet. What I haven't got is a map of the interstellar transport network (well, networks), as this would be too complicated to produce (it would have to be 3D) and of limited use (given that length of link does not map easily to duration of travel).


So if you want a map, get drawing. (Counter-intuitively, I use PowerPoint to draw mine; one day I might animate one of them. )

 

[chrispenycate]

Thanks Chrisp,

I shall do as you suggest and visit those links.

Yeah - sometimes it's hard to keep it in your head, but the quickness of the hand deceives the eye...

I have soldiers plus one hostage journeying in a mountainous region and it is heading toward Winter...

What's a rainshadow?

Suppose you have range of mountains down the middle of a country, with a prevailing wind blowing off an ocean. As the wind hits the mountain slopes it is forced upward, cooling the air and making it less capable of transporting moisture, which it disposes of onto the ground below. That's where you build your Manchester (or Seattle). Higher up, the moisture comes out as snow, building your glaciers and the foundation for your river system.

But now it swoops down the other side, warming up; now it could carry more moisture, if it had any left to carry. A dry wind; if the mountains are high enough, and the wind direction reliable enough, a desert (see the Atacama; desiccated on the edge of the world's biggest body of water). A hydraulic shadow of the peaks, almost as sharp edged as a light shadow, one whole face getting no precipitation.

How high are your mountains? Are they young, enthusiastic mountains like the Himalayas, or older, timeworn, smoothed lumps like the Grampians or the Jura? Mainly forested, or essentially rock and scree? It all changes the problems of getting across them, even without someone who's reluctant to make the journey. So, as well as having your contour chart you have to visualise the surface, how deep the passes are cut, whether a particular valley channelises the wind into your face, or back…

Even if you don't say a word about this to your readers.

 

[Grimbear]

Thanks Everyone,

When I came to this site I obviously came to the right place

Re mountains. I'm ashamed to say I haven't thought that much about them apart from imagining them as surroundings for the characters.

I have them journeying first through foothills - the surrounding country is high and the hilltops and higher slopes maybe a bit like moorland, kind of rocky. There are evergreen forests rising the sides. I have one smallish river which is flooded by meltwater every spring which they have to cross. The mountains themselves are old I guess as I imagined them as being a lot smaller than eg The Himalayas.

As they journey further into the mountains the going will obviously get tougher. Colder weather etc.

I am thinking how to do the map and will download a program.

Grim

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

If your characters are travelling for any long period through mountainous country I can recommend a book with many wonderful descriptions of things they might see and encounter along the way:

Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys

I found this book very useful when some of my characters were crossing mountain ranges.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Maybe just do it on graph paper , with each 'square' representing a specific distrance. You dont need to be an artist , but it's just a technical reference to use. You don't want to end up in a situation where the logistics of the journey make no sense.

 

[Nik]

For 'The Orloc of Robur', which I left at novelette length, I had to generate a detailed CAD model of the castle which formed the main setting. Along the way, I learned a lot about Medieval construction, logistics and desert climate design. The detailed plan fixed my mental map of the rectangular building, which I'd realised had *five* corners...

For my current 'P for Pleistocene', I found I needed a sketch map to keep track of where and when which trees were pollarded for fuel, and when their timber was hauled...

There's also a post-it with a list of deer 'kills'...

Fortunately, extensive Googling found a scale plan of a suitable cave which I could adapt for my tale...

 

[Lucky_Lola]

I couldn't operate without my maps! I have drafted and redrafted my main continent almost as many times as my WIP, I think, all by hand because I'm utterly hopeless at photoshop (tried Campaign Cartographer as well, didn't like it. Too cartoonish for me). A laminated copy of version 3.0 is pinned to the wall above my computer desk, and a few weeks back I completed an A0-sized enlargement of the whole kit and kaboodle. Now I just have to find a place that will print A0!

I'll have to get around to making another photobucket account so I can share some of my more recent efforts. I'm rather proud of my maps, considering I can't draw anything else to save my life. And like a few others have said, filling in even the roughest of ideas of neighboring countries/landmasses/cities et cetera et cetera often leads to more texture in your story.

 

[Grimbear]

Thanks Lola,

I have begun planning. I am trying hard to remember all the things I ever forgot about geography,

I wished I'd listened harder obviously!

Grim

 

[Ursa major]

A good starter is that water tends to run downhill (and all the way, not just in stretches).

 

[Lucky_Lola]

Very good point, Ursa... and rivers don't really split in half part way to the sea. I drew my first before I truly recognised this little fact and have since had to make mythological adjustments (divine intervention, if you will) to explain my flouting of the laws of physics

 

[Arkose]

Suppose you have range of mountains down the middle of a country, with a prevailing wind blowing off an ocean. As the wind hits the mountain slopes it is forced upward, cooling the air and making it less capable of transporting moisture, which it disposes of onto the ground below. That's where you build your Manchester (or Seattle). Higher up, the moisture comes out as snow, building your glaciers and the foundation for your river system.

But now it swoops down the other side, warming up; now it could carry more moisture, if it had any left to carry. A dry wind; if the mountains are high enough, and the wind direction reliable enough, a desert (see the Atacama; desiccated on the edge of the world's biggest body of water). A hydraulic shadow of the peaks, almost as sharp edged as a light shadow, one whole face getting no precipitation.

How high are your mountains? Are they young, enthusiastic mountains like the Himalayas, or older, timeworn, smoothed lumps like the Grampians or the Jura? Mainly forested, or essentially rock and scree? It all changes the problems of getting across them, even without someone who's reluctant to make the journey. So, as well as having your contour chart you have to visualise the surface, how deep the passes are cut, whether a particular valley channelises the wind into your face, or back…

Even if you don't say a word about this to your readers.

I approve of all this. One thing you can use though is latitude location. There are other reasons other than dry winds that form deserts. In my WIP I am basing the area off of the south west America, where the latitude is lower and not much moisture in the air, so even though I am next to the ocean there is little rain. I have many mountains, a large river, and even water canals (actuall a main part of the story).

In a fantasy epic, that I will work on later, already has a full map and cities drawn out. I based the map on tectonic movement and latitude location. Elves are gone (their island drifted away and now only Elven boats can travel the distance). The separating of the elven Island collapsed the closer mountains causing a couple of Dwarven cities to be lost.

I might use some of it or all of it. I might change things later or add more in. Either way, the map makes sure I keep things in a logical order and that I have visual picture for each location.

I love maps!

 

[Colbey Frost]

Thinking about it now, i havn't used my map much. I started to and it helped the story, but now its nicely folded away.

Would be good once i've completed editing my book to go back and fill it in. Wouldn't it be better if the maps we see in the fatasy books were actually drawn by the writer too?

 

[anhalo]

For my current attempt at starting a novel, I've drawn a map, and it has helped me come up with a lot of ideas looking at my map, never mind helping me keep track of things =D

 

[ASleepyGiraffe]

The first thing that I did was to create a map. And I found that It allowed me to create a viable plot. It has been very helpful and I would recomend it. You don't need to be an excellent artist, and even drawing it on a blank sheet of A4 would be helpful as it will give you a sense of where everything is, and subsequently what will work for your story.

 

[Susan Boulton]

Ok - It's bad. I think I need to draw a map.

I am 12,000 words into a novel. My characters are travelling around - not epic journey style - but travelling nonetheless from city to town etc and I am anxious I am getting/going to get confused as to where certain places are in relation to each other and the distances between them.

I don't intend to have a map in the book (hah! like it will be published!)

Who here has drawn maps. If you did, did they help at all?

Thanks

Grim

Only rough doddles really, just to help me mentally see where places are, like in the current WIP, where the church is in relationship to the school, vicarage etc. What a character can see for such and such a point. More importantly what they cannot see.

 

[digs]

You should always draw a map.

It's pretty much my motto. Also a great way to procrastinate from actually writing the story.