Should I draw a Map?

[Grimbear]

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

[HareBrain]

Yes, I've drawn maps of cities, houses, islands, ships, and a large section of the world. Each one only took minutes, and they were very useful.

[chopper]

yes to both questions.

in some ways a map can jump-start the creative process. and, as you're already finding out, it's always nice to know exactly where your guys are headed before they get there and find out they've gone somewhere else.

my own maps are less than publishable. dying spiders have better cartographic skillz.

[Mouse]

Yep, I've also drawn maps. Badly drawn maps, but they were for my reference more than anything else so it didn't matter.

[Grimbear]

Maybe you are better at drawing - I see it as an epic slog. But helpful you say...hmm

why houses? was it for fight choreography?

[Grimbear]

Originally Posted by chopper

yes to both questions.

in some ways a map can jump-start the creative process. and, as you're already finding out, it's always nice to know exactly where your guys are headed before they get there and find out they've gone somewhere else.

my own maps are less than publishable. dying spiders have better cartographic skillz.

Thanks - Good to hear that last part particularly. I've never drawn a map before though. What's the best way to start?

Thanks, all of you. I guess I am going to have to bite the bullet on this

[chrispenycate]

There have been map drawing threads before; not for some time, though, long enough for some illustrations to fall off Photobucket.

Now, you see, you just have to get up to Leisha's skill on: Maps , or try out the programs in : map creation? …

I will admit to drawing a fair number of maps, partly to estimate travel times, as the horse advances or the dragon flies, and partly for weather conditions; if I'm on the rainy side of a mountain, or in the rain shadow, it changes agriculture and employment for just about everybody; the trick is to do it fast enough that you don't spend all your time map (and world) creating, and forget about the writing for which it is supposed to be subservient.

[Grimbear]

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?

[Hex]

I only drew a map of a city, and since I can't draw even as well as a dying spider I took the map of another (real) city and drew over it.

[Grimbear]

Originally Posted by Hex

I only drew a map of a city, and since I can't draw even as well as a dying spider I took the map of another (real) city and drew over it.

Good plan - mind if I steal it?

[Hex]

Please steal it!

[Grimbear]

I will for sure

[alchemist]

I have a town plan as a table on a Word document. Yes, it's simple. I don't like maps in books - I seem obliged to keep going back and looking at them. Having drawn one myself, I now realise why so many include them - "all that work; shame to let it go to waste."

[Teresa Edgerton]

I've drawn a number of maps using the drawing painting program on Appleworks. They aren't supposed to be drawn to scale or particularly accurate (more like like early medieval maps), but they do give an idea of where everything is in relation to everywhere else.

Maps and some other things you won't see in A DARK SACRIFICE

Journey Map

A rain shadow is the area that lies on the downwind side of a mountain range. It's hot and dry because the mountains catch most of the rain as the clouds move across the land from the ocean. (No doubt some of our more scientifically minded friends can explain this better.) Anyway, it's one of the things you should know when mapping out your world, even if you only carry the map in your head. For instance, it tells you where your deserts are most likely to be*, and where your rain forests probably are not.

*Before someone mentions the Sahara Desert, I'll do it myself. It's bounded on the west by the ocean. Where the mountains are is only one factor in determining climate. It's actually a lot more complex.

[The Judge]

Originally Posted by Hex

I only drew a map of a city, and since I can't draw even as well as a dying spider I took the map of another (real) city and drew over it.

I've done something very similar, making a very rough freehand copy -- in my case not of a city, but a large harbour area and its surrounds. That also extended into noting the contour lines for the port, to get an idea of how steeply the land rises, the distance from the open sea to the inner harbour, and the geological underpinnings of the area so I can have locally made pottery from the china clay and a kind of local marble. (I have made a note that in any Acknowledgements I have to thank the OS and Poole Harbour Commissioners!)

I've also found a real life castle, spent hours checking out various photos of it on the internet and created what I think is a floor plan of it, which I'm now using for my castle sitting above the harbour. I'm trying to persuade the other half that I really need to go and see it for real, though. (It's in Italy... )