The (In)Convenience of Maps
Posted 18th February 2009 at 06:21 PM by dreir
I've always found that maps can be very useful when writing fantasy, both in helping to build your story along and in giving you more ideas on the backstory for your world.
I've also recently found that under certain circumstances, they should be ripped out of the drawing/writing pad, crumpled, torn into a hundred pieces and consigned to the flames. Especially when they're having the reverse effect of restricting your creativity and forcing your to write your story in the way that you really shouldn't.
I'm probably more vulnerable to this because I'm a map person. I doodle them out a lot - sometimes I can't even think of a story without first having a map to trigger the flow of ideas.
Thankfully, in the latest of my rethinkings on a story that's been hovering at the edges of my consciousness for years, I've realised that I just can't make any further progress without completely disregarding the map from which the initial ideas came in the first place. The source of the story has become the chains from which it could not escape. This would mostly be a good thing if the story was finished, but it's barely even started.
So, after so long, I've decided that enough is enough, and will from now on draw the maps to fit the story, not the other way around. This is probably glaringly obvious to most of you, but I'm glad to have finally realised it for myself!
- Dreir -
I've also recently found that under certain circumstances, they should be ripped out of the drawing/writing pad, crumpled, torn into a hundred pieces and consigned to the flames. Especially when they're having the reverse effect of restricting your creativity and forcing your to write your story in the way that you really shouldn't.
I'm probably more vulnerable to this because I'm a map person. I doodle them out a lot - sometimes I can't even think of a story without first having a map to trigger the flow of ideas.
Thankfully, in the latest of my rethinkings on a story that's been hovering at the edges of my consciousness for years, I've realised that I just can't make any further progress without completely disregarding the map from which the initial ideas came in the first place. The source of the story has become the chains from which it could not escape. This would mostly be a good thing if the story was finished, but it's barely even started.
So, after so long, I've decided that enough is enough, and will from now on draw the maps to fit the story, not the other way around. This is probably glaringly obvious to most of you, but I'm glad to have finally realised it for myself!
- Dreir -
Total Comments 6
Comments
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i haven't hit that problem.
yet.
it'll probably happen though.Posted 18th February 2009 at 07:30 PM by chopper
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I think it's not so bad if you write the story quickly enough *before* too many things change and necessitate a re-drawing. Which I don't.
Anyway, regardless of the new resolution, I'll probably continue to try to squeeze stories into pre-drawn maps, but at least I'm aware of the pitfalls and am more flexible now. I can be bull-headedly rigid sometimes.Posted 19th February 2009 at 10:09 AM by dreir -
Just so long as the story doesn't force the maps to "document" the wholly unlikely (at least in terms of the rules that govern your world). In this sense, your existing maps can act as your conscience, forcing you to justify changes to it to yourself.Quote:...and will from now on draw the maps to fit the story, not the other way around.
By the way, imagine how difficult it must be for non-SFF writers who can't tear up their maps of the (approximately real) world.Posted 20th February 2009 at 11:35 PM by Ursa major - Yeah, Ursa.. that's a good point to keep in mind, especially if, like me, you give every important feature on the map extensive consideration (I guess, in a sense, map-making is similar to story-telling, just without the words. Wow, that was actually a nice insight. Lol).
And lol, aren't I glad I'm an SFF writer!Posted 22nd February 2009 at 09:12 AM by dreir - drier,
I couldn't agree more...my maps are filled with easer marks and little trees that were once rivers. Deep smudge marks have become swaps & dark forests...
But I need the map to help flushout my thoughts. I'm just finishing my first book and I have multiple versions of a map of the same area...some with information for book 2...other versions meant for the reader only.
Maps are a labor of love...for me.Posted 27th February 2009 at 10:34 PM by Guppy - Yeah, they are for me, too. I still have some maps that I drew 17 years ago (Yes, that long. Some of them look like they really were drawn on ancient parchment, lol..).
Yeah, having multiple versions of the same map is a good idea - that way you can mix-n-match features and see which arrangement suits the story most. I don't do this often enough, but on one of those occasions that I did, I ended up with one version of the map 'before the cataclysm', and one map 'after', i.e. the idea for a cataclysm - and a lot of the accompanying backstory - came up purely from my decision to try to improve the map, so that was good
Posted 28th February 2009 at 07:18 AM by dreir
