How to get ideas for a landmass shape?

[ConquerorWilliam2007]

I'm beginning to make my own fictional nation, which I had in my mind for quite a long time. But the problem is, I can't find a good shape to make the continent. My nation, Anachronesia, is a continent and a country. It sits in the Pacific Ocean, mainly the south. I can't come up with a good shape to give the landmass. Any ideas on what I can use inspiration off of?

 

[Karlin]

1. get a large hot frying pan, and an egg. break the egg into the pan. Take a photo.
2. have a 2 year old draw you a picture of a dog
3....

 

[Incanus]

It doesn't seem like a very big or difficult problem.

Can't you look at some real-world continent or island shapes to start with?

What makes a landmass shape bad, or good?

 

[Michael Ehrler]

Look at some maps of real places and make note of what shapes you like! Then either flip 'em around or experiment with variations and different configurations of those shapes. Westeros started off as upside down Ireland, so nothing says you can't do something similar!

 

[CupofJoe]

Clouds.
Use the outline of clouds for a nice "random" coastline. Sometimes the colours within the cloud can also hint at topography.

 

[Finchbearer]

I very much use Google maps and OS maps and go from there. You get an idea of scale and intricacy of the edges of the land masses.

 

[Rexenm]

I think landmasses are, the way they are, you don’t make up, or put make up on, them. If it is unclear on the first try, maybe the second will make up for it.

Remember to claim all the islands first - this will make good for conquest.

 

[pmmg]

Generally, I just get a basic shape in my head, and draw it roughly with a lot of squiggly lines. It does not become hard until it starts to get set in stone.

If I had no idea, I would just find a random land mass generator on line and keep hitting next till something caught me.


For me, there is some desire to get things right, geologically...so I would pay attention to that as well. How rivers flow, and where mountains can be and such...but the basic shape ought to lend to filling that in.

 

[bhart]

I like the idea of cracking the egg that was mentioned before, it was very creative. Is there something special about this landmass? Like certain parts of the story impact the way the continent looks or does it impact the storyline in some way?

 

[Ban]

Look at the foam in your coffee mug.

 

[Finchbearer]

Look at your tea leaves, then you can also tell your future while you’re at it

 

[Genly]

While specifying the shape of a continent in a fantasy world could be pretty arbitrary, you might want to think about how it might influence the stories that you set there. A wide, flat continent in the sub-tropics? Lots of stories about deserts and oases. A mountainous continent at high latitudes with lots of bays and fjords? A Viking-like saga. You say that Anachronesia is in the south Pacific, but I guess the question is how far does it extend north and south, as that would pretty much determine the various climates and settings. It's up to you.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

All of this, but maybe not all at once.

Personally, unless I'm working with existing geography - Urban Fantasy authors - I will literally throw stuff that splats. Preferably not splats and then sprays, though, that's both messy and makes for some seriously complicated world building. There are also random map generators out there, some my team's probably going to use, ourselves, for our next project. It's called 'throwing spaghetti at the wall.' You're just wanting to see what sticks.

This is one of my favorite generators.

Fantasy name generators. Names for all your fantasy characters.

Countless generators for countless names. Some say it's the best fantasy name generator site around, which is very humbling to hear.

www.fantasynamegenerators.com

And this is their sister site, which sports a map generator.

Welcome to Roll for Fantasy

Welcome to RollForFantasy.com, a site for tabletop role players, and other creative folk.

rollforfantasy.com

Or you can do it with Silly Puddy, as I was taught by those who went before me.

 

[Diana Silver]

I usually let my plot decide the map. Since the continental map matters to you, I assume you're writing a travel story or political story of some sort. Well then, which country goes to war to which? Those two countries need to lie next to each other. Is one more powerful than the other? Then one is probably bigger than the other. Is it hard to reach a certain place? Then there's probably a mountain range in the way. How long can you keep the journey from port A to cipital B interesting? That's how far those two cities should lie apart.

So all in all, my maps (if I have them) are usually sketches that progress and grow while my story grows, and become more detailed as my plot does.

 

[pmmg]

I usually let my plot decide the map. Since the continental map matters to you, I assume you're writing a travel story or political story of some sort. Well then, which country goes to war to which? Those two countries need to lie next to each other. Is one more powerful than the other? Then one is probably bigger than the other. Is it hard to reach a certain place? Then there's probably a mountain range in the way. How long can you keep the journey from port A to cipital B interesting? That's how far those two cities should lie apart.

So all in all, my maps (if I have them) are usually sketches that progress and grow while my story grows, and become more detailed as my plot does.

Always have to leave room for adding on the fly Though, I have been pretty faithful to my original.

 

[Miles Lacey]

I'm beginning to make my own fictional nation, which I had in my mind for quite a long time. But the problem is, I can't find a good shape to make the continent. My nation, Anachronesia, is a continent and a country. It sits in the Pacific Ocean, mainly the south. I can't come up with a good shape to give the landmass. Any ideas on what I can use inspiration off of?

I live in the South Pacific region and scientists have recently concluded that there is a submerged continent called Zealandia which New Zealand is part of. Here is a link to a Wikipedia article about it: Zealandia - Wikipedia

Look at some of the maps of the place then think of how you can alter it to suit your needs.

For ideas about the politics, history and society of a continent that is also a single country the best real world example to check out is Australia.

My other suggestion is that you look at maps of large islands (anything over about 10,000 square kilometres) to get an idea for continent shapes and what that continent needs to make it believable. Small islands lack the geographical diversity that larger ones do. Just bear in mind that most of the world's largest islands are in the Arctic and won't be of much use to you.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

I've just gone on vacation for the next four weeks, so of course I'm assigning myself homework - because there are some words I don't seem to parse, and one is "relax." I've been trying to make a map of our city of Seahaven since before the first book was published, and I had a hard time finding some nice software that would translate well to a modern city map. I can give you about 15 good places to map fantasy maps, but not Urban Fantasy maps.

Enter the grace of wonderful friends, and now I have ProFantasy Software - City Designer 3 and a whole lot of work ahead.

Meanwhile, this is the square patch of the Pacific Northwest that we've set our city on. In case anyone wanted to see where this starts and what it looks like to maybe get ideas. Sign in - Google Accounts

 

[jjxtra]

This random shape generator looks like fun! I'm sure with a few tweaks it could give you a respectable land mass.

 

[Bovine_Jones]

I’d suggest playing around with Inkarnate. You can either have it generate random maps or just start playing around with their land tool until something starts to look kind of right and then refine it. I did this while thinking about the politics of my world and it helped a lot