blog Map Building for Fantasy Writers

Aldarion submitted a new blog post:

Map Building for Fantasy Writers
This article is by by Toni Šušnjar.



Map building is perhaps the basis of fantasy, epic fantasy in particular. JRR Tolkien once wrote, "I wisely started from the map, and made the story fit" (1 2). George Martin, aside from stealing Tolkien's RR, also utilized the same process; this is particularly noticeable in how he utilized the Wall as a scale for his maps, and (generally) made travel times fit said scale. In an interview, Martin pointed out how maps are necessary for fantasy, which is a repeat of Tolkien's argument.

Here are some factors to consider when building a map of your fantasy world.

Terrain

Mountains are formed by collisions between tectonic plates. Because of this, mountains form chains, ranges and ridges. The exception are volcanic mountains (such as Mauna Kea, Vesuvius etc.) which may be solitary – but their nature and likelihood of appearance over rifts between tectonic plates means that they too may form ridges. Lone mountains or hills are almost always volcanic in...
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