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Map Creating?

CupofJoe

Myth Weaver
I buy pieces of graph or hex paper and draw them by hand. Something to be said about doing things the old fashioned way.
Yes! And use soft pencils... It is a lot easier to erase a road or a castle and move it to the other side of the river on a piece of paper. And the hex/graphs can give you a scale to work with.
 

Laurence

Inkling
If doing your own, try looking around at old cartographers map. No ones going to blame you if your map is based on several real toens, mountain ranges etc mashed together.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Don't do a map, or at least don't publish it.

It's fine to do one for your own purposes; in that case, the above suggestions are great. But if you cannot draw and, even more, if you are not a cartographer, you ought not be doing your own maps. You have to hire one for the same reasons you hire a cover designer to do the cover. Nothing screams amateur louder than art.

This assumes you are looking for sales. On my very first publication I did my own cover (it shows), but I did that mainly to force myself actually to finish a story and to walk myself through the self-publishing process. I did offer it for sale, and a few family members bought it, and that was that. Once I had a story I wanted to sell, I paid for both a cover artist and a cartographer. And that first effort? That became a freebie that I give to anyone who signs up for my newsletter.
 

Hallen

Scribe
If your story gets picked up by a publisher, they will help finding an artist to do the work. Almost nobody does their own maps.
If you need a map, draw it. Don't spend time trying to make it cool. Make it functional to assist you in writing the story.

The difficult part is having it make sense. What I mean by that, is does it make sense from an environmental, geological, flora, and fauna level? Unless magic is involved, there will not be ice jams on a tropical river. It doesn't have to be perfect or even scientific, it just needs to be plausible.
 
Skybreaker has a question! I have a world with 24 continents. How do I make a world map for this? Should all my continents be grouped in the northern hemisphere?
 

CupofJoe

Myth Weaver
Skybreaker has a question! I have a world with 24 continents. How do I make a world map for this? Should all my continents be grouped in the northern hemisphere?
I'd start with an overall map for the whole world with the rough layout and information, nothing too detailed. Then I'd go to a map for each of the continents that feature in your story and then further maps for the areas you need to map in greater detail [cities, towns, valleys and the like] down to as small as you need. I've gotten down to setting out the photos on a piano and what was in a larder. I like making maps...
As for the continents, put them where you want. Get a real world map and flip it upside down. It's the same map but suddenly everything is at the bottom except Australia and New Zealand [which is grateful for being on the map at all :whistle:]. If you do find all your continents looking like they will end up in the north, after a few continents, turn the map around and work on it that way up for a while...
 
I'd start with an overall map for the whole world with the rough layout and information, nothing too detailed. Then I'd go to a map for each of the continents that feature in your story and then further maps for the areas you need to map in greater detail [cities, towns, valleys and the like] down to as small as you need. I've gotten down to setting out the photos on a piano and what was in a larder. I like making maps...
As for the continents, put them where you want. Get a real world map and flip it upside down. It's the same map but suddenly everything is at the bottom except Australia and New Zealand [which is grateful for being on the map at all :whistle:]. If you do find all your continents in the north, turn the map around and work with it THAT way up...
Thanks for the advice! I'll look into it :D
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Skybreaker, how do you have 24 continents? How do you distinguish between a continent and a large island?
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
I hope you plan on writing many books in that setting because you are really talking about building twenty-four worlds!
 
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