Writing Tips: Mapmaking

In my last post with an update about the writing of the new book (in between working at the day job) I mentioned that I'd reached a point in the process where I needed a map. Someone asked me to expand on any thoughts I had on mapmaking and my process, so I thought I'd turn that into a general post.

Fantasy is known for maps. I know that one of the first things I end up looking at when I pick a new book off the shelf in the bookstore is the front matter in the books, because I want to know if there are other books by this author and if the book I hold in my hand is really part 5 of a series that I've missed up to this point . . . and becuase I want to see if there's a map. (I also read the author's note and acknowledgment pages because I want to know who the author's agent and editor are, but that's a professional thing, not a fan thing.) I think maps are cool and I find them invaluable when I'm writing my own work. You can also get a taste for the world the author has created by looking at the map. The names of places gives you a flavor of the cultures and gives you an idea of how indepth the author went in crating that world. If everything seems to have a name and place, then you know the author has spent some time there. If it's mostly blank with a few names and places, then perhaps they didn't get into the worldbuilding as much.

That said, there are no maps in front of my books. The inclusion of a map is really the publisher's decision, since they cost money, moreso than a print page. But in my books, the lack of maps is really because the books didn't need them. They're set for the most part in one or two cities, and not much happens outside of those cities that's relevant to the story. And including a city map never even crossed my mind (and I assume my editor's). My city maps are rather lame anyway. I can SEE the city in my head, but putting it down on paper . . . let's just say it doesn't translate well.

In any case, this brings me to my own mapmaking. When do I make a map? Why? What process do I use? Do I work small and let the map grow, or do I create the outlines of the world and then put in all the details later?

I start small. Usually I start writing long before a map pops into my head, and so when I finally do decide that a map is necessary, the first thing on the map is my main city, smack dab in the center. Usually the reason I need the map in the first place is because the story has grown enough that I've been forced to start including things outside of the city, things from the outside world, like where all these refugees are coming from, or how the trade materials are getting to the city, and why that person my main character just passed by in the street has a feather headdress on. Where did these people come from? In the process of fleshing out the city, I end up fleshing out the world as well. All these names and places get created, and some are north and some are south and some come from the eastern coastline that's miles and miles away . . . and suddenly I can't keep all of the names and places and locations straight in my head. There are too many of them to keep track of, even with a little notebook by my side, and I suddenly need to see the big picture.

That's what happened last week. I suddenly had Baronies, and Barons, and my main city was on the plains at the confluence of two rivers, and those rivers had to lead somewhere, and I'd already introduced one foreign culture from the south and if a few of the Baronies are to the south, this foreign culture had to be even FURTHER south and . . . AHHHHHHH!!!!! All this stuff needs to be organized!

So I sat down to create a map. I put the city in the center and drew a few rivers that converged there. But the rivers had to come from somewhere, and that somewhere had to be at a higher elevation (you can't just have rivers, they have to make geological sense) and I'd already mentioned mountains to the north and west so I drew in mountains. I knew my second main character came from a little place called Hollow to the west, so I put in Hollow. He's introduced when he's standing on top of a hill with his daughter looking east, so there had to be signficant hills at the base of the western mountains that lead down to the plains where the main city is. *draw draw draw* OK, now the Baronies. I'd only mentioned two of them, but knew there were more, oh and no land looks good unless it has a few lakes and such, so let's put this Barony there, on the edge of a lake (all cities should be near a significant water source or where a significant water source USED to be), and another down here and there should be a few more over here and here because that's generally how populations inhabit land masses, and what do I call these new Baronies? What about . . . Damn that's a cool name! And I can already see the bridges needed to get to the island and now I've got a sense of the city itself and how it feels and . . .

Well, you get the idea. What happens in the course of drawing my map is that I transition over from adding the things I've already created in the story into things that I haven't mentioned yet. I start filling in the details because suddenly I can see the surrounding world and I can see the details that are missing, which I can't see while living in one of the character's heads as easily. I can see what the characters sees and know to fill in what's missing from that perspective, but the world outside that character also needs details even if I never make it to that city or that river or that lake during the course of the story.

During the course of writing, I may have to change some of the map due to plot issues and stuff. For example, later on I may need my characters to get to a certain place by a certain time, and looking at the map, that would be impossible because I've drawn the place WAY too far away for that to happen. So I may move the place closer . . . or I may come up with some fancy magical way the characters make it to the place on time. Creative ways around problems are always good for books (but sometimes they make things TOO complicated, hence the moving of mountains and cities when necessary).

Now that I have a map, I feel as if the world is much more real, because I know things. I know more things than the characters in general. I have names of places those characters will likely never see. This is one way in which you can get that all important feeling across that the author knows what's right around the corner even if the characters never make that turn. It's also a creative outlet for yourself. I find that working on the map frees up my mind and allows me to throw out ideas onto the blank space to see if they stick or not. I can't do this during the course of writing because I'm focused on the character, on their situation. For the map, I can do whatever I want, because I'm NOT focused. I randomly place things here and there and ask myself whether that would work in the real world and if not what's my explanation for why it works in my world and if there is no ready explanation then I erase it and try something else. That's the idea anyway.

And that's why I start creating a map, and how that map gets created. It's also how the maps help me create the story, and how the two end up feeding into each other. The same process happens on the smaller scale when I'm creating a city map. Certain districts have to be upriver of others, and certain buildings are better suited to certain locations, etc. But the idea of building the city is more or less the same.

So that's how I do it. How about you? Anyone else want to share their mapmaking strategy and what works for them? Because my method certainly won't work for everyone.