Mapping a world . . .
Fantasy map from Wikimedia Commons.
I visited my tiny local library today and came across a giant book (one that just fitted into my bike basket), called The Map Book edited by Peter Barber. Published in GB in 2005, it is the quintessential history of maps and their making and has the most extraordinary collection illustrated in its pages.
I always took maps for granted: something in the glove-box of the car, something in a waterproof folder on the boat, or in the handbag if you didn’t know your way around a new city. Something often in the front of a hist. fict. book and always in the front of a fantasy book. Thus when I began to write fantasy, it really was the first thing I had to do: sit down and draw the geography of my world. It was a fun excercise, took a couple of days and required raiding my son’s architectural drawing supplies and my daughter’s graphics’ supplies. But I am only a writer and when came the time to be published, Cath McAuliffe of www.cmdesign.com.au took on my needs and created the perfect map of my world.
But then miniature book artist Patricia Sweet from www.bopressminiaturebooks.com
Mapping Eirie
ran with the idea and created the Eirie Collection, a series of maps concealed within tiny map books. She then developed the idea further . . . a pocket globe based on the Georgian pocket globe – a tremendous little item the English dandy would carry in the pocket of his damask tailcoat or his breeches to show that he was up to date with all the newly explored territories of the world. Patricia said I needed to expand my terrestrial world and while I was at it, maybe I could think up a celestial world as well, so that she could create a map chest of Eirie. Right, says I!
There’s something almost blasphemous in creating a world. Firstly the map has a coastal outline and then there are deserts, mountains, rivers and forests, and one assumes then that the world is peopled and one has to name those areas, knowing as the names appear, that this might be the site of a battlefield, or a that might be the site of a famine, or maybe a portal to another world, a city of souks, or a university town or a town built on canals. And as one creates the world, the story to be written begins to take on a dimension, giving more and more ideas. As the story progresses, I find it handy and somewhat necessary to return frequently to my maps and see whether the protagonist is heading North, South, East or West and how long would it really take to get there and what sort of terrain would he/she be travelling through?
The motivation for this post was generated by Francis Hunter’s great blog ‘Which fictional word would you live in?’ The idea of maps and mapping was a natural follow-on and I’m wondering what other fantasy writers do when they world-build. Does the map come first, or the world? And how hard or easy is it for everyone? Feel free to comment.
I MUST have the Peter Barber book. I hadn’t given maps a thought except as decorative and classy things to hang on a wall, but making these miniature maps has taught me a lot.
I think I told you once that when I was doing the Eirie maps, I was very aware of adding a cove or small island and thinking,”What a small thing to add to a map, but Prue could make it the scene of a great battle, or the first landing place of desperate immigrants, or the birthplace of a famous cartographer. She would add flora and fauna, history and myth, weather and climate, “a local habitation and a name”.
No wonder maps are such evocative objects.
Pat, you’re so right. Evocative! That’s the word, there’s none better. Thanks for commenting.
Absolutely have to put this link here for all lover of maps. Think it came from Pat originally . . .
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/
I admit the very first stories had no maps… but now that I have a full calendar for Silvery Earth, I do have maps of the whole world, and also with the different borders and kingdoms (kings and emperors are bound to rise and fall, right?)… there’s even a “cataclism” (an angry dragon destroys a kingdom and most of the southern forest) that gives birth to a desert, so I have the map of the first book of the Immortals with the forest and the southern kingdoms. and all the others with the desert… 🙂 It’s fun to draw, but I’m not as good as Pat, I’m afraid a publisher would have a pro re-drawing them! 😉
I was the same, Barb. Fun to draw but mine looked so amateurish. That’s why it was great to have the support of Cath when came publication time and then Pat, who gave it all a completely new dimension. Good luck with Silvery Earth.
but but but… if I want to self-publish (which I might not in the end), I’ll have to look for someone like Pat, right?
I ordered your books on Amazon, will I see the maps in there? 🙂
Keep writing!
Possibly you will need a good map, as a fantasy presents well with a map, although a few don’t have them.
Pat is not a fantasy map designer. She’s an artist of many things in her own right. She just read my books and became inspired to create a series of miniature maps for sale from her own highly successful studio. It’s funny really . . . here I am in the very bottom of Australia and there she is in California.
The original map for my books ( and yes, you will see the original professional design inside) came from an established graphic design studio and in the pre-publishing process, cost quite a significant amount. The later maps (terrestrial and celestial) have not been published in any novels yet, but are available as tiny boxed globes and books from Pat’s studio (www.bopressminiaturebooks.com)
If you are going to self-publish and you need a map, there is map drawing software available, I believe. Type fantasy map-drawing software into Google and see what you come up with. There may be some free software that you can download. The other option is to go to you local tertiary art-department and see if there are any graphics students who may be interested in helping you out for the price of an acknowledgment in your published book. There are many options and I am sure you will come up with a great alternative. You could also try Wikimedia Commons and see what’s there that’s free.
And thank you so much for being interested enough not only to drop by the blog, but to purchase the books as well. I hope you enjoy them. Very best wishes.
I’ll review your books when I receive and read them – even on Amazon, if you wish! 😉
I’m Italian, and Italy is not really like the English-speaking countries… but I do have a few artist friends, I might ask them if anyone is up to drawing maps (spending over 10 years at Italian comic-cons means I do have some access in that field! ;-))
Looking forward to reading you…
Reviews would be lovely and let me know how you get on with your own book. By the way, if you have been working within the comic industry, I reckon you’d have dozens of the right contacts.
Goodluck! And I wish I could say it in Italian. Ciao, anyway.
Hope it helped Barb!