Do You Model Your Worlds?

www.fantasymapmaker.com

It is not uncommon for a writer of Fantasy or Fantastical Science Fiction to create a map of the world that he or she writes about.

If you’ve never done this, or considered it, you might think that a map is just a little added attraction for the reader, giving them an idea about the “lay of the land”.

For me, a map of the “world” (the world could be as small as a single room, or as large as a planet—I’ve done both) is also an excellent way of keeping track of the action, and of getting a feel for the environment into which I’m placing my characters. Knowing the size of a forest (and yes, when you run out of forest before you run out of forest plot pieces, you can push out the boundaries) helps you plan. Knowing the distance between towns, or the way a village or a castle is organized can make all the difference. For some, it is adding that visual component that gives the writer a strong sense of real place. And that, dear friends, creates what we so lovingly call verisimilitude.

How deep a model do you need? You can certainly go crazy and spend an inordinate amount of time building scale-model worlds, or you can scratch a quick sketch on a cocktail napkin. I’d like to think that somewhere in between those extremes is the right “destination”.

What if you want software to help?

That’s a hard one. For my World Builder’s 101 series (long-time readers of UhW may remember that), I looked for good map-making software, and was disappointed in what I found. Don’t get me wrong, there are some fair packages out there, but gone are the days when people created maps for their fantasy dice games, and many of the programs that supported that endeavor have gone the way of the Dodo. Still some exist, and can be ferreted out by doing a Google search.

Recently I found a game—something I should never do, because I’m an addictive personality type—that has what is known as a “creative mode”. While the game (it is called Minecraft) is an on-line multi-player affair, it has a few single-player, local (on your machine) modes as well. In the creative mode you can build the land, put buildings on it, add rivers, lakes, forests, and more. It is time-consuming, but in that mode you can also fly, and that means you can go very high into the air and look down at your work. It’s a great way to cement in your mind what the lands you write about look like.

Unfortunately, as you build your world block by block, it might also give you a god-complex.

Bottom line: making a map of the world you write about can be helpful in the extreme, but beware. It can also take over all of your creative energy and time. It is important to draw the line so that you still have time to write the book.

You can get a copy of Minecraft at www.minecraft.net. The cost is $26, and that ain’t bad for what you get. It is a one-time cost.