What do you do about geography?

[alchemist]

I've found Google Sketchup actually invaluable for building up "models" of important places such as buildings, so I can get a better feel for how they look; even a plan drawing just doesn't quite capture the right feel, and ultimately I create these things to make it easier for me to envisage "being" there.

Same here. I used it to design a rotating ring on a starship. My puny human mind couldn't properly conceive a structure where "gravity" essentially pulled outward, and I needed rooms, airlocks etc to plan a chase scene.

From Hex
I write stories in which the characters don't move about very much.

Or the laws of physics don't apply

 

[David Evil Overlord]

@Hex - My next story will be about a race of sentient sea anemones.*

* I said that as a joke, and now I'm getting all sorts of story ideas. Sometimes the Muse has a nasty sense of humour.

 

[Hex]

Or the laws of physics don't apply

Be patient, oh science fiction man, for there are reasons.*


DEO -- can I read it when you've finished?


*possibly not very good ones, but there are.

 

[RcGrant]

All my maps are on Google. Means that I spend ages walking my little Google man up and down London streets though.

I love you for this. Seriously. I've been wanting to set my next novel in the suburbs of London, which means my characters will wander into the Big City at some point, yet I know very little about London. I think you have just solved my problem.

Now I just have to figure out where there's a reasonably family friendly suburb nearby that I can dump my characters house in.

 

[Mouse]

I love you for this. Seriously. I've been wanting to set my next novel in the suburbs of London, which means my characters will wander into the Big City at some point, yet I know very little about London. I think you have just solved my problem.

Now I just have to figure out where there's a reasonably family friendly suburb nearby that I can dump my characters house in.

Glad to be of assistance! Google maps is a god send. Luckily, I found a nice street to dump my character's house (I've managed to get away with not naming it too, so far, though I name the streets where a couple of secondary characters live.)

 

[Venusian Broon]

Glad to be of assistance! Google maps is a god send. Luckily, I found a nice street to dump my character's house (I've managed to get away with not naming it too, so far, though I name the streets where a couple of secondary characters live.)

Also feel free to question me and my feeble mind as it may provide little morsels of info, as I live in Zone 2 by the banks of the sunny river Lea. My specialities are the North-East (Hackney, Walthamstow, Leyton), the South-West (Wimbledon, Merton, Raynes park, loads of other places) and of course central London.

Unfortunately I'm just not aware at all of the North West nor the South East - both are dark lands where 'ye be monsters' as far as I am concerned.

 

[Mouse]

Ta very much, VB! Mine's mostly set in St. John's Wood and um... Clerkenwell. I can't remember where else.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Ta very much, VB! Mine's mostly set in St. John's Wood and um... Clerkenwell. I can't remember where else.

Actually, now that you mention it, I did have good friends that lived in St. John's Wood for a while, so I do know it a little bit (was the place where someone got murdered using an axe about 5-10 years ago, which is a pretty rare way to kill someone nowadays...), and I pass through Clerkenwell all the time to get to central London.

 

[Mouse]

Excellent! I may be bothering you at a later date!

 

[David Evil Overlord]

DEO -- can I read it when you've finished?

Sure, Hex.

 

[Sapheron]

At the simple level, yes; I have tectonic maps as well, with the movement of plates and the types of boundaries, which informs subduction zones and so on,

Glad I'm not the only one. Another map fanatic here. I ever bought some A3 paper specially for them.

 

[James Coote]

When I was a kid, I used to draw maps for fun. Each new detail I added, I would make up a little story about it as I penned the details.

So I'd draw a river and give that river a name, and imagine how it was important to the local region because it made the land easier to irrigate, but how it eventually flowed into a far bigger, more important river (etc etc). Same with towns and cities and roads and mountains

There are loads of interesting things about how geography affects the world, that you can use to make your world more interesting. For example, the study of why towns and cities end up where they do, or political geography; why borders between countries are drawn where they are.

All these things are wrapped up in history as well. This city grew large because it was a center for the wool trade, but declined when the southern kingdoms began cultivating cotton or when fashions changed or when the great cattle plague of 1277 wiped out the breeds of sheep that gave the best quality wool

All that stuff adds depth rapidly and naturally to any world you're creating

 

[allmywires]

Glad I'm not the only one. Another map fanatic here. I ever bought some A3 paper specially for them.

I do too, but only insofar that I know a hotspot forms a chain of my islands, and that my continent is in the process of being ripped apart by a constructive plate boundary. I like it to be realistic - after all, it is my field of study - but I have realised that focusing too much on the details can inhibit the story. You're always looking for ways to let people know how clever you're being with your realism. It's a fine line I think. (But people getting excited about plate boundaries is always good!)

 

[Fantastyfan]

I am pretty geographically obsessed. I have maps. Tonnes of maps. In fact I basically can't write about anywhere in any great detail until it's mapped.

Here's some examples of what I am talking about:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.340484089315805.84020.340194722678075&type=3

I'm pretty well studied in geography, and obsessed with making the world of my WiP realistic, so laying out all of the geography and establishing climates and microclimates is pretty important.

My argument is that good stories resonate with people, and to resonate they have to be believable, which is why history is so eagerly pillaged for storytelling. These stories don't happen in isolation; they're a natural product of the circumstances, and the base layer that influences everything else is geography, so I have to get that right first.

But that's just me. My advice is not to worry too much about it, unless you find yourself needing to keep track of it all. In that case draw a map. It doesn't have to be fancy. My current world map is a vast monster of a thing with insane levels of detail, but my first ever "world" map was a simple A4 line drawing in pencil and took about 5 minutes.

What program did you use to draw the landscape of the whole region?

 

[Phyrebrat]

I love you for this. Seriously. I've been wanting to set my next novel in the suburbs of London, which means my characters will wander into the Big City at some point, yet I know very little about London. I think you have just solved my problem.

Now I just have to figure out where there's a reasonably family friendly suburb nearby that I can dump my characters house in.

I live in London and travel across it every day, every week, to a wide range of schools, colleges and PRUs. If there is anything I can help with, please don't hesitate to ask!

pH

 

[Gumboot]

What program did you use to draw the landscape of the whole region?

Oh that's just a tiny fraction of my main continental map...

The main map is 7647x5358 at 1px:1km resolution

I use photoshop, but it started as a hand drawn line map which I then scanned and worked over the top of.

The shaded relief map (I assume that's the one you're talking about) was created by using the elevation layers to create a bump map. I used to use an additive approach to elevation (drawing layers on top of each other) but recently I've experimented with a subtractive method ("eroding" layers away to reveal those beneath) and I think it gives a more realistic look (which makes sense, really).

You can see the difference on the latest update on my page:

http://www.facebook.com/dreamforge.co.nz