Creating a fantasy land

[cornelius]

I do too. I like to make sketches of battlegrounds before describing it. I made a 45 page file about Brouxollos before even mentioning it. I described everything into the detail thanks to a book about " the 70 world wonders" and then I started to make registers, descriptions of buildings, defence systems, ... I spent quite a lot of work on it... Really, the sketches were like cr*p , but the stories behind them were profound... Too bad , it'll probably rot in my closet...

 

[Rosemary]

Sorry, it was Dwndgn's 3 points I meant which came just after your 'post' Kelpie, so I was not quite sure which we were supposed to do first.

Those classes with Tad Williams sounded brilliant and I like the way it pointed out the difference in the final analyse of the different groups.

Sometimes though, if I have a certain character in mind, then he has to fit in to a particular geographical scene. So in this case the map would be secondary until the storyline began in unfold. Then additions could be made to the map.

I did try this exercise on another Fantasy Site and it was good fun and also good experience for creation.

 

[Culhwch]

Workshops with Tad Williams. I'm not sure I could get any more jealous....

But making the maps is fun. Particularly now that it can be done (and undone, and redone) so easily (and attractively) with a good drawing or mapping program.

What programs do you use, Kelpie? I'm big on mapmaking, but I'm not a great drawer. I use Paintshop Pro at the moment, which is highly problematic. I've tried a few freeware programs but none have really met my demands.

Perhaps we could start DD's suggested exercise in another thread? EDIT: Perhaps like this.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I've used Campaign Cartographer, which is very good, and they are always updating it and adding nifty new features that you can download. But they don't make a version for the Mac, and as I wanted to do most of my mapmaking in the peace and quiet of my own little writing area, instead of the noisy publicity of the family PC, I figured out a (very laborious) way to adapt Appleworks to my purposes. Since the Appleworks painting program is pretty clunky to begin with, and I am long on ideas and short on artistic talent, the results are not entirely satisfactory, but neither (I flatter myself) are they particularly awful.

You could see the most recent fruits of my labor at my website, thehiddenstars.com, except that it seems to be inacessible at the moment.

 

[Culhwch]

I checked out your map, Kelpie. Nice. Is that just a general 'overview' style map? Do you have more detailed maps? The map I'm working on at the moment is fairly crammed with detail (towns and villages and whatnot), and I need something better to manage it. At the moment I have to keep upping the resolution, resulting in a huge file size....

By the way, love the hobbit-hole chic....

 

[the_faery_queen]

i think making maps is fun if you're good at it! like with most htings. i am very very bad at it. i can't think of town names, names aren't my forte. so i find it a struggle. when i made mine i looked at africa, to get the layout of shapes, and copied parts of it, with a bit of a change. then i had a friend make it up for me. she put the towns to close together but thanks to photoshop i moved things about but it has no lakes/streams, a few forests and mountains, and only about 5 town names and those were only thought up to try and hide the other town names. i didnt want the map to just show places where my hero went, so i had to invent names to hide that!

i am still going with the idea that i may just send the overview map to the publisher, when it gets around to that bit of the process. just one to show the layout of the kingdoms, rather tahn the close up version, cos i am so insecure about my detailed map!

 

[cornelius]

I've transformed some of the names in my region ( and the capital of my country)

try finding
Yperes - Ieper
Brandhook - brandhook
kotrik - kortrijk
Brouxollos - Brussel
Saint John - Sint Jan Ter Biezen

and I added all the rest out of my imagination except for two of the cities , which actually refer to persons IRL.

 

[Omega]

when I do turn my hand to writing, I never plan anything out before hand, when something comes into my head I incorporate it into my story and coupled with the fact that my artistry skills are just about zero.

 

[cornelius]

well, I haven't got a gift in it either. It is about the third time I am writing this story. The first time it was in Flemish ( not Dutch, FLEMISH). the second time was in dutch on computer ( didn't get far though) and the third time is now, In English. you add things along the way, none of the three drafts are a complete book.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I've got more detailed maps from when I was still working with Campaign Cartographer, Culhwch (it's quite a good program for creating maps of the same region with different levels of detail), but I haven't added any of that to the Appleworks map yet.

Although note that the map on my website is supposed to be a period artifact, and therefore no more accurate or to scale than most medieval maps. (Thus allowing me to make changes as necessary.) It basically exists to help people figure out the general orientation of the countries and major physical features, but not to show actual distances.

 

[kyektulu]

I have always made a map of my world when writing, I think it is one of the fun things I alsways do when starting a new novel.
I like to study the maps when one is availible in new fantasy books, especilly one where the journey the charecters took is labelled there.
However, with my books, I have decided to stay with the same world hopefully base quite a few novels there.

 

[cornelius]

hmm I should start making new sketches, the old ones just won't do