Category: maps

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Hal-Con 2018 World-Building Panel: Links and Resources

  By Conventions, maps, world-building

After our standing-room-only crowd for the World-Building panel offered by some members of the Genre Writers of Atlantic Canada group on Sunday, I promised to post my mapping and visuals resources here (because I sure didn’t have enough handouts!). If you were there and didn’t get a copy, my apologies! Thanks for attending, and here they are:

Donjon.com https://donjon.bin.sh/scifi/world/ A multitude of world-building tools and other generators.

Azgaar Fantasy Map Generator https://azgaar.github.io/Fantasy-Map-Generator/ Very full-featured world map generator producing beautiful and customizable maps.

Inkarnate https://inkarnate.com/ Beautiful map generator with icon library (upgrade $25/yr, $5/mo).

Medieval Fantasy City Generator https://watabou.itch.io/medieval-fantasy-city-generator Great city map generator – turn off some items and maps can also be used for more modern cities.

Worldspinner.com https://worldspinner.com/ Create an entire world and map. Free account. All paid features $9.95/year.

Planet Map Generator https://topps.diku.dk/torbenm/maps.msp Adjust parameters to create a globe map of your created world.

Autodesk Sketchbook https://sketchbook.com/ For the more artistically inclined, this computer drawing program is now entirely free.

World-building questions http://www.sfwa.org/2009/08/fantasy-worldbuilding-questions The definitive world-building questionnaire, by Patricia C. Wrede.

Holly Lisle – Worldbuilding https://hollylisle.com/how-much-of-my-world-do-i-build/ How Much of My World Do I Build?

Seventh Sanctum Generators http://www.seventhsanctum.com Broad variety of name and idea generators for writers and others.

And here’s a bonus one I thought of later that wasn’t on the sheet: a fabulous collection of historical maps by David Rumsey. https://www.davidrumsey.com/

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Workshop News ~ Exploring Speculative Fiction

  By character development, maps, plotting, publishing, revision, self-publishing, story, submissions, WFNS, workshops, writer development

I’m happy to announce that I’ll be presenting a workshop at the end of May in Truro, NS. This is my “Exploring Speculative Fiction” workshop that I did in Antigonish last spring, to *ahem* glowing reviews. Here’s the description:

In this workshop, we’ll explore the map of the many different paths through the landscape of speculative fiction. We’ll talk about what makes a story speculative, tropes and expectations, and what it takes to make a good speculative story work. We’ll discuss the importance in SpecFic of three strong and interconnected story pillars (idea, character, and plot) and the best ways to approach building the world of your story. Finally, we’ll explore paths to finding speculative fiction ideas in the mundane world, and some helpful tools in the pursuit of professional publication in these genres.

This workshop is for anyone interested in writing speculative fiction, whether you’ve already begun your journey, or would simply like to learn more about the genre’s terrain.

The workshop is scheduled for May 26th, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Colchester-East Hants Public Library, 754 Prince St, Truro, NS. The cost of the workshop is $150, but if you’re a WFNS member, you can sign up for just $90. We had a ton of fun at the last session, so think about joining us!

P.S. If you leave this workshop without at least one new story idea, you’re just not trying. ;)

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Mapping for Writers

  By books, geeky, just for fun, maps, One's Aspect to the Sun, The Seventh Crow, writer development

I love maps. As a writer and a gamer, I’ve created maps of worlds, dungeons, cities, space stations, villages, wormholes in space…anywhere a story might happen. I’ve also used real-world maps for stories set in–you guessed it–the “real world.” I find that maps help ground the story and help me visualize what’s happening.

Here’s my map of the fantasy world in The Seventh Crow (which is coming out soon! Like, this month soon!):

Ysterad map 2015 print

Okay, yes, I’m pretty happy with this one. It’s done in Photoshop, and I took a lot of time to get it just the way I wanted it. But it didn’t start out this way. It began as a pencil outline on graph paper, and it was pretty rough. It’s been through several incarnations on the way to this, including a hand-colored one I used in a D&D campaign for a while. But the act of creating the world–no matter how rudimentary it is, is the important part. By creating the environment, you are also thinking about everything and everyone in that environment.

This video by Peter Deligdisch explains this much better than I can:

As the artist explains, one thought about the world can lead to the next, to the next, to the next, when creating your map (and you do not need to be as talented as he is–it can work for anyone). Graph paper or hex paper is your friend (and you can download and print of either of these here).

If you really think you can’t tackle creating a map on your own, you can use a map generator (yes, just Google “map generator”) to do some of the work for you. You don’t have completely free creative rein with this method, but if you feel drawing-impaired it can be the next best thing.

If you’re just looking for inspiration, and not material to completely call your own, there are so many maps and plans already in existence online for role-playing games, that you need never lack for a visual representation of your story environs. This sort of resource is invaluable if you really need something visual to work out story logistics in your head, but you don’t need any sort of publishable plan or blueprint. I mean, look what searching for spaceship blueprints generator gets you.

Or again, you can make your own, as I did for the main character’s ship in One’s Aspect to the Sun (these, too, started out as sketches on graph paper. I transferred them to tracing paper at one point so I could line up the inter-deck hatchways):

DeckPlans-T-I

Maps can also make a lovely background for a book or ebook cover. Here’s one I created for a friend’s story:

20130914102723-Eyes-JulieThe map we started with was a barely-there representation, but with a little work it blossomed into a lovely backdrop for this cover.

Do you draw maps, plans, or blueprints for your stories? Do you spend a lot of time on them, or are you happy with a quick sketch? Share your thoughts in the comments!