It’s time to start drawing maps of my regions in my two works. It’s one of those necessities in stories that take place over a large region. I’m not always able to keep all that straight in my head and like to see where my characters are going. Unfortunately I’m not the greatest cartographer in the world and don’t really know how to use the copy of CC2 that I have very well. I also don’t always follow the natural laws of the universe, so I’ve been told, when I draw my maps. I never really understood what he meant when he claimed I didn’t have a great grasp of geological terrain and whatcherjiggers, but I ended up using the age old excuse…it’s a magical realm, whaddya want?
So now I’m drawing maps, which also means that I have to also think harder on how each government in that setting has set things up. Are they feudal, are they dictators, are they all powerful, are they a freestate? This is one of the bigger undertakings when writing a fantasy novel and can be a bit annoying and mildly daunting because not all of them will follow strictly real life governments. Still, the more you know about your world the more real you can make it for the readers.
Luckily most novel maps lack one important item that other maps tend to have, measured distance. 😉
I Was A Middle Aged Writer 