Maps Workshop -- Developing the Fictional World through Mapping© by Holly Lisle
All Rights Reserved
Most of the books I've written have started with a map. Not with
an idea, or a character, or a theme. With a hand-drawn map, doodled
out first while I was sitting and keeping someone else company,
or while I was on break, or when I couldn't think of what to write
and had no ideas to speak of and knew that if I drew a map something
would come to me. Some of the maps were fairly artistic from the
start. Some began on napkins or the backs of throw-away paper, and
only became things of any artistic merit after they'd served their
initial purpose of handing me an idea for a novel.
If you want specific titles of books that began as maps, I give
you Fire in the Mist, Bones of the Past and Mind
of the Magic (the Arhel novels), Sympathy for the Devil,
The Devil and Dan Cooley, and Hell on High (the
DEVIL'S POINT novels), The Rose Sea, Glenraven and
Glenraven: In the Shadow of the Rift, Hunting the Corrigan's
Blood, Curse of the Black Heron, and finally the
trilogy I'm currently writing, Diplomacy of Wolves, Vengeance
of Dragons, and Courage of Falcons (the SECRET
TEXTS trilogy.) In other words, you'd have to look through your
stacks a bit to find a book I've written that didn't begin as a
map.
Now I know this is a weird little quirk of mine, and I can't guarantee
you that if you'll just
draw a map, it will give you a novel that will sell. But on the
chance that what works for me will work for you, too, I'll go through
the steps I use in doing my maps, and maybe my process will spark
something for you.
I have favorite tools for mapping. I like graph paper, and I like
the drafting markers that you can get from Office Max or Office
Depot for about six bucks a set that come in five thicknesses, from
.1 mm up to .5 mm. (Tech-Liner Drawing Pen Set, from Alvin) I don't
use pencil, ever, and while you're doing this workshop, you shouldn't
either. If you like the technique but find the inability to erase
a detriment instead of a plus, feel free to modify it, but at least
this first time, do not give yourself waffling room. Use pen and
grit your teeth.
This first map is going to be your continent. I frequently also
draw city and town maps, and in some instances street maps. I usually
draw floorplans for ships, houses, and other indoor places where
my characters will spend a lot of time. I've never written a book
that didn't have mapping as one stage of its production. It's just
that occasionally mapping is the second stage, or even the third---say
around about the time I get the first two chapters written and realize
there are important things about my characters' world that I do
not know.
Before we get started, I want to be VERY clear about one issue
that I know some of you are already sweating over. This doesn't
have to be pretty. You do not get extra points for artistry. I'm
showing you a technique for generating ideas and creating a story
where you didn't have anything before, not trying to turn you into
an illustrator. If you can't draw a straight line, no problem. You
aren't going to need any straight lines. Wobbles are part of the
process. Nobody but you ever has to see this map. Nobody but you
ever has to know it even exists. It doesn't have to go in front
of the book you're going to write, and if you decide you do want
it in the front of your book, your publisher is going to hire an
artist to redraw it, no matter how cool you made it look. So stop
already with the complaining about how you can't draw.
Okay. Read all the following instructions BEFORE you start drawing,
down to the line of asterisks (****). Then go back and draw your
map.
Get out your graph paper. Draw a dot. Draw another dot. Draw a
third dot.
Draw some upside-down V's in a line (but not necessarily a straight
line). These are your mountain range. Name the range. You can have
more than one. You can make it thick or thin. If you leave any gaps
between the V's, these can become passes.
Draw some snaky lines from the mountain range outward in a couple
of directions. Name each snaky line "Something" River. (Do not be
a smart-aleck and take this literally).
Draw some broken (------) lines separating at least two of the
dots from each other. Call these borders. Name the states, counties,
or countries on either side of each border.
Add a couple of other things that you find appealing---maybe a
lake or an ocean or a desert. If you give yourself a shoreline (another
long, wavy, wobbly line) stick some islands offshore. Maybe doodle
in a forest. I use those kindergarten cloud shapes to indicate forests.
You know, a whole bunch of little puffy, fluffy thingees all crammed
in together. To me, these look like a deciduous forest as seen from
the air in the summer. At least, they come close enough to satisfy
me.
Now name the dots you've already drawn---they're major cities.
Draw a few more dots in interesting places, and name them, too.
They're towns. Draw two small squares in out-of-the-way places.
These are ruins from previous civilizations. Call them whatever
you want.
******************
It's time to make use of your mistakes. Find the places where
you wanted to erase. You drew a line someplace where it didn't
belong, (you right-angled off a river, maybe). That's okay. That
right-angled thing was designed by engineers. Really it was. It's
an aqueduct, or a canal, or a wall. You have a road that goes
nowhere? That's cool---somebody made it, and it used to go somewhere,
and now all you have to do is figure out who made it, and where
it used to go, and why it doesn't go there anymore. You have a
ruin-box in what accidentally became a lake, or an ocean? No problem.
Once upon a time that ruin was above ground. Or maybe it wasn't,
and once upon a time there was a civilization that lived under
the water.
See what I mean about mistakes? They're a treasure-trove of
story ideas waiting to happen.
Now ...
Put the art supplies away and get out a few sheets of notebook
paper, or sit down at your computer (I usually do this stage on
paper, but that isn't essential). This is the essay portion of
the workshop. Don't groan---this is a lot more fun than drawing
the map was.
Answer the following questions, taking as much space as you
need for each answer.
Why are the borders there? By this I mean, why do these people
have borders in the first place? A border always implies that
conditions, people, philosophies, governments, or something else
is different on each side.
What goes up and down the rivers? (People, contraband, products?)
How does it get there? Who takes it?
How are the people on one side of the border different from
the people on the other side? (Religion, government, race, species
... go into detail. Really take some time working out what these
differences are, and put some effort into figuring out why they
were important enough to necessitate the creation of that border.)
What lives in the mountains? (Animals, people, big scary things,
all of the above?)
How does the weather endanger the lives of the people who live
in your world? (Along with weather---stuff like tornadoes, droughts,
hurricanes, snowstorms, avalanches, and so on, you should include
things like areas where you'll have earthquakes and volcanoes.
Don't be afraid to be generous in heaping out troubles. You'll
find plenty of use for them.)
What else endangers the people on your continent? (Plagues,
barbarians, people from the other side of the world, monsters
from the oceans or beneath the earth ... Again, take some time
on this. And be generous.)
Do a quick timeline in hundred year increments, for maybe two
thousand years. Write down one really big thing that happened
in each of those hundred-year periods. It can be geological, political,
religious, magical, whatever. But it needs to be big. (Example:
Invasion of the Sheromene headhunters into the country of Dormica,
and subsequent decimation of the native population and establishment
of the Sheromenes in the southern half of that country.)
Write whatever else you can think of right now. See where you're
starting to get the feel for a novel? A big novel? Good. Keep
moving back and forth, from your map to your notes. Add stuff
to the map as it occurs to you. Add stuff to the notes until something
inside your brain goes "ding" and lets you know that you have
a book idea that you're genuinely excited about.
You can follow this same process with a single city. (You should
have seen the map I did of Ariss---it was so cool. I started out
with a compass, and drew something like ten concentric circles,
called them walls, and filled in the spaces between with roads
and buildings. And divided the city right in half. The first book
I ever sold was born from those circles with the line right down
the middle. I still get goosebumps thinking about it.)
Good luck. If this works for you and you get something you really
like, let me know. I'd love to hear about it.
Take a look at maps I did for
my Matrin project
Scene-Creation Workshop -- Writing
Scenes that Move Your Story Forward>>
|
