I’m sure all writers have experienced  the complications of  creating their  fiction novel world.  Worldbuilding  is complicated. It takes time  planning , crafting and organization.    Apart of worldbuilding  especially  for fantasy and scifi  writers is  map building, map making ,  map creation ,  whatever you want to call it.

Usually  you see   the gamers  using maps to  create their worlds  and they  have a  whole bunch of  software  and sites  for it.  But  did you know   map creation is also a useful worldbuilding tool  for writers?

I  love   creating maps (and also  family trees but  that is another post for another day.)  No. I don’t  draw. I can’t draw.   Even though I went to art school  my drawing ability is crap (that’s what my teachers said loud and clear)   So what did I  do? I use  the computer of course .However, creating maps takes time   and can get a little complicated especially on some software and  sites. 

 My journey  with creating maps started   while I was planning  my first draft.   Remember  if you listened  to my first podcast  episode   I planned my  book   for a whole   year before writing anything.  

I  still  see  places   in my head that I  have to figure  out for my novel since things drastically  changed   in this   2nd draft .  Like the overall  structure  in my  world  . 

 In my first  draft   the  world was an alternative universe  of Canada   with a made up  town that  mirrored  Nunavut in  some  instances.  So  for  this  I used google maps . This was around   2011  and so I wasn’t sure  if there were any  good map making sites or software   then.  I t was  hard   because  using google maps I  tried  to create a mountain that  wasn’t   there  and it became frustrating to  play  around with  google maps.

I remember that   if you   were  signed  up to  google  you   could have private maps and   at the time  on latest  writing  forum  it was   popular with  most  fiction  writers to use google  maps to create  their worlds.

So now it is 2021  and I’m   finally   in my   2nd  draft  of my work in progress  .   So  I’m  still  creating my  worlds  by  using maps   and   I finally  found a  good     free  website   to  build   maps .  In this 2nd draft  there are  no alternate  universe  instead    I  created a whole new  world called  Neoera .  

So far  I’ve  created  two maps HERE IS ONE.

I’m still not  finished  but with  just those two maps  it  took more  than  two whole weekends to complete.

Not  that  I didn’t  know  the  cities  and  states of my novel   it  was  like I  didn’t know  the   many   rivers and mountains I wanted –  the terrain .  And then I  had to account for  the   scenery  and what  not  I didn’t mentioned in the novel so far.   So   I had to research.  Because  in my novel I don’t mention  the population  or what not .  

It wasn’t  perse  complicated but more time consuming.   I mean  it was fun  .  It wasn’t  boring . I didn’t even want to stop playing around  with the map making tools.    While   experimenting with  the map making  it allowed  me to  get more story ideas  ,  story plots and see clearly the routes  where  my  characters  are traveling  in the story  and will be traveling in the   future   yet to be written  novels.  

If you liked this blog post and you want to  see more content involving my work in progress During the Blue Hour Follow , Like , share  . But first  LET’S START A DIALOGUE

What maps have you created for your  novel’s  world?

 I  want to know so let me know in the comments  below.

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