Comments on: On Making Maps of Imaginary Places

By: cjalexander

cjalexander — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 06:44:37 +0000

One does not simply walk into Mordor...

(sorry, had to be done)

By: Cliff

Cliff — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 19:58:25 +0000

I have this weird thing where I'll read a book, like Lord of the Rings, and it'll say, "Frodo and Sam went east for ten miles," and in my head I'll picture them going west. So my internal map is a mirror image of the one the author is using, and when I actually look at the map I'll be all "oh holy crap that looks weird!" . OTOH, who the hell knows how long it takes to walk to Mordor? . I've heard that it's not that simple.

By: dennitzio

dennitzio — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:46:17 +0000

Someone could start a co-op that brings together the creative geeks who like to Make Stuff with the creative nerds who like to Make Stuff Up... Some kind of matchmaker's service where "Aspergers' meets ADD"... Hm, but then they would bypass my brethren creative half-breeds, mostly designers and directors, who are neither clever enough to be an artist or logical enough to be an engineer - and who are usually operating under the delusion that we're both. You can always tell one because we don't have ideas or plans - we have "visions".

By: Church

Church — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 03:17:16 +0000

"There's probably two kinds of people: the kind that writes the story and lets the travel times and the tectonic plates sort themselves out around that, and the kind that figures out the topography first and makes the characters deal with it as it stands. " That's actually a debate among F/SF writers. "World Building" is either looked upon as a necessity, or a diversion. I tend to fall into the 'diversion' camp, although I respect folks on the other side. IMHO, if it's a completely fictional world, let the story determine the landscape. Joyce, OTOH, was dealing with a real place, and that's a different thing entirely. If you had a character take a five minute walk from the Empire State Building to Battery Park, a subset of your readers will throw the book across the room. OTOH, who the hell knows how long it takes to walk to Mordor?

By: Lev Grossman

Lev Grossman — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:13:51 +0000

There's probably two kinds of people: the kind that writes the story and lets the travel times and the tectonic plates sort themselves out around that, and the kind that figures out the topography first and makes the characters deal with it as it stands. The first kind is easier, which probably means the second kind is better. Apparently while Joyce was writing Ulysses he was constantly writing letters to people back in Dublin to make sure the walking distances worked out exactly right ...

By: dennitzio

dennitzio — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:20:26 +0000

Back in my early teens I tried to write a bunch of fantasy stories and D&D modules, but every time they ended up being reverse-backstories for a cool map. I was so annoyed by how random most author's maps worked - what, they don't have continental drift in Narnia? - that I'd actually start with kind of a big, flat Pangaea sort of thing. I'd then break it up and smash it together a bunch of times to make lots of mountains and oceans, and then glaciate a few times to carve out some inland lakes, maybe a meteor strike or two, and add some vulcanism that made islands. I did all this by hand - I wasn't a programmer or I would have done something really cool. Not that Apple ]['s could have handled the simulation... But my maps ended up looking really cool and totally realistic to my 13-year-old eye. Aside: Almost led me to geology as a career, frankly. I wonder how many geologists got into the biz because they liked to make their own worlds? Hm, I wonder if I had listened to my prof, if I'd actually have a real job instead of perpetual freelancing...

By: anon76

anon76 — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:05:27 +0000

I believe Tolkien had a map early on, as well. Apparently he was endlessly trying to tease out travel times in the narrative to work with his topography.