# Making maps for fictional places **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 24, 2015, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-maps-for-fictional-places/732380 "2015-09-24T05:46:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-maps-for-fictional-places/732380/1 "2015-09-24T05:46:35Z")
I just learned something new. It turns out that at least some publishers have cartographers on staff who draw up maps of fictional places. > [@](#): > > Map artists need two things from an author: a list of all the names and places that are going to be on the map and a rough draft of the map itself. Some of those roughs are turned in on anything from scraps of paper to napkins, but others, says Davies, are clearly planned out. > > ``` > “Most authors do have a rough sketch of their world, if for their own reference,” said Paul. “I’ve gotten very rough sketches, where just the names of the countries have been placed on a paper, showing their location to each other, to more detailed drawings.” > > ``` > **[Making Maps for Books: 2 Cartographers Tell Us How It's Done](https://bookriot.com/making-maps-books-two-cartographers-tell-us-done/)** > > How exactly does one go about making a map of a fictional place? Two cartographers take us through the process of making a fictional map. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-maps-for-fictional-places/732380/2 "2015-09-24T06:16:10Z")
Cool! I belong to that class of persons who has drawn a map to accompany my fantasy novel, but, by gum, I did 'er myself! ([Here is a link…this is a kind of test, as it’s my first use of Imgur.](http://imgur.com/bkYJteq)) ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2015, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-maps-for-fictional-places/732380/3 "2015-09-24T22:34:59Z")
I’ve long been a huge fan of the late Karen Wynn Fonstad, who actually had some success with authoring companion atlases for a number of 80s-contemporary fantasy series. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-maps-for-fictional-places/732380/4 "2015-09-25T00:17:00Z")
Maps in the front or the back of a book are often my favorite part. A hard to read map is usually the only reason I am disappointed when I get a book on my Kindle vs. a hard copy. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-maps-for-fictional-places/732380/5 "2015-09-25T02:35:07Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I’ve long been a huge fan of the late Karen Wynn Fonstad, who actually had some success with authoring companion atlases for a number of 80s-contemporary fantasy series. Yes, her _Atlas of Middle-Earth_ is a key item in my _LotR_ collection… that was one of my better yard-sale finds. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-maps-for-fictional-places/732380/6 "2015-09-25T03:22:54Z")
I helped my brother make a map of 'Salem’s Lot when he was in high school. There were discrepancies (King’s fault). ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-maps-for-fictional-places/732380/7 "2015-09-25T03:55:28Z")
A few weeks ago, I was reading “The Well at the World’s End” and I was wondering if someone made a map for it (so I could check my understanding against someone else’s). Fortunately, someone had made one. (A pretty crude one, but a map nonethless.) ![Here](https://64.media.tumblr.com/ef48d234a9d68262dacbc2e521f24564/tumblr_njjjc8f1ZU1tdjhuuo1_1280.png) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-maps-for-fictional-places/732380/8 "2015-09-25T11:18:04Z")
Do they really have people “on staff” to do it? IIRC, several authors have drawn their own maps (John Myers Myers, Lin Carter). If they need someone to draw one from scratch, or to pretty up one already sketched by the author (Robert E. Howard, f’r instance), I’d think they would simply hire someone for the task. Popular as fantasy novels are, I can’t see them keeping someone on full time to do this, and only this. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-maps-for-fictional-places/732380/9 "2015-09-25T12:13:52Z")
A few years ago Scottish author Margaret Elphinstone wrote a book called [Hy Brasil](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hy-Brasil-Margaret-Elphinstone/dp/184195411X) about present day life on a fictitious mid-Atlantic island. Before publication she gave her publishers [a map](https://www.flickr.com/photos/17270214@N05/2517516447) of the island. They reproduced it so poorly it was difficult to see the details easily. Eventually she put up [her own map](http://www.margaretelphinstone.co.uk/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/0994?opendocument&part=8) of it on her own site. Much better! ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-maps-for-fictional-places/732380/10 "2015-09-26T04:45:19Z")
Long ago I read a really interesting article about how to make a believable map without needing to really have any skill at it. The idea was to take an actual map of some real Earth area – NOT an entire continent or even a specific country, but maybe a chunk from several adjacent countries or the map of a lesser unit, like a province or county or random island… Change the scale as necessary to fit your story (i.e. Do you want a map of a small region or an entire continent?) Then rotate the image 90 degrees, so what used to be north is now East or West, or possibly flip it right/left or up/down. As the story demands turn the ‘surroundings’ of your area from ground to water or vice versa. Exaggerate or diminish existing mountains or river systems, swap deserts and wet lands and forests and so forth as your plot needs. And, obviously, rename everything. You’ll end up with something that no one will recognize but makes geographical ‘sense’ in that rivers lead down from mountains and head to water bodies, cities end up where cities would develop for reasons of trade, etc. I played around a bit with it, once, turned most of Romania into a very nice looking land for a fantasy novella. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2015, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-maps-for-fictional-places/732380/11 "2015-09-26T04:49:20Z")
Forget maps, I always want floorplans for houses. If a house is a key feature in a novel, I often try to sketch it out. Turns out Diana Gabaldon isn’t sure which side of the Big House at Fraser’s Ridge the surgery is on. It switches back and forth. ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-maps-for-fictional-places/732380/12 "2015-09-30T20:36:03Z")
I mentioned recently in another thread (I can’t recall which one) that Harcourt used to publish an Encyclopedia of Imaginary Places which included Oz, Liliputy, Wonderland, and various other realms from the classics. I happen to have a copy and I’ve seen it in a few public libraries. I don’t know if Elsevier (which bought Harcourt) still publishes it. A friend told me there was a Fantasy author who used to go into his back yard and basically make mountains out of molehills and oceans out of puddles in order to figure out his continental maps. I wish I could remember the name.:smack: –G! ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-maps-for-fictional-places/732380/13 "2015-09-30T20:56:41Z")
I love maps of fictional places, but it sometimes bothers me that an awful lot of them don’t really make sense. For my settings, I put considerable thought into geology, ocean currents, and weather patterns in an effort to get things right. (I’ve got several rough maps of tectonic plates on fantasy worlds.) I’d rather have a setting with blatantly fantastic geography, like floating islands, than a superficially realistic one with geographical features in unreasonable places. Unfortunately, I’m _terrible_ at drawing, so it’s hard to make a decent map out of the stuff in my head. So, there’s at least two ways that having a cartographer on staff (or at least available) could be useful: rendering maps for the art-impaired and sanity-checking maps for the geography-impaired. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-maps-for-fictional-places/732380/14 "2015-10-01T02:47:29Z")
> [@Grestarian](#): > > . . . A friend told me there was a Fantasy author who used to go into his back yard and basically make mountains out of molehills and oceans out of puddles in order to figure out his continental maps. I wish I could remember the name.:smack: . . . I don’t know that one… I’ve got a friend who created a little software app that takes a blank globe, randomly puts down major tectonic plate boundaries, and then runs time forward for arbitrary periods of a million years, thus creating seas and continents, plus mountain ranges at colliding plate boundaries. He’s added lots of bells and whistles, for archipelagos, major river basins and deltas, “hot spot” island chains, and the like. The results are very pretty! I remember Stephen R. Donaldson’s map in the first printing of Lord Foul’s Bane. It was just wrong in a lot of ways! The geological features violated any number of geological laws. But…was that a bug…or a feature? Since the reality of the world was in question, having a “bad” map might have been a clue for the reader!