Who maps their fictional world (geographically speaking) ?

[landyvlad]

My cheese'n'kisses likes maps in books.

That is, particulary in fantasy type novels she likes to be able to 'see' where the various places are in relation to one another.

I'm writing a story for her and a map is going to be an essential requirement

I'm wondering if anyone else creates maps as part of their writing, and what tips/tricks/suggestions people have in this regard. One challenge I can envisage is getting the scale of the map to match the travel times stated, or implied, in the story.

Further I wonder if there's a way of creating a map easily in some sort of software which can then be modified as required. ( as opposed to having to hand draw a map each time)

Discuss.

[devinganger]

Fractal Mapper by NBOS (supported for Windows XP through 10, reported to run in WINE) is usually the program I see being used.

If you're doing more space adventure, AstroSynthesis 3.0 (same company) is a great place to start.

[landyvlad]

Thank you !

I was really hoping for something free as I really only need to do one map and can't justify that much expense at the moment.
( $35 US Dollars is about $45 of our earth dolllars)

But there's no doubt that FM seems to be an excellent piece of software !

[MrGruff]

The last time I had to draw a map for a fiction project I did it in Scapple. All it takes is a few labels and then drawing shapes around them. It was only so I could keep the directions of travel and relative locations straight, so a bit of blockiness wasn't an issue. One of the main mistakes it helped me avoid was getting the East and West gates of the city of Stent mixed up.

[ChrisRosser]

Wow, do I ever. I love creating maps for my fantasy world and have used everything from Fractal Mapper to Photoshop/Illustrator to Inkscape/GIMP. Using Snapple has me intrigued, never thought of that. Today I mostly use Pixelmator and a cheap but awesome Wacom-clone I bought from China.

Awesome way to burn through time.