Beyond Writing: Create a Professional-Looking Map For Your Novel

First, a huge thanks to my friend Rachel for guest blogging for me last week!  She’ll probably be back in a few months, after I give my other friends a chance to guest blog for me first. :)

One map is more helpful than an entire travel guide.  Maps visually reveal the location of important countries, cities, and landmarks, and even more important, where all those places are in relation to each other.  All that can be shown on one screen or sheet of paper.  That kind of information is invaluable.

So obviously, then, you need a map for your novel!

I have gone through several drafts of maps for my novel’s world (I drew my first map for the book I’m currently editing when I was thirteen), but the basic directional locations stayed the same.  Now, I’m completely satisfied with my novel’s map, and hopefully some of the tools and techniques I used can help you in some way.

In my opinion, every novel needs a map, at least a reference map for you as the author.  It doesn’t matter if you’re writing a fantasy or a romance.  It doesn’t matter if the setting spans an entire galaxy or a few miles.  No matter the circumstances, YOU NEED A MAP.

Still not on board?  Here are four reasons (in no particular order) you need to draw/create a map for you novel.

-A map makes a GREAT reference tool.  Did you forget if that certain town is north of the capital, or southwest?  Check your map.  What’s the name of the eastern ocean?  Check your map.

-The reader will be less confused.  Too bad your reader doesn’t have GPS to navigate your novel’s setting.  But the next best thing would definitely be a map!  Your reader doesn’t know the setting as well as you, the author, does.  Believe me, your readers will thank you many times over if you include a map on the inside cover.

-Maps are a beautiful piece of visual artwork that you’ll be able to include in your book if it ever gets published.  Think about how much more professional your book will be with a map included.

-Creating a map is so much fun!

Without further delay, I’m going to get right into my best advice for creating a map for your novel.  (Note: You can either draw a map by hand or else create one online with the website I mention later.  Either works very well.  I recommend drawing one first, as this allows for more creativity, then creating one online later for a more professional look.)

1.  Study other maps.  This might sound boring, but really, this is one of the best pieces of advice I can give you.  If you want to have a professional-looking map, you’ll need to see what other maps look like.  Most landmasses aren’t round blobs.  They usually have a wide range of jagged and smooth coastlines, peninsulas and coves, and maybe even a small chain of islands in one corner.  Even rivers, mountain ranges, and forests have their own patterns.  Of course, you don’t want to make your map look like every other landmass in the world.  But you still want your map to look like it could be a real place.

2.  Think about scale.  Your map might be of a whole continent, a few countries, a state or province, or maybe just a city or two and the surrounding area.  Once you know that, look up maps on the internet similar to the scale yours will be on.  This will help you know what kind of information to include (and not to include) on your map.

3.  If your map is based on a real place (like Egypt, for instance, or Wyoming), I would recommend printing out a map of that place, and either tracing parts of that map onto another sheet of paper, or else adding things directly onto the map you printed.  I’ve personally never done this before for a story I’ve written, but when I was younger, I used to do this type of thing, just for fun.  (Note: I recommend this tip for personal use only, but for copyright concerns, don't plan on including this map in a published novel or anything.)

4.  After drawing the main landmass, scan the map onto your computer.  I couldn’t recommend this tip more!  This main sketch of your landmass will give you a base from which you can draw many maps.  You can print it as many times as you want, use colors and markings to make political and physical maps, and even do some experimenting.  Plus, scanning all the maps you really like will be a way of backing up your work.  You don’t want to lose those lovely maps you’re creating!  And you can also share the maps you’ve drawn wherever you want across the internet.  Scanning your maps is a lifesaver in many ways.  Repeat this step as many times as needed when you feel like you have what might be a base image for a future map you might want to work on.

5.  Don’t forget about inland geography!  Sometimes I get so focused on creating how the landmass looks that I forget about inland aspects, such as rivers, lakes, forests, deserts, mountains, valleys, grasslands, and so many more.  Tundra, swamps, jungles, savannah!  See, I always forget this stuff.  Don’t make the same mistake I often do.

6.  Add things to your map that aren’t in your novel.  Even if your characters aren’t visiting the Southern Forest, include it on your map and name it anyway.  This will give your map a more complete look and feel.  Also, you never know.  You might end up using all that data someday, in a sequel or prequel or something.  And fanfiction!  There are endless possibilities.

7.  Most towns have a reason for being in a certain spot.  If you look at a real map, towns are often positioned next to a body of water (a lake, river, or ocean).  Furthermore, towns can also spring up where two roads meet.  Just remember that towns are usually situated somewhere very intentional: a lot of thought likely went into the location of many towns and cities.

8.  Country borders aren’t usually just random squiggly lines!  Country borders often follow some sort of natural boundary (rivers or mountain ranges, usually).  Also, most straight boundaries follow lines of longitude and latitude on the earth’s surface.  You don’t have to get that technical, but at least keep that information in mind.

9.  Practice!  Practice, practice, practice.  If you feel your maps are inadequate, or just don’t look very professional, don’t stress about it.  Practice a lot.  Just draw quick little maps, and draw them often.  Eventually, you’ll get the hang of it.  This, combined with analyzing other maps, will immensely help your map drawing skills.

10.  Finally, a website that I discovered a couple months ago but just LOVE is Inkarnate.  Inkarnate is an online map creating website, and by far the best one I’ve seen.  It’s a simple program but the finished product looks amazing.  There is a bit of a learning curve, but I finished making an amazing quality map for my novel in half an hour (that's the map at the beginning of this post).  I love this program to the moon and back!  It’s free, and you can make any style of map you desire.

Do you have any tips or websites you can recommend to me (and the rest of the readers)?  Or do you have any other thoughts?  Leave a comment below;  I would love to hear from you!  And it would reassure me that people are actually reading my blog. :)  Thanks for reading!  I’ll be back next Saturday.