** I'm not sure if I should put this here for Fantasy, or in World Building? Please move as appropriate ** I'm just wondering, for those that make up their own worlds when writing fantasy novels, how do you decide upon the number of continents you'll use? Or do you not even bother? Do you just make one large area for the story, and expand as and when/if you need to? I'm curious on what process you follow when making your world for your fantasy novels?
There are two, with a third that's sort of Greenland-ish in size (real size, not Mercator distortion size), on the cusp between just island and full-on continent. I used a map generator and hit "random" many, many times until I saw something that looked interesting. I figure you don't actually get to choose the terrain of your world in real life, right? So I just picked something that looked visually interesting and let it serve as the starting point. Spoiler: My Map
Also, if you ever want to see just how much the Mercator projection distorts our view of the world, the link below gives a great interactive way to view how repositioning different countries on a Mercator map alters their relative size and even shape. (Sorry, Canadians, you may already know how much the Mercator map jacks up the size of your country, but if you don't this site shows you by just how much, and why your landmass isn't all that different from the U.S.A., though maps certainly make it look that way.) Just enter the name of the country in the upper left box, hit enter, then move it. Russia is the one that shows the greatest alteration of shape as well as size. http://thetruesize.com/
Well, guess who's spending this evening playing about with the map generator. But seriously, thank you. That's awesome. I really like what you came up with in the generator, so will give it a go myself later on!
Once I had the basic map that I liked, making it look like a map-map is all just layers and layers of different elements on top of the original image to get that end outcome. A word of advice: Making that map look the way it does was a spectacular gateway to procrastination in my writing. "No, see, I'm making this map for my story! I need this map for my story, and if I'm going to have a map then it might as well be pretty, right? Yeah! Totally! This is all writing process! Hours and hours and hours of map-making is still writing... right?" "Please say yes!" So, just be careful. I don't want to look back on this like someone remembering the moment they introduced someone else to hard drugs.
I started with one, and expanded as my story called for it. Right now I have four in my fantasy wip, and two on my pet project sci-fi world. I make the setting serve the story - seemed tidier that way.
Well I really like your map. I have been looking at the fantasy world maker, but I had to turn off labels as I don't want it to label things for me, and someone else has got something similar... It's really good though! Just wondering, how did you get mountains on yours? Did you use Photoshop or another software piece? Understand what you mean about the procrastination... but then if its something fun to do at the same time, and possibly even give motivation to write fitting stories.. it might happen. It is also likely that it won't, and i'll just get into making maps more and not write, but we'll see That sounds like a good idea.. Just have a continent or two, then if you need your character to go elsewhere... add a third!
I use GIMP and found the mountains on deviantart as brushes you can instal in either GIMP or Photoshop. The link is below where you will see that the creator is happy for anyone to use them, and even happier to get a link back to the brushes, so... link! https://www.deviantart.com/art/Sketchy-Cartography-Brushes-198264358
That's awesome, thank you SO MUCH for the infoormation. I've seen GIMP before and always had it in the back of my mind that I'd give it a go at some point. I'm playing about now... unfortunatley i found one layout i really liked, went back to remove 'hex' and geography, so i could add in GIMP, and it just won't work. It keeps saying server busy, but if i go forward and load a new map, it works!
I have a hand-drawn map that I made on A3-paper from a rough sketch, and it still remains one of my favourite things. I think the map is a must for any epic fantasy - in fact, any fantasy. It's just not good enough to just explain where things are and expect people to be able to remember, visualise, or tell where a character is, how far away they are from certain places. It's much easier to just refer to a map. When you look at a map, you see instantly the geography: mountains, deserts, forests, lakes. You see boundaries and borders, and you can immediately see where conflicts can arise sometimes even without the novel's help. Deserts form natural barriers, while water sources are a common source of conflict. Control for choke points such as passes and straits, trade lanes, the strategic importance of cities, fortresses, etc. There's so much you can tell from one glance at a map. That is why for me, the map came first, not the story. As I've explained, creating conflicts from a map is pretty easy. I had some initial ideas for a story as an initial basic guide, but then other ideas and other stories have come from just looking at it for inspiration.... What further conflicts could I create? If A was at war with B, what repercussions would that have? I totally get the procrastination situation that comes from the map-making. I have mapped one continent, Artesia, though I'm still a little bit unsure of the scale. One other continent is well-known, but I don't need to map those regions as I don't plan on telling a story there. Contact was made with a third continent which has led to the resurgence of a declining empire due to the huge trade boom. Possibly a fourth, but I'm unsure yet. Although this may not necessarily be fair, sometimes how interesting the map looks is the deciding factor on whether I buy a book or not. That's just me.
Agree with all of this. One of the reasons why I want to make a map for fun, try and make a world I really want to be in and write about, to inspire me. Thank you for a great post.
Not fantasy, but my last sci-fi was set on a desert planet with no oceans. So is that one continent or none?
In my main project (where I'm by no means through with the geographical worldbuilding) I have three: The one where the brunt of the story takes place is a sort of condensed Europe, mostly featuring the sort of environment you would see in Scandinavia and Britain, but it also contains a few deserts and the like as you venture south and east. It was the seat of a now defunct empire, and is home to a great number of warring nations, city-states and petty kingdoms. In other words, quite the generic place, though there are of course some more fantastical goings-on that I won't get into right now. The second continent has a bit of screentime as well, and is grounded in the real-world Middle East. It features a larger variety of echosystems and is altogether more fantastical than the first. It also covers a larger area. Parts of this continent were also included in the old empire, and has likewise become something of a free-for-all, though the farther reaches are home to old and storied civilizations. The third continent currently exists only in the backstory, and is something of an enigma. It's loosely based on Africa and the New World, and is the ancient home of the ethnic groups that would later conquer much of the known world and form the old empire. Truly, Homer, you are a Philosopher-King.
As of now I have one. Where my current stories take place, although there is reference to southern and northern parts. Those will be created for my next books, to serve those stories. I build my world as I go along, as my current stories do not yet deal with multiple continents. In boxes I keep in storage I have so many worlds which I created throughout my teens -when playing RPG's and writing. A time and place where we all can be gods
One. It's simpler that way. Of course I have the "newly discovered unknown continent across the sea" though. So many possibilities for a spinoff. There's a seafaring, exploring, colonial imperialist race of dragons in my story that play a supporting role in my main story. They've discovered an entirely new continent and travel to it to discover species of dragon that they've never seen before. I could go any number of directions with that. One idea I have is that the Vrakardians (the ones who discover the continent) learn that the native species evolved from their ancestors who travelled across the sea to find a promised land. They would discover a forgotten record of the inhabitants of that land, which teaches them new religious truths (I'm trying to decide if I want to Vrakardians to have a pantheon or a monotheistic religion; I'm leaning toward the latter if I write this story) but the people back in the old world (and even many people who arrived in the new world to begin with) don't believe it's an authentic record.
Mind blown. I think continents would be divided like countries; that is to say, in a mostly arbitrary, political fashion. But geographically, I'd say that qualifies as zero continents. I Googled the number of continents in other planets in the solar system and nothing relevant came up.
I love that generator, but it can be a huge time sink if you're not careful. Since was making an entire world, I ended up cutting continents from various maps and pasting them together into a single file. I ended up with 9.
I seem to be creating what I need when I need it. I have a cluster of islands that's the home of Character One, a largeish continent containing several countries including that of Character Two, another island of approximately England-size that's the birthplace of Character Three, some mines somewhere else, and another continent with seafaring people that have shared that cluster of islands with Character One's people for at least a few generations. Other places will no doubt pop into existence.
I was thinking of doing something similar, but I also like the idea of having a world partly/fully developed for when I start writing. I'll have something to refer to and plan/get involved with.
Ooh, I use that same generator (2nd post) for Savage Worlds lol. It's great though and I love it. Highly recommended. I usually make however many continents are necessary and no more. I don't want to overwhelm my audience with excess information that's never relevant.
I have yet to name anything but the island group--Character One sees everyone else as "foreigners", so she doesn't bother much with place names. As POV shifts more often to Character Two, I'm going to have to name his country/region eventually. Come to think of it, a disproportionate number of place names may come if we spend more time with Character Five, a cook. She will be very aware of where her ingredients come from.
Technically five, but I only write about one. The others get a brief mention at best. Hand drawn on a 66" x 64" canvas (just the one continent that I am actually writing about).
My named locations doubled when I decided to have a traveling trader lay out his route for the foreseeable future. Cue me frantically logging all the top-of-my-head nonsense I'd come up with into my notes the day after.
I like the idea of MC's meeting traders, travellers and the like, but as you've said, locations named and possibly visited will increase alot