How to go from a list of features to a map

[sarkadark]

(I'm really, really new at this, so forgive me if I'm phrasing this badly or lumping too much into one question.)

I'm trying to build a world for a writing project, and while I've begun a list of geographical features (limestone karst, extensive rivers and lakes) and cultural elements (like crops I want to have grown in the setting), I don't know what to do next. Everything -- historical geology, climate and biomes, settlement patterns -- is so interconnected it's overwhelming. Because this is a writing project I can't just draw, say, trees, I need to know what kind of trees would coexist, etc. I'm pretty sure I'm overthinking it, but I don't know to what degree.

Has anyone ever started with a list like this and worked up to a map, and, if so, what kind of workflow would you recommend?

[jbgibson]

Hi, Sark. Welcome to the Guild! Can your trepidation be fear of messing up - of irretrievably getting the setting sideways for what is obviously a project important to you? Rest easy - a fantasy world is forgiving, and readers *want* to believe; the majority won't be nitpicking.

I tend to do worldbuilding from a little random this or that, then let things fall where they may. But the particulars you list could plausibly be part of any number of worlds. How about taking each of your desires and listing a few preconditions or parallel features. Say, for karst you need limestone - perhaps a former seabed ages since uplifted and eroded. For extensive rivers you want large landmasses, with significant parts in the tropic or temperate bands. Your concern about tree species - just parallel some earthly continent and say that coastal rainforest has sequoias, firs, and redwoods.... or nonspecific big conifers. The alpine slopes may have aspens, runty windswept pines, and in valleys, tall straight pines suitable for ... building, bridges, masts - pick a specialty.

If you already have a need story-wise for certain biomes to be near one another, look for an arrangement of mountains, plains, and latitude that makes such a setup, and throw some together to get at least one plausible arrangement. If you have extensive story background built up though, your situation may be beyond my serendipity-driven worldbuilding flavor.

Maybe you need to adopt a page from software engineering - the principle of trashing version zero. The first setup you generate might be most profitable as practice. In any case again - it's a forgiving practice, this devising of worlds. If you were mapping reality, a bad wiggle sends a border where it really isn't. In fantasy mapping an unexpected wiggle is just ... different. Not wrong or bad. You'll do okay!

[J.Edward]

Hey Sark and welcome to the Guild.
That's some good advice from JB.

As someone who writes some and draws maps a lot, I'd add that sometimes it's better to jump in and get going, and then fix/reorient things later.
Not sure how much you've written yet, but you could start with plotting out some of the rough movements of characters on a map.
Later working out what types of trees are where and such. Unless your story is very, very specific aech each incident, you should be able to move and shift things.

If you try to work everything out perfectly and sensibly, with everything taken into account [cause/effect for all things], your story will take you some 4 billion years or more to get set.
And JB is right - you'll do fine. Many writers of fine and even epic stories don't even get all these details worked out... ever.

[sarkadark]

Thank you guys for the tips and encouragement. What you've said -- especially about the version zero thing and about people wanting to believe -- is really helpful.