Writing From from Maps?

[delguidance]

I got into map making cause I loved those maps in fantasy novels. I would rattle off statistics about a world I created and would only get a mild response from friends who also like fantasy. Upon reflection I realized it was the stories that made the maps amazing. I was putting the cart before the horse. A map can be inspiring but in tandem with a story the world grows roots and blossoms. The map and story feed off of each other. So I've bounced back and forth between map making and story writing.

Anyone else in the same boat of writing and map making at the same time? Has anyone had experience writing fiction based on their world maps? How has that worked out for you?

[Diamond]

I used to get really bogged down spending all my time making maps of a setting... without actually working on the story(s) that inspired the setting in the first place. So for the last half year or so my map production has slowed way down while I focus on the writing. I've got a sort of sandbox big map that I continually add to or change stuff on, depending on which way the story is going, and when I'm fairly confident that feature - town, road, mountain, whatever - is there to stay, I add it to the 'master map'.

[waldronate]

A picture is worth a thousand words. A word is worth a thousand pictures. Now substitute "map" for "picture" and "story" for "word" to gain a deeper understanding of the world. Or the other way around if you're into that sort of thing...

[Jaxilon]

I need as much story as possible in the back of my head before I can try to capture the "feeling" of the map. I've been a GM for years on a very poor schedule (meaning we only ever played about once a year) and because it's my own world I get bogged down in what's going on before I can map much.
So, while not writing for a novel per say it's more like adventures that my group will have to live in order to find out what happens.

Also, I have found that if I do an overland map there are just natural brush strokes or features that pop up as I'm working because that's what comes from the flow and out of those features I start making up stories or events that might have taken place there. So for me it goes both ways.

I would like to know why it seems so much harder to draw my own world compared to ones that others ask for? Is it because I haven't completed the story or is it because I'm not able to create on paper the visions in my head? Hmm...I keep saying 'one day I'll do the full thing' but it seems to keep just on the back burner. I fiddle with it now and then but that seems to be how it goes.

[Larb]

When I'm making a map I've usually always got some kind of story in my mind about the place and people who live there which I use to decide what goes where and why. I just rarely include that information when posting because I doubt people care much about my dumb lore. I think that is why I enjoy doing town and location maps more too because I can quickly have story ideas for the whole place going in as opposed to a continental or country map where there will usually be big chunks missing and it can feel like I'm just trying to fill space.

[jbgibson]

I don’t know how your brain works, but in my head an in these forums it seems map-story-map-story progresses best iteratively. YMMV!

I may have the most basic idea about cultures, individuals, and events, but when I do some mapping of randomness (my maps are seldom tailored; i ‘let them happen’) all sorts of possibilities start to grow on me. Here’s an isthmus that chokes travel; there a volcano that obliterated lands right there.... look; these rivers would make good borders, and wouldn’t there maybe be desert through here... hmmm... nomads? Caravans? Oases? A river that dwindles to a dry bed?

Then the possibilities spawn events, which pile up into a history, and so on. Sure, if I get enmeshed in some plot and a convenient geographic complication would help, I’ll go back and edit needed elements into my setting. But I find it most rewarding to make a world (nation, island, city, whatever) in a plausible generated-from-some-startpoint evolution, and work around the subsequent complications. It’s the compromises and workarounds that build a real-seeming complexity to a setting.

[L.KC]

I've been working on my book for a few years now. I had a rough map at the start but it's covered in edits. It's why I joined here, I want to make a map that actually corresponds with my world, not a few squiggles on a page. I also want to go into detail of the towns and buildings, so I don't end up contradicting myself. My sense of direction is awful in real life, so in a world I made up, it's non existant!

I'm starting by going through a lot og the tutorials ans making maps that do not correspond with my world... and there is a good chance that I'll end up making up stories to go with them. I can't help it.

[nave0]

I had that ambition once - perhaps I still do. For now I satisfy myself with DMing a game based in my maps, and writing stories for that. Maybe someday I'll compile them all into an actual story?