Shane
August 20th, 2007, 11:31 AM
Who of you out there have made maps for your works? When popping open some SFF books I've come across some that have been really spectacular, some have been polished and professional, and a whole lot that made me think the author was having a seizure during the drawing, with permanent marker no less.
I'll admit I haven't seen a lot of maps associated with works of fiction, but I'd say that Scott Lynch's maps, and Matthew Stover's Heroes Die maps are definitely at the top of the list in terms of being both functional, clear, useful and even pretty. SM Stirling's Dies the Fire map is one of the worst I've seen. It looks like Stirling just threw something together in about five minutes because his editor made him. It looks like crap, basically.
What lengths do some of you go to when you make maps for your work, if you even bother?
I just spent the whole weekend, about 20 hours in all working on a map for my project. The sad thing is, I'm only about 5% done, I think. I really want to make it extremely detailed while also being clear and easy to use, but have a lot of useful information on it.
The idea behind the map isn't even something to put inside a novel should it get published. Really this is just for my own uses, as I need something to help me keep track of everything.
I'll admit I haven't seen a lot of maps associated with works of fiction, but I'd say that Scott Lynch's maps, and Matthew Stover's Heroes Die maps are definitely at the top of the list in terms of being both functional, clear, useful and even pretty. SM Stirling's Dies the Fire map is one of the worst I've seen. It looks like Stirling just threw something together in about five minutes because his editor made him. It looks like crap, basically.
What lengths do some of you go to when you make maps for your work, if you even bother?
I just spent the whole weekend, about 20 hours in all working on a map for my project. The sad thing is, I'm only about 5% done, I think. I really want to make it extremely detailed while also being clear and easy to use, but have a lot of useful information on it.
The idea behind the map isn't even something to put inside a novel should it get published. Really this is just for my own uses, as I need something to help me keep track of everything.

