I have a love/hate relationship with World Building. It’s a brilliant puzzle but it’s also a nightmare when your world gets too big for you to sort out all the information in your head or even through a journal. To help with this, I started drawing. I’m not great at it but the images help me wrap my mind around my story.
As I’ve said in other posts, the second novel in my trilogy is bigger than the first. The first one only took place in two locations. This one encompass several villages spread across the country. To get a better feel for terrain and distance, I bought a form board, pencil and markers, printed out a map of the United States and drew it onto the board. I also needed the locations of all the major cities in the US so I Googled it. Maps of World was awesome for this. I needed physical features too- mountains, bodies of water, things like that. Again, Maps of World was so helpful. Since this is a form board, I pinned strips of paper on it with typed details about this world. The map is on my wall.
Along those lines, I was having trouble picturing how the Power worked for my characters. So, I drew it out and put it on my World Building Board. This was super helpful.
The drawings aren’t perfect but they don’t need to be. I did struggle with this at first .The perfectionist in me wanted them to look like a skilled artist created them even though, more than likely, I’d be the only one who saw them. As it turns out, I’m really happy with them both. The drawings are simply to help you visualize your world. On top of that, they were fun to create, especially the map.
4 thoughts on “World Building: Drawing”
These are fun! I always think of The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh when I see world maps because of that map showing where Christopher Robin lived, etc.
Have you seen Michael Chabon's book Maps & Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands?
I haven't heard of that book. Sounds interesting. Thanks for the reccomendation!
It doesn't have to be pretty to be visually helpful. Putting down a notion on paper always helps whether graphically or textually. It all works. I tend to think in words rather than pictures. I need to improve my use of visuals because people tend to need both.
When I was writing the last chapters of my MS, I ended up doing a blueprint of the floors of a villa, to keep track for myself of where people were during the climax of the book.
My architectural skills are, well… lacking.
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