Fantasy Maps: The World

You need to know every part of your world even if it’s not in the story.

I started working on the world map- a digital version of this:

And, it did not turn out the way I wanted it to. I mean it is tragic. I won’t even share it with you. But, making Jael was fairly easy.

I figured creating the world would be the same- just bigger. The difference is I knew where all the mountains, rivers and forests were in Jael. I hadn’t thought about that for other places in the world. Although other landmasses are important, my story is never set in those places.

I know the name of each landmass and the countries as well as their roles in the world, but to make the map, I need terrain and I hadn’t thought about that.

This Photoshop version of the world map is more for fun. I mean, the other landmasses are mentioned in book 2, but as I said before, the story is never set in any place other than Jael.

When you’re creating your world map, I suggest your draw a rough sketch of each place before diving into your map making software. It’s not enough to have the terrain in your head-at least for me. I’ll be going back to pencil and paper to draw out each landmass. Should be fun!