Maps
Maps
So I don't do many character interviews. But I must have maps. If I'm writing, I often sketch out litttle maps of an apartment, or the relative distance between, say, the city of Druida and the Great Labyrinth, or Landing Park. This helps me keep the choreography (movement of one place to another) straight, and also helps me describe the place to my readers.
When I was a kid and making up my own stories, I ALWAYS made maps...then, a couple of years ago, I found http://www.profantasy.com – software for gamers, cartographers. Well, I went wild. I was able to re-do my hand-drawn map of Celta to something professional looking http://www.robindowens.com/worlds/celta.htm SCROLL DOWN My maps are on my Worlds page at my website. As you can tell, I'm having "fun with naming" on Celta.
But it was when I started writing for Luna that the real fun started. I needed a country map – well I originally thought of Lladrana as Europe before England and Ireland were separated from France (geograpically speaking) and was messing with "pushing" them back together when I found Fractile Terrains. Suddenly I was able to make WORLDs with the press of a button. I made many, looking for the right one to become Amee. When I found it, I raised and lowered the water level, etc. to define Lladrana – and next year, when Sorceress of Faith comes out, you will find my heroine doing the same thing as a weather mage in her practice ecosystems **as a writer you can use everything, every experience, every snippet of dialogue, every painful experience**. Amee is here: http://www.robindowens.com/worlds/AmeeContinents.jpg and Lladrana is here: http://www.robindowens.com/images/llandrana_map.jpg SCROLL DOWN I had great fun creating the islands.
The beautiful map of the Castle in Guardian of Honor, was drawn by the head of the art department of Luna after I sent in another amateurish sketch, however once she did that, I've been able to add and subtract rooms...
http://www.robindowens.com/images/castle_map_final.jpg
Lastly, I did Alexa's Suite, http://www.robindowens.com/worlds/AlexaSuite2.jpg If you zoom in closely you can see the dinner Alexa and Bastien ate (with teapot), the jade baton, Bastien's atom ball, and Sinafin, the shape-shifting fairy as a purple muff on the table before the suite door. I want to add a couple of more images to this one, like the cheval mirror.
I have Profantasy's Castles software, but haven't had time to make the Marshall's Castle yet in "stone and mortar," or the city of Druida (I have a sneaking suspicion that I put a few Residences in the same place...), and I'd like to try 3-D drawings of the Great Temple and the Nom de Nom Inn, but maybe someday I'll have time to do that to.
Love to all,
Robin
So I don't do many character interviews. But I must have maps. If I'm writing, I often sketch out litttle maps of an apartment, or the relative distance between, say, the city of Druida and the Great Labyrinth, or Landing Park. This helps me keep the choreography (movement of one place to another) straight, and also helps me describe the place to my readers.
When I was a kid and making up my own stories, I ALWAYS made maps...then, a couple of years ago, I found http://www.profantasy.com – software for gamers, cartographers. Well, I went wild. I was able to re-do my hand-drawn map of Celta to something professional looking http://www.robindowens.com/worlds/celta.htm SCROLL DOWN My maps are on my Worlds page at my website. As you can tell, I'm having "fun with naming" on Celta.
But it was when I started writing for Luna that the real fun started. I needed a country map – well I originally thought of Lladrana as Europe before England and Ireland were separated from France (geograpically speaking) and was messing with "pushing" them back together when I found Fractile Terrains. Suddenly I was able to make WORLDs with the press of a button. I made many, looking for the right one to become Amee. When I found it, I raised and lowered the water level, etc. to define Lladrana – and next year, when Sorceress of Faith comes out, you will find my heroine doing the same thing as a weather mage in her practice ecosystems **as a writer you can use everything, every experience, every snippet of dialogue, every painful experience**. Amee is here: http://www.robindowens.com/worlds/AmeeContinents.jpg and Lladrana is here: http://www.robindowens.com/images/llandrana_map.jpg SCROLL DOWN I had great fun creating the islands.
The beautiful map of the Castle in Guardian of Honor, was drawn by the head of the art department of Luna after I sent in another amateurish sketch, however once she did that, I've been able to add and subtract rooms...
http://www.robindowens.com/images/castle_map_final.jpg
Lastly, I did Alexa's Suite, http://www.robindowens.com/worlds/AlexaSuite2.jpg If you zoom in closely you can see the dinner Alexa and Bastien ate (with teapot), the jade baton, Bastien's atom ball, and Sinafin, the shape-shifting fairy as a purple muff on the table before the suite door. I want to add a couple of more images to this one, like the cheval mirror.
I have Profantasy's Castles software, but haven't had time to make the Marshall's Castle yet in "stone and mortar," or the city of Druida (I have a sneaking suspicion that I put a few Residences in the same place...), and I'd like to try 3-D drawings of the Great Temple and the Nom de Nom Inn, but maybe someday I'll have time to do that to.
Love to all,
Robin
posted by FantasyAuthor RobinDOwens | 5:02 AM
2 Comments:
oh - the maps are really cool - I also love the mini suite drawing. The bed pillows are so cute. I sometimes draw my bedroom or office and then change around the furniture. Each piece of furniture gets cut out on a piece of paper and then moved around the room. Once it looks right I start moving furniture.
Tammie
LOL, I know decorators do that, but I don't. As a matter of fact, once I place my furniture, I rarely move it around -- I'm happy. But in my bedroom and my office there's really only one way it could go...
Robin
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