Today, there is no story for you. Or, more accurately, no story from me, for you. There are, after all, stories everywhere if only we look. Last Friday marked the final part of Only One Death, my dark fantasy novella I originally crafted as a playful take on the idea of the fantasy quest so beloved of writers following Tolkien's example. Indeed, the working title was Standard Fantasy Quest, or SFQ for short.
I love this - thank you for sharing your mapping process. For as long as I can remember I've always loved maps. I still remember when they built the new library in my town – they actually added a map room! And don't get me started on when I purchased Karen Wynn Fonstad's Atlas of Middle Earth... Real or fantasy I love a map! I hope your eye is improving and that you are feeling better.
Oh, and YES to the Atlas of Middle Earth! I have so many Tolkien books, although they are all currently in boxes in my sister's garage! I love Pauline Baynes' work too.
Ah, map rooms! <3 I have so much love for them. When I was at school in Stromness, Orkney, we had a nautical department, which had drawer after drawer of sea charts and maps. The school library had some too, as did the Stromness library, and I remember being especially drawn to geological maps (my Dad has a pretty epic collection of Ordnance Survey maps too). There's just something so magical about a map, especially when it is something which makes you think in a different way, whether sea depth, or the minerals beneath the earth, for example. Maps are a magic of their own (and don't get me started on historical (and even prehistoric) maps. Those of the Greenlandic Inuit people, for example, mapping coastlines on driftwood (see Ammassalik wooden maps for more!), or the wind and current island maps of the Polynesian islanders, also made of wood, along with and cowrie shells. Our world truly possesses such wonders!
Can’t believe I missed this post when it came out! I need to up my game because the map you’ve made here is beautiful! Brb heading out to buy some water colours
Well, hello fellow map maker! So lovely to have stumbled across your post about your map making process. I really appreciated reading about your process, and interested that you combine both analog and digital process, as I do!
And this map is beautiful.
I *love* maps too - looking at them, exploring them and making them. Mine are more abstract than yours mind you. I'm using mine to illustrate a series of fantasy and real life stories!
I love this! I shall have to see if I can dig out the photos of you and Timity digging for treasure in the back garden of the house down in Ipswich, using only one of your maps as a guide...
Oh thank you so much! I am happy you enjoyed the process, making maps, for me, is such an interesting and important part of a story, whether a fantasy tale, a children's tale, or even the story of my local nature and area. I realised as I crafted this post that I've been making maps for over forty years now!
You compel me to be keener about paying attention to maps. I love old maps, maps such as the ones you draw. Sometimes, I can get a little bored with newer maps, wishing for the pages to be crumpled, worn along the folds, the color yellowing--not unlike an old cookbook.
I love old old maps. There's something magical about them. My favourites are those which are worn, as you say, especially the older Ordnance Survey (UK) ones, which are true works of art. When I was out in the woods my maps were stored in a dry bag hanging in my shelter. Even in the bag, they were smoked, with the constant fire below staining them along the folds; if I put my nose to them, I can still smell the fire. And a big YES to the old cookbooks too, pages decorated with various stains and splashes!
Thank you, no need to apologise; to be swept away by the maps is a very good thing! My eye is almost completely back to normal now, just a little tired in the evenings and the occasional floating piece in my vision. I was so lucky, and this is a lesson I am determined not to forget (as is so often the case with we humans, we move on so quickly).
We really do. This instinct, this method of preservation, is quite fascinating. I try very hard to be conscious of the days when my body is working well, as it is all to easy to fall into that trap of only noticing when I ache, or I'm sick. Today, for example, is a very good day.
You offer so beautifully here from your experience what I refer to in my work on the body as "the body's refusals." The body tends to get our attention only when it refuses the will. But it's cueing us through its poetic language every moment of every day.
Exactly that. We have to listen to that language, something I am getting better at as I get older, thankfully. I hear it more now, and not just the louder exclamations or the grumbles, but the softer words too. I love how you describe this, thank you.
A few years ago, I attempted a fantasy novel, I knew the characters really well and specific locations, but the relationship between them was more difficult. Mapping the world would have been a much better place to start than just jumping in and writing, also a timeline! Thank you for sharing the process to your gorgeous final map (noted for any future forays into fantasy writing) AND I would like to say the aesthetic of your page is very appealing, the background colour really looks to me like paper.
It really does help to get it down on paper (whether digital or real). Along with my eternal love of maps and mapping, I find it very useful to draw big spiderwebs of diagrams, linking characters and places and events. Getting it all out of my head and somewhere else really works wonders.
Thank you for this comment, I am really happy you enjoyed the process and final map!
This is outstanding.. really inspires some techniques I’m working on.. ‘mapping is an intriguing word & term’ 🦎🏴☠️ After all.. one must have ‘treasure maps !
Many thanks for your kind words, it is delightful to know that my own maps inspire you too, that is a wonderful validation of the work! I will look forward to seeing your own works too!
I love this - thank you for sharing your mapping process. For as long as I can remember I've always loved maps. I still remember when they built the new library in my town – they actually added a map room! And don't get me started on when I purchased Karen Wynn Fonstad's Atlas of Middle Earth... Real or fantasy I love a map! I hope your eye is improving and that you are feeling better.
Oh, and YES to the Atlas of Middle Earth! I have so many Tolkien books, although they are all currently in boxes in my sister's garage! I love Pauline Baynes' work too.
Ah, map rooms! <3 I have so much love for them. When I was at school in Stromness, Orkney, we had a nautical department, which had drawer after drawer of sea charts and maps. The school library had some too, as did the Stromness library, and I remember being especially drawn to geological maps (my Dad has a pretty epic collection of Ordnance Survey maps too). There's just something so magical about a map, especially when it is something which makes you think in a different way, whether sea depth, or the minerals beneath the earth, for example. Maps are a magic of their own (and don't get me started on historical (and even prehistoric) maps. Those of the Greenlandic Inuit people, for example, mapping coastlines on driftwood (see Ammassalik wooden maps for more!), or the wind and current island maps of the Polynesian islanders, also made of wood, along with and cowrie shells. Our world truly possesses such wonders!
Can’t believe I missed this post when it came out! I need to up my game because the map you’ve made here is beautiful! Brb heading out to buy some water colours
Can't wait to see what you could do with some water colours! And thanks!
Your maps are beautiful.
Thank you! And thanks for following the link to look at them too, that is a lovely thing to see.
Well, hello fellow map maker! So lovely to have stumbled across your post about your map making process. I really appreciated reading about your process, and interested that you combine both analog and digital process, as I do!
And this map is beautiful.
I *love* maps too - looking at them, exploring them and making them. Mine are more abstract than yours mind you. I'm using mine to illustrate a series of fantasy and real life stories!
I love this! I shall have to see if I can dig out the photos of you and Timity digging for treasure in the back garden of the house down in Ipswich, using only one of your maps as a guide...
Ha! I'd pretty much forgotten about that! Shall have to send him a note at some point soon I think. Where does the time go?
I know, it's scary...
Wow.
Alexander, I am speechlessly inspired by your maps! Thank you for sharing your process. It’s magnificent.
Oh thank you so much! I am happy you enjoyed the process, making maps, for me, is such an interesting and important part of a story, whether a fantasy tale, a children's tale, or even the story of my local nature and area. I realised as I crafted this post that I've been making maps for over forty years now!
Wow! Forty years.
You compel me to be keener about paying attention to maps. I love old maps, maps such as the ones you draw. Sometimes, I can get a little bored with newer maps, wishing for the pages to be crumpled, worn along the folds, the color yellowing--not unlike an old cookbook.
I love old old maps. There's something magical about them. My favourites are those which are worn, as you say, especially the older Ordnance Survey (UK) ones, which are true works of art. When I was out in the woods my maps were stored in a dry bag hanging in my shelter. Even in the bag, they were smoked, with the constant fire below staining them along the folds; if I put my nose to them, I can still smell the fire. And a big YES to the old cookbooks too, pages decorated with various stains and splashes!
I love what you share here. 🙏
Oh, and forgive me for not mentioning your eye. I was swept away by your maps. Sending wishes for continued healing and fresh sight.
Thank you, no need to apologise; to be swept away by the maps is a very good thing! My eye is almost completely back to normal now, just a little tired in the evenings and the occasional floating piece in my vision. I was so lucky, and this is a lesson I am determined not to forget (as is so often the case with we humans, we move on so quickly).
I'm so glad to read your eye is almost back to normal, Alexander.
And I'm echoing you: "we move on so quickly." We do. Don't we?
We really do. This instinct, this method of preservation, is quite fascinating. I try very hard to be conscious of the days when my body is working well, as it is all to easy to fall into that trap of only noticing when I ache, or I'm sick. Today, for example, is a very good day.
A good day is a *good* day!
You offer so beautifully here from your experience what I refer to in my work on the body as "the body's refusals." The body tends to get our attention only when it refuses the will. But it's cueing us through its poetic language every moment of every day.
Exactly that. We have to listen to that language, something I am getting better at as I get older, thankfully. I hear it more now, and not just the louder exclamations or the grumbles, but the softer words too. I love how you describe this, thank you.
Really beautiful map!
Thank you! x
A few years ago, I attempted a fantasy novel, I knew the characters really well and specific locations, but the relationship between them was more difficult. Mapping the world would have been a much better place to start than just jumping in and writing, also a timeline! Thank you for sharing the process to your gorgeous final map (noted for any future forays into fantasy writing) AND I would like to say the aesthetic of your page is very appealing, the background colour really looks to me like paper.
It really does help to get it down on paper (whether digital or real). Along with my eternal love of maps and mapping, I find it very useful to draw big spiderwebs of diagrams, linking characters and places and events. Getting it all out of my head and somewhere else really works wonders.
Thank you for this comment, I am really happy you enjoyed the process and final map!
This is outstanding.. really inspires some techniques I’m working on.. ‘mapping is an intriguing word & term’ 🦎🏴☠️ After all.. one must have ‘treasure maps !
Many thanks for your kind words, it is delightful to know that my own maps inspire you too, that is a wonderful validation of the work! I will look forward to seeing your own works too!