To map or not to map
(Cheating slightly and posting this the night before, because Friday is Internet Moratorium Day while I catch up on my languishing manuscript.)I love maps. My traveling buddies used to call me "MapMaster J." I can entertain myself for hours with a Rand McNally, wondering what's in all those blank spots in North Dakota.
Many fantasy novels include maps near the front of the book, which I appreciate as a reader. I never truly understood what was going on in Lord of the Rings until I followed the map. All that walking...geez...where the hell were they going? Now I know.
Maps provide context that can help the reader understand the fractured cultures or climatic challenges the characters face--all with a quick glance instead of many pages of explanatory text (not that LOTR lacked explanatory text--it took me two drowsy weeks to read the purgatorial Council of Elrond scene).
Much as I love maps, I decided not to include one for Eyes of Crow. This decision was based partly on the desire to make my publisher's overworked production staff love me.
Hooray! One less stupid map to draw! Let's knock off early today and have a drink in Jeri's honor.But mostly it was because the book doesn't warrant it. After all, it contains a grand total of two major settings. Sure, there's a larger world out there, with other friendly villages and a big sea with bad dudes on the other side of it, but none of my characters go there in this opening novel. A map would have been a tad pretentious.
Geography plays a much bigger role in Voice of Crow, so don't worry: MapMaster J will have her day.
How about you? Do you refer frequently to maps in novels, or do you just like to use them as a coloring book?
Labels: Eyes of Crow
5 Comments:
I don't remember if Pern books like Dragonflight had maps, and I don't think they needed them. The dragon's ability to instantly go anywhere made geography a non-issue.
In The Hobbit, everyone pretty much stayed together and went in a straight line. I didn't look at the map until I was done.
The only other book I can think of that had a map is The Sword of Shannara. I didn't care for this book, mostly because it seemed unnecessarily wordy. I never looked at that map because the plot also went in mostly a straight north-south line. The countries in that book were rarely mentioned until the plot arrived there, at which point their relevence to the plot was explained in excruciating detail (like this comment).
Posted by:
Andrew at 5/05/2006 1:11 PM
Posted by:
Anonymous at 5/06/2006 11:10 AM
This is a great book to read, BTW, for anyone writing a battle scene in a novel.
Posted by:
Jeri at 5/08/2006 8:04 AM
You're right though, maps very often are not necessary.
PS: The Pern books had maps. So did Watership Down
Posted by:
gugon at 5/09/2006 1:02 PM
Posted by:
Jeri at 5/09/2006 4:08 PM
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