Map for Your Story?

[Joshua Scheele]

Hey Everyone!

I was wondering if anyone here has created a map for their story especially if is sci-fi or fantasy? What resources did you use? I am currently trying to create one with Inkarnate and have not made one satisfactory yet that fits my story.

[Taylor Clogston]

Azgaar’s map tool is pretty great as a free option. I had great results with a certain tool (ugh, I can’t figure out which one it was) for a DnD campaign: https://imgur.com/a/fGBUDS3.

What are you trying to do that Inkarnate isn’t working for?

[R.M. Archer]

I have a blog post that talks about several map-making options. I hand-draw most of mine, but I’ve also used Inkarnate a couple of times (it’s not my favorite, either).

Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Worldbuilding enthusiast. Singer. Fan of classic literature.

[Joshua Scheele]

@taylorclogston

Well, I guess I am more frustrated with trying to draw a good map that seems fitting for my story but can’t seem to find the right layout. My main issue is that I need to draw a world map and then be able to take a regional and enlarge it to give more in-depth detail for each book. It seems to be possible but the first issue is finding the satisfactory shapes of continents. Any suggestions on figuring out the shapes of landmasses you want?

@r-m-archer

This is a great blog post, thanks! I hope to use world anvil too once I have a map that fits my story. How much do you use world anvil? I think it is awesome but struggling to figure out how to organize and to customize everything. There is not a lot of documentation or guides how to do that.

[R.M. Archer]

@storysmith You’re welcome! I use World Anvil a good deal. Less, recently, since I tend to focus on worldbuilding in waves and this has been an ebbing season as far as that goes, but it’s definitely my favorite worldbuilding tool.

Have you looked up World Anvil’s official guides, on their blog and YouTube channel? It’s always looked like they go over a lot of the different features of the program and how to use them. (I’ve only referenced a couple of them, to be honest, so I can’t say definitively that my perception there is accurate.)

These days, organization is mostly managed from the “navigation” tab on articles, but I think you can also drag and drop in the article list, at least when it comes to moving articles into categories.

Customization is something I haven’t done a whole lot with because it’s not a big priority for me at the moment and I suspect it would have a bigger learning curve. But I know there’s a lot you can do with it; I’ve seen a lot of epic-looking world setups during World Anvil’s challenges.

Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Worldbuilding enthusiast. Singer. Fan of classic literature.

[Joshua Scheele]

@r-m-archer
Yes, I have been constantly exploring what they have for instruction but does not seem to be as in-depth as I would like. I have kinda figured out the articles but they keep hinting you can do more with them, mainly customizing them to fit what you need.  That part I want to learn and will leave the cool cosmetic stuff for later.

[R.M. Archer]

@storysmith

That’s frustrating. I wish I could help more, but I’m not sure where else to look. :/

Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Worldbuilding enthusiast. Singer. Fan of classic literature.

[Joshua Scheele]

@r-m-archer
Yeah, thanks. I am sure I will eventually figure it out.

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