The Joys of Worldbuilding

Who would have thought, almost three years into this novel, I would still be world building.

I guess it makes sense. I never fully built much of the world outside of Icarthia (my MC's home country). Other than the fact that other countries existed, of course. Though, I guess that did make it easier to completely nix an entire country.

These revisions just keep getting better and better. (It's probably a good thing that I wasn't entirely attached to half the story, or else I'd be way depressed with all this cutting I've been doing.)

With this new world building, I finally took it upon myself to create some legit maps. I've mapped a little before (mostly when I was trying to figure out the placement of the other countries in relation to Icarthia) but it was never anything serious and always badly drawn by hand.

But recently I discovered that Paint is a great map-making tool. Especially since I can't draw perfectly straight/smooth lines on Paint (making it a tad more realistic, in my opinion).

So not only have I begun to map out the entire continent (which is nowhere near complete)

All nine Ascensian countries plus a yet-unnamed island important to the plot. Oceanica is underwater (inhabited by merpeople) and covers all the light blue area. Also, the big central country is Lindai and the upper unnamed country is Icarthia (I removed the names in order to add in specifics like rivers and cities, and haven't put them back yet).

But I've also mapped out my MC's village, and the capital city of Icarthia

Purple - business, orange - residential, bright green - a unique business/home

Purple - business, orange - residential. The streets shown in the city are main roads, and there are smaller streets/alleys intersecting the businesses (I just didn't put them on the map). Looks like the rivers don't match up between here and the whole country view, oh well.

You could say I've become addicted to map-making. Because I've also made diagrams of the interiors of certain buildings (But I won't bother to show those off).

Map-making is really helpful to me (and any other person who likes to be able to visualize things) because now I don't have to hold all that appearance stuff in my head I can just look at it in my spiffy maps. Plus, I'm big on procrastination and this helps me feel productive while I procrastinate from actually writing.

On a lighter note, the newest draft has hit 11,000 words as of yesterday. I'm making progress again!

'Till Next Time,

-Lauren-