I remember a time when I used to print out my itinerary on a map before driving somewhere new. Given that I have zero sense of orientation and that I had no real way of holding a map while driving, I still struggled to make it to my destination. Mind you, we do have various sat nav tools nowadays, and I still get lost all the same. So why would we want a book with a map?
In the fictional world, maps are nothing like the nonsensical ones from the real world. Can I read a map? Yes. Can I reference what I see from the real world with the map? Absolutely not. But it wouldn’t matter one bit if those planes matched perfectly anyway. I would still lose my way all the same. Fictional maps, on the other hand, are easy to navigate. For a start, you don’t need to know where you’re going because the story will take you where you need to be anyway. So, the purpose of creating a book with a map is not related to navigation.
Why Create A Book With A Map
Telling a story is one thing. Inventing an entire world to anchor your story in a different reality is another thing. Not every fantasy book is a book with a map.
Now imagine you are telling a fantasy story, with magic or mystical creatures. Say, you’re writing a werewolf story. But you’d like the scene to play on a known stage. You set your story in London. This is still a fantasy book. But this isn’t a book with a map. Everyone can easily check online where different districts are. This is called low fantasy.
Now, if you have a magical story in mind, say a story with magical Shadows, this is also fantasy. But you imagine a unique world that doesn’t exist to accompany your story. There are temples hidden deep in the woods, a fish smokery tower on a coastline, and an impossible octagonal prison. Because you need these unique locations, you also create the entire world around them. This is called high fantasy.
Is a high fantasy novel always a book with a map? Not necessarily, but it is most likely. It does help when you create a world from scratch to give readers a sense of it. Just as we all grew up seeing maps of our world, it seems normal to have a map of another world.
Writing A Book With A Map – Drawing Process
We have a full folder packed with hand-drawn maps and graphics about the world of Phaedrus. We have a combination of eight magical lands and one neutral one, each with its own specificities. So, of course, we started illustrating for ourselves what each of those regions looked like. So, we also had a map of how those different areas interacted with each other.
But we didn’t initially consider adding it to the final version of The Dead Shadow. We focused only on a few details for the first book: The geography of the different regions of our magical world and the two cities that are mentioned in the book.
We drew maps on A1 sheets of paper until we found the perfect arrangement of our different regions. There were different versions before things started to make sense. Ultimately, whether you decide to print a book with a map inside or not, you need to have a map to better understand your own world.
Below is one of the first maps we drew. The world of Phaedrus has changed a lot since!
So, when we found our publisher, Cranthorpe-Millner, we shared with the team our map. Not necessarily because we thought the map would make it into the book, but because we thought it would be easier to follow the story. So, it wasn’t a book with a map; it was a manuscript with a map of a world.
How We Ended With A Real Book With A Map
Did we truly expect the map to appear in the final print version? No. We were simply hoping the map could help convey our story better. When you sit on the neurodivergent side of the world, you tend to overcommunicate. Say more, rather than less, in the hope that people understand you better. I give you a hint in case you didn’t: it does not work. In fact, it has the opposite effect. The more you share your truth, the less people believe it.
However, our publisher took the map on board and started seeing The Dead Shadow as a book with a map from Day One.
What can you find on our map? We can’t reveal all the surprises of our book with a map just yet. But the idea is to add more and more as the series progresses. We know what hides in different regions. But we also thought that while Book 1 only focuses on one area of the map, there is no reason to provide unnecessary details at this point.
We hope you’ll enjoy our first book with a map this August.