My Fantasy Worlds

My favorite genre- to read and write- is fantasy.  Right now, I am in the middle of writing a fantasy story titled, Twelve Dawns Rise.  Early on, when I first invented the idea, I created a map of my unique world.  I called it the Elemental Island.  I just recently was searching for some school, when I came across the map, and I had inspiration for this post.  I will show you my process on how I make a map.  Now, before I begin this, I believe it is only fair to tell that, I am not an artist.  I have NEVER had a talent for drawing, and a real huge desire to either.  Therefore, the pictures you are about to see, are not the best in the world.  But to the best to my ability.

1. I choose a country/state/continents-

In my school this year, we have been tracing and labeling all the continents, countries, states, provinces, and their capitals, so it was pretty easy for me to obtain a map.  For the Elemental Island, I chose the state of Alaska.  

    2.  I trace the country/state/province and study it-

For the next step, I will trace my desired location, so that I earn a feeling for the place.  Then I study my map, and- in my head- I will mark out all the small spaces I will not want in my world, add a few special tweaks, and decide the size of my world.

    3.  I draw my desired world-

Next, I will begin to draw, on normal white paper, my world.  I will use the feel I had while tracing the continent, or in this case state, putting my own tweaks on it, until I am done.  Now I have the outline of my map.

    4.  Put in kingdom/country borders-

Whatever you would like to call them (I call mine, clans), you begin to make your borders.  Whenever I’m doing this I don’t draw out straight lines, creating boxes, I try to squiggle the borders, or twist them, giving them character.  Then I go on the name the kingdoms/countries/clans.

    5.  Decide the features then draw-

This is where I decide if I would like large mountains, or nothing but forests.  Lakes?  Or no lakes?  Is there a castle here?  The Elemental Island mostly is formed of forests, but a few select areas have mountains and lakes.  There is one place that has not much forest, because it has a castle and marketplace, along with a few other features (a volcano!).  With the Elemental Island, I had to be careful on where there was more forest than other places.  

    6.  My sister draws it-

Now, as I have mentioned, I am not an artist, but my sister is.  She has a gigantic sketch pad, which she draws a more detailed version of my world on.  Her Elemental Island turned out much more detailed than mine, and much more beautiful (although she only used a pencil).

So, without further ado, here is the map (The top one I drew, my sister drew the second).  Please excuse the blurriness of the photos.

(By the way, the middle, is not called Meeting Central, it’s called, Imperium.  Also, some of the clan names have changed, such as, the Shocking Empire, and Cloud Valley)

This next map is of another world I have been inventing for awhile.  I drew it from the outline of Asia, and the smaller part is (kind of) the United States.  My sister has not drawn a copy of it yet.