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MapVent: What to map?

Nov27

It’s almost the end of November!

Right now, what this mostly means to me is that I have 4000 words to go to the end of NanoWrimo (and 6100 to the goal on all of my Nanowrimo Projects… or so…)

But it also means that December will be here any minute now.

My plan for December is NOT a writing-centric plan!

(Sometime in January, I will get back to publishing at least 2 serial fictions relatively regularly.  That’s a goal.  But that is not this week.)

So December I want to do what I’m calling map-vent.

And I’m inviting everyone who likes mapmaking to play along.

MY PLAN: 25 days of one 15-minute-map a day plus 15 minutes a day on one of my longer extant map projects.

I have several ongoing map projects that are just amazingly time consuming for one reason or another: the Saving the Cult campground, Autumn’s Ren Fest, Tír na Cali, and Smokey Knoll from Dragons Next Door.

Those are what I plan on working on in that 15-minutes of extant map fiddly work, which leaves the 15-minute map time for broader-stroke more sketchy maps.

AND THAT, dear readers, is where you come in!

I would like you to tell me what you want to see mapped.

Some things I will not map.  Some things have extant maps already on Patreon.

(“There are no maps [of Discworld]. You can’t map a sense of humor.”)

But you’re free to suggest as many things as you want; after all, I have 25 days of sketchy maps ahead of me!

As for sharing in this challenge, I’d say that making a daily commitment to work on some sort of map over December would be all that’s required.

Have at, draw the maps, enjoy!

A scribble and a doodle of a story map

Mar25

Originally posted on Patreon in March 2019 and part of the Great Patreon Crossposting to WordPress.

So I’m writing a particularly moving-around-heavy portion of a story.

Nathen saw the stairway down between two stoops going upward…. There was a closed and locked door in front of them.  Nathen glared.  Sure, opening it wouldn’t be hard – but it would be obvious.

Oh.  The Social one perked up.  Turn.

Nathen turned to the right.  The door there was almost invisible – no knob, hidden hinges, painted the same color as the wall.  He gave it a careful push.

The door swung open into a narrow hallway.  He pushed the door shut behind him and whispered a dark-sight Working just as the light from the entryway vanished.  Forward….

…He made his way down stairs that were half-gone…

…”You don’t want to go out the front.  This way.”…

…They were out the back door, up another set of stairs, and into a narrow strip of yard quickly after that.  Their guide took a quick look around and headed straight back, towards the next row of yards.  There was a gap in the fence – the Other mended it behind them – and a narrow alleyway between two buildings.

They zig-zagged through three more blocks in quick succession, leaving subtle obstructions where they would seem coincidental, until they reached a semi-collapsed row of brownstones.

So, of course, first I had to figure out this weird layout, which I did during a rather long meeting.

And then, when I started writing them fleeing, well, yes, I Excel’d up a whole set of like 6 city blocks of brownstone-style houses.

And then I figured out how to draw Nathen’s route (and then with Leo) through this neighborhood to the place where they end up.

Which, no, doesn’t have a floor plan yet.

Red dashed line on the Excel map is their route; grey is roads, green is yard and alleyways, black dotted lines are fences, and house-shapes that are in dashed lines are in a state of broken, half-falling-apart, maybe-a-dragon-landed here.

Big dragon.  Small Godzilla.  You know.

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The Origins of… Science!

Mar18

Originally posted on Patreon in March 2019 and part of the Great Patreon Crossposting to WordPress.

Eseme suggested that I write up how a setting was born, so I started thinking about it.

Most of my settings come from one or a few stories that are written around the same time, which start coalescing themselves into a world.  Fae Apoc and Tír na Cali are exceptions to this, as is Foedus Planatarum, sort of, but today I’m starting with Science!

It turns out the first story of Science!, which included Cara, Alex, and Liam, the three who show up in the lion’s share of these tales, came from a “Wine and/or Roses” prompt call- prompts of Lilfluff’s and wyld_dandelyon’s coming together to create a story about roses with retractable thorns.

Then Shutsumon added “What’s in it?” “Blood of grape and juice of girl,” and we had another story in the same timeline.

And then the next Giraffe Call was “Origins and Creation” and we ended up going on further in the same setting.

By that point, the setting was “set” – there were scientists who did bad things or very good ones (sometimes which was which depended on your point of view); there was the Boss and the tower where all this happened, there was an island, and there were Cara and Alex, whose roles are never, or possibly just rarely, defined but who seem to see everything and be along for everything.

That pretty much sums up my world creation method: Start from scratch and see what happens.

This donation slider from the wine and/or roses call was just too good not to share.
I made it myself!

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Map – A preview

Mar16

Originally posted on Patreon in March 2019 and part of the Great Patreon Crossposting to WordPress.

This is one of my current (as of March 2019) works in progress, a map made in MS Paint.

Complete with compass rose.

And a little bit of ad-hoc nation-building:

 

In the language Skwu, the native language of a very small ethnic group which now rules the eastern coast, the nation is called Ñouyiweppu /ˌɲɔjɪˈwɛppʊ/  – which means bowl.

Nobody is quite certain why it is called bowl, as the nation is not particularly bowl-shaped, but what they do know is that the Nape /nap-pe/ (meaning something like we are – who rule this nation are enigmatic, complicated, and very often irritated by linear thinking.

(why several of their borders are straight lines* is likely because they must share those borders with other people, and because those neighbors have found that very clear lines are needed to fend off the Nape.

(language seed from https://www.vulgarlang.com/ –  Seed for this language: 2289758632760337 )

* to be shown in the political map upcoming

 

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The Science! Laboratory – Directory

Mar10

Originally posted on Patreon in March 2019 and part of the Great Patreon Crossposting to WordPress.

My Science! setting is often set within The Facility, an unknown site which today we get a peek into.

In lieu of a map, a directory. This turned out to be only 3 floors out of the whole complex. Below, a diagram of what the blocks mean.

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Big Sheep Island

Jan28
Originally posted on Patreon in January 2019 and part of the Great Patreon Crossposting to WordPress.
I was hanging out with friends this weekend and my husband was talking about the Falklands. He said something about “it’s a big sheep island.”
So I, ah.  I drew a Big Sheep Island. 🙂
Note: the Tile Hill tail used to be longer, but an earthquake sank the lower end. 

Patreon Posts!

Oct11

  

Tiny fictional play castle blueprints of a sort

Okay, so I was playing around with a roleplay with Cal and Cynara decided to build herself a castle. Well, a play castle, this is ~8×8 with a tower; it’s a shed-sized castle. 

Read On

The poll has spoken!

The walls between the worlds are thin in October, especially as Hallowe’en approaches.  It’s easier to step between universes – or to slip and fall down a rabbit-hole you were never expecting.

This month’s theme is Crossovers –  those slips, those falls, those determined steps into another world.

Open to $5+ “To-do List” Patrons!

I mentioned a story about renovations…

🔨

The renovations started in June.

They closed on the house in October — Judy had a feeling about the place; Steve thought it had good bones — and lived with the ugly panelling, the wonky ceilings, the strange toilet all winter long.

As soon as the weather was consistently warm, down came the hideous paneling.

Read On!