{"id":817,"date":"2014-08-21T09:00:44","date_gmt":"2014-08-21T15:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oneyearnovel.wpengine.com\/?p=817"},"modified":"2022-09-24T01:32:46","modified_gmt":"2022-09-24T06:32:46","slug":"do-what-tolkien-did-but-not-what-you-think-he-did","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearwaterpress.com\/oneyearnovel\/blog\/do-what-tolkien-did-but-not-what-you-think-he-did\/","title":{"rendered":"Do What Tolkien Did (But Not What You Think He Did)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some thoughts on why we’re so intimidated by fantasy maps; part 1 of a mini-series focused on maps<\/em><\/p>\n

by Tineke Bryson, Staff<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What reader doesn\u2019t get a thrill from cracking open a book and finding a map between the covers?<\/strong> Nothing says adventure better than an aged map with deliciously foreign place markers.<\/p>\n

Writers themselves love their story maps even more. If you write fiction, chances are you create maps for your story world\u2014or want to<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Some people don\u2019t consider mapmaking a serious part of writing. But mapmaking is not just a diversion or a disguise for procrastination<\/strong>; it\u2019s useful for immersing your reader<\/strong> in your story world; and it\u2019s necessary to immerse yourself<\/em> <\/strong>as the writer. Your novel may need<\/em> you to make it some maps. The more we as writers make sense of our landscape, the more believable our story will be.<\/p>\n

\"Story<\/a>

Read Daniel Schwabauer’s post about the maps he is using for his swordpunk work in progress.<\/p><\/div>\n

I was a pretty generic young writer in two respects: I spent a disproportionate amount of \u201cwriting\u201d time actually drawing divinely beautiful heroines (not useful), and I spent hours working on fantasy maps. My early love for world building has been very helpful to me as an adult writer because it taught me how much passion can achieve<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve discovered that many of my fellow writers don\u2019t share the preteen confidence I had<\/strong> to blaze into the whiteness of a paper landscape and make up a map off the top of their head. Many fantasy and sci-fi writers are not just daunted by the task of map-making, but positively intimidated.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Practical skills and pointers go into pulling off a wonderful story map, and we will explore the how-to aspects of mapmaking in our next posts. But before we push into Mapmaking 101, it\u2019s important to address the intimidation<\/strong> most of us writers feel about undertaking a map at all.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt about who\u2019s to blame, and it\u2019s the usual fantasy suspect: J. R. R. Tolkien<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Tolkien\u2019s body of work breaks norms left and right. One of them is that he made Middle Earth itself a character\u2014dare we suggest even the main character?\u2014of his stories. He did what fantasy writers are not<\/em> supposed to do: focus the reader on place.<\/strong> Had his characters proved less compelling, he could not have pulled this off.<\/p>\n

Growing up on literary Ent draughts and elven feasts, we absolutely want our story world and its maps to wield the same entrancing power<\/strong>. \u00a0But the more we learn about Tolkien the man\u2014 his linguistic prowess alone is staggering\u2014the less we believe ourselves capable of like world-building<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Plus there\u2019s the fact that he was a gifted artist. The stylization of his illustrations and maps breathes the ineffable. Why did he get to be so smart and<\/em> so artistic?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When most of us sit down to draw a map, or even just fill out our Other Worlds<\/em> workbook<\/a>, we want to do what Tolkien did<\/strong>. We want to be awesome and blow the minds of our readers with intricacies of language, culture, history, and geography<\/strong>. We want to create a world as fascinating and compelling as Middle Earth.<\/p>\n

But when we try to understand Tolkien\u2019s process, I think most of us are awe-stumped sooner rather than later. Which is a shame. Because Tolkien\u2019s process was in some respects simple:<\/strong><\/p>\n

He played with what he knew.<\/strong> He played to his strengths.<\/strong> He did what any kid does at play: mix up adventure out of things borrowed as well as new.<\/p>\n

What Tolkien really<\/em> did is not what we think he did.<\/strong> Yes, he was a very smart and educated person. But the foundation of his world-building is not brilliance; it\u2019s familiarity.<\/strong> Middle Earth feels both old and new because he fashioned it out of what he already knew and cared about: Old English, and English geography.<\/strong> He was a professor of Anglo Saxon and of English language and literature.<\/p>\n

By doing this he achieved what we all need to require of our story world: a balance of the familiar\u2014the commonplace\u2014with the intrigue of otherness.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think if we are frank, many of us try to simulate the otherness of Tolkien\u2019s work without understanding its dependence on the familiar<\/strong>. We are just not going to be able to create a Middle Earth if we are not likewise professors of Anglo Saxon and English language and literature. And that\u2019s all right. Because the world we can create using what is second nature to us may be the breath of fresh air the fantasy and science fiction genres need.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here are some examples.<\/p>\n