A new place, a new world and new names. So you've decided you want to create a fantasy novel, hmm? Yes, well you're going to need a map if this particular novel occurs around the world in eighty days, eh? Right. This post will be there to help you create a map for your particular novel.
A few things you'll need - the basic plot to your novel so that you know where your characters will be needing to go, and how far they should travel. Also, what should be in the specific places that you are going to create. You should, as well, decide how large of a map you are going to need. If your novel occurs in a single town, you may just want to create a map telling you where the nearest tavern is.
However, if you need a large map you will need to start off with some names for the largest and most important cities there.
This map belongs to my fantasy novel "Within Eyes of Ice".
Try and use unique names for your cities, if this is a fantasy you won't want names like Charlestown and London. You'll want names like Fairhollow and Silvercreast. Now, to begin your map you'll want to use any possible image editing software of which I recommend using either Photoshop (must be purchased) or Pixlr (www.pixlr.com) which is an online software that you can use.
You'll want to draw out your map, and leave some space for bodies of water if you need, and add some islands if you want because you want to know that there is a source of water somewhere nearby lest they all die of thirst. Secondly, you'll want to add a compass in order to tell which way is north, which is south, east and west (which, unfortunately, were not added to my map as I did not have the time).
Lastly, you'll want to add stars or any symbol to represent where your city is found (or town, village, ect.) and place the name near or above the star so that you know where every place is.
That's about all - and you can add textures or font with Ribbet (www.ribbet.com) and Picmonkey (www.picmonkey.com).
There's nothing to it, I just simplified it all.
