Map-making can feel pretty overwhelming when you first begin. From learning to draw, to understanding world-building and the nuances of geography, there is a lot to potentially take in. But what fundamentally makes one map good and another not? I believe that it comes down to three primary things, and if you keep these in mind you can feel confident that you’ll be able to consistently create good, if not great fantasy maps for your stories.

1: Helpful for Navigation

At its most basic level, the purpose of a map is to help a person get from point A to point B. A map serves to orient a reader in the world so they can understand the relationship between locations. A fantasy map is no different and perhaps is even more essential because you are introducing someone to a world where they have no prior knowledge.

This doesn’t mean your map needs to be precise enough to appear in a scientific journal. But, distances should be relatively accurate, so a person could estimate how long it would take to get from one location to another and know what obstacles they may encounter on the way such as a forest or a swamp. This may seem obvious, but I have seen far too many maps that quickly break down as a navigational tool with surface-level scrutiny; rendering the map all but worthless since it can’t serve its most basic function.

2: Believable

This brings us to the age-old debate of how realistic a map needs to be since the word “fantasy” is even in the name of the genre. What it comes down to though is a map should simply be believable, based on the world you’ve created. Having an awareness of natural laws in our own world gives you a starting place to create a map that feels reasonable for the reader or your campaign. But, then if you want rivers to flow uphill or a tundra to form in the middle of the jungle...that’s fine, but you should think through why something is breaking natural laws. When you do, it can actually become an interesting point for the plot or setting.

Don’t Use “Magic” as an Excuse

The issue arises when you break natural laws by accident and go...” uh oh...WIZARD! 🧙‍♂️” to fix the problem. I understand we all have our own preferences with how many fantastical elements we prefer in a story. But, don’t let magic be the convenient band-aid you put over a legitimate problem. Having a level of believability in your world-building and sprinkling in well-thought-out fantastical elements will help you create a map and a world that balances realism and fantasy.

3: Visually Appealing

A map can be helpful for navigation, and a believable reflection of the world, but what if it’s just boring to look at? This is of course subjective, but I’m sure all of us have had the experience of looking in the front of a book, and the “map” is literally a squiggly coastline with some place names. This type of map may still qualify as helpful because you can gauge where things are located. But, it’s not something a reader is probably going to pore over or hang on their wall. In my opinion, if you are going to include a map like this in your book, you are doing your story a disservice and potentially giving new readers a negative perception of the quality of your novel.

How Can You Do This?

This doesn’t mean you need to be a master illustrator to create a visually appealing map. But you should invest some time learning the basics of how to draw the main features so it is at least visually compelling. This is why I created a Series of Free Tutorials where you can learn how to do this yourself. Or, if you’d rather not invest a lot of time learning how to draw you can use my Map Effects Fantasy Map Builder to create something with a few clicks and a bit of imagination. You also can commission a cartographer to draw a map for you, which can be a great option if you want to see your world imagined in a particular artist’s style.

Whatever option you choose, it’s worth the investment to check this last box and create something your reader or your friends in your campaign will find memorable. Mere functionality is important, but without this last piece, I personally don’t think a map could be considered good.

Keep It Simple

It’s really easy for map making to become overwhelming with all you can take into account. But as long as you keep these three things in mind you should be able to consistently produce good maps that others will love.

Happy Mapping!

• Josh