Hand-drawn maps are life-savers. One of the most daunting parts of writing historical fiction based in times thousands of years in the past is a very limited public historical record.
It’s one thing to recount history in a reference book. Something entirely different to create the intimate relationship to place required for a novel.
I’ve blogged before about how I started making “maps” of scenes, cities and other locations in order to create a sense of intimacy. They are one of my favorite tools. Drawing out details such as how a person walked through the city. Or figuring out the position of a home or a gate in relation to a character, etc.
Getting an even stronger sense of a whole city is major.
The Archeology nerd in me loves hand-drawn maps
These are two I finished this weekend:
The entire second half of The Sibylline Chronicles Vol. 1 is based in the ancient North African province of Byzacena, home to both of these cities.
They are very different – Aphrodisium, a port South of Carthage through which much of North Africa’s olive oil production was exported. Thysdrus, the inland center of that production and a city of exiles.
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