We’ve had some long-term-goal type badges lately, so let’s mix it up with one you can sit down and earn right this minute.
The “fictional cartography” merit badge is a member of the worldbuilding family. Earn it by drawing a map of where part or all of your story takes place. This could mean a map of a fantasy kingdom, a map of a space station, or a map of your YA protagonist’s bedroom. (Maybe all three if it’s that kind of story.)
AND NO, I DON’T CARE EVEN A LITTLE IF YOU SAY YOU CAN’T DRAW. We’re talkin’ lines on a napkin minimum skill level here, people.
Besides, it’s good to try new things. Like how today I’m going to try not getting lost in the confusing part of the woods. (Wish me luck and trail maps.)
This is part of the merit badges for writers series, and may be posted on your site or blog. Have you earned this badge? Will you never earn it? Tell us why in the comments.
7 Comments
I hate setting.
I just had to get that out of my system, carry on.
I have earned this badge time and time again in the geography, geometry, and math books I write. (Somebody’s got to do it.) Maps often serve as stepping stones to graphing. Because it’s education, there is little room for such a cute Nessie. The best I can do is clever street names and unusual buildings (Dale is walking to the Mustard Museum. She walks 3 blocks north…2 blocks west… How much farther…
@Hillary: Duly noted!
@bonita del rey: Making textbooks more interesting? Keep fighting the good fight!
This badge is a part “of the worldbuilding family”! There’s a worldbuilding family for merit badges‽* I’m pretty sure the noise I just made frightened the cat! (Sorry, kitty!)
Okay, breathing now.
I want this badge. I could probably take it now: I’ve done fictional map-making in the past, and lots of it. (At the lines-on-napkins level, and sometimes above.) But I want it for my WIP. That just feels important! (To me; I know we can earn this badge right this minute, and that is awesome!)
I thought I didn’t need maps for my WIP, because the world I created is so much like our own. I own scores of (real) maps and several globes, so I shrugged my shoulders and started writing. I realized later that — as much as humans influence geography (e.g., desertification), and as much as the fantasy world really was different (e.g., patterns of settlement) — I could probably use some maps! Haven’t done it yet, though. I may have a chance to make maps this weekend. I need to do the cities as well — I know where everything is, I’ve written it all down, but there should be maps!
Oh wait, is that too much? Am I taking cartography too seriously? I hope this badge gives rise to a thousand napkin-drawn maps of bedrooms and kingdoms! There cannot be be enough maps!
*Note my interrobangian levels of exitement‽
Awwww, The Worldbuilding badge went and had a little offspring. (Well I thought it was funny)
Seriously I have had a love of maps for a while now. And not counting my D&D maps, I have done a few here and there for my WIPs. For my second Work In Progress I had a map that I had spent some time on trying to make sure I didn’t copy anyone’s retail store layout. (My story set in a retail store) I was fretting over this and that trying to work in everything and also trying to make sure I didn’t copy anyone’s layout.
Then it hit me some time back as this WIP has been creeping back into my brain. Every retail store is basically the same just with merchandise in different areas. I was so worried about the details I think I scared myself away from writing the story. So now I think I am going to do just a general directory map (This is here, that is there) and not worry that housewares has enough shelf space.
This is perfect! I’m a touch too enthusiastic with my world maps, drawing them in color pencil noting the landscaping, roads and buildings. Looking up floor plans and modifying them. Drafting class in school paid off for my ability to draw in a coherent straight line fashion without a ruler.
Everybody loves maps! And Casey found a real interrobang! And DQuartermane can start a chain of well-planned stores if he gets bored of writing! And SM Schmidt draws really cool city planner level maps! And I didn’t get lost in the woods!
This has been a fabulous day all around!
!!!