World Building and Photoshop Maps

http://www.cartographersguild.com/The thing about this novel, is that I want it to be like nothing I have ever read. Every time I try to get into erotic fiction I find that it is full of all the cliches and silliness. I may be biased because I have a hard time finishing books that make me cringe, but I honestly have never picked up a decent erotica novel and thought "yes, this is what I was looking for. I believe that there has to be a lot of people in the world that feel this way; that erotic fiction is hokey. In my mind I see a whole legion of women--and perhaps men as well--who love fantasy and sci-fi, but would dig a little more steam.

I am treating this novel, first and foremost, as a strictly speculative fiction novel when it comes to craft. I am world building heavily; working on races, religion, political structures, geography, technology, magic structures, and so much more. Any of the great speculative fiction writers prepare themselves this way. Sara Douglass, for example, set up giant timelines all over the room to handle continuity in the Tencendor books; Tolkien wrote languages from scratch and crafted a whole world history for Middle-Earth; George R.R. Martin knows exactly what types of cuisine each region enjoys and gives delicious mouth-watering descriptions which makes the world feel more alive.

I have spent the last two weeks world building and map making. If you are curious about the map making resources used you can find the community here. It's an amazing place for writers of speculative fiction. The tutorials are amazing, and free! I used Photoshop to create the map, and a tutorial that can be found here. All told it's taken me approximately 20 hours to complete, but the end result is way sexier than my hand drawn garbage. The best part about the map is that I can look at it now and know where things are and how they relate to each other. I even had an epiphany about the production of the magical alloy that the book centers around after seeing the mountains start to take shape.

I still have a ways to go on the history of the world and such, but having the map finished is proving to be the perfect inspiration. I am exactly two weeks away from drafting now, and I feel accomplished already. This process has been much nicer than the rigid plotting I tried to do for the last incomplete novel I almost wrote. I am convinced at this point that I am a more organic writer like Stephen King; I have to be surprised when I write. I enjoy it more when the characters reveal themselves to me, and manipulate the plot on their own.

Anyways, I should get back to it.