World Building: How to Build a Map That Shapes Your World

I think we can all agree that maps are excellent. Maps can help you and your audience visualise your world better. They can make it feel richer and give it a deeper air of realness. Opening a book and finding a beautifully drawn map on one of the opening pages can give the work a certain majesty. It is a wonderful thing to turn back to the map to get your bearings as you follow the journey of characters as they move through the world and the story.

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But should maps be reserved for hard back special editions of weighty fantasy novels? Or are maps useful for writing and storytelling more widely?

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The answer is yes.

Maps, as they are in real life, are essentially the layout or the shape of your world. Maps, as they do in real life, affect everything: politics, cultures, conflicts, beliefs, survival.

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Drawing a map of your world, even if it is just for you and your audience will never lay eyes on  it, can be very helpful to get a sense of how all the opposing forces of your world and story interact with each other.

So before you start randomly drawing coastlines, scattering forests or plopping down capital cities, let’s pause and ask what makes a map come alive and how that in turn can help your world come alive.

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1. Size Matters

How big is your world? 

Let’s talk scale.

• Is your world a sprawling continent? A tight city block? An entire planet?
• How long does it take to cross it on horseback, foot, dragon, or spaceship?
• Do borders feel vast and dangerous, or cozy and close?

The scale of your world sets the stage for everything else—travel time, trade, war, tension, culture.

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2. Land Of Hope And Story

How does the map’s geography affect the story?

Geography isn’t filler. It’s function.

• Where are your rivers, mountains, valleys, deserts?
• Which places are lush, and which are barely survivable?
• How do these features shape weather, migration, conflict, and myth?

Mountains divide kingdoms. Rivers become trade routes. Forests hide secrets. Deserts breed resilience.

Story should shape the land, but the land can help shape the story.

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3. Climate Changes

Is your world running hot or cold?

Is your world one biome or many?

• Do you have tropics, tundras, arid wastelands, temperate meadows?
• Do different regions feel distinct?

Climate affects architecture, clothing, food, culture, religion, even the kinds of monsters people believe in.

Use climate to create tone and texture.

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4. A Tale of Tangible Cities

Where do you put your settlements?

Cities, towns, villages and hamlets don’t spring up randomly. People settle where it is possible to both survive and thrive.

• Access to water, resources, defensible terrain?
• Positioned along trade routes, coastlines, or rivers?
• Built around a sacred tree, an ancient ruin, or a magical portal?

Ask not just where your settlements are, but why they’re there.

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5. Unboring Borders

What story tensions do your borders create?

Political boundaries should make sense, but also be messy.

• Are they shaped by rivers and mountains? That’s realistic.
• Or are they relics of past wars and crumbling empires? That’s dramatic.

Borders tell stories of power, conflict, compromise, and conquest. They’re full of tension and opportunity.

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6. Round, Round, Get Around

How do people and goods travel?

Roads are veins. Ports are mouths. Trade routes are trade routes.

• Are there major highways? Ancient paths? Magical portals? Ealing Broadway Train Stations?
• How dangerous is travel?
• What does your world look like in motion?

The movement of people tells you a lot about the world they live in. (And who controls it.)

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7. Made By History

How does history affect the shape of your world?

Your map should feel like it’s been lived in.

• Where are the battlefields, crumbling towers, cursed ruins?
• What parts of the map are steeped in myth and memory?

Past events should leave physical marks: monuments, wastelands, sacred groves, mass graves.

Your characters are walking on the bones of history. Show it. Use it.

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8. Speak to HR

How do resources affect geography/power dynamics?

Gold, water, fertile land, iron, magical crystals: whatever powers your world, someone wants it.

• Where are these resources found?
• Who controls them?
• How do they shift the balance of power?

Geography is politics.

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9. Beautiful Briny Sea

Are oceans important to your world?

Oceans and seas are more than blank space.

• Are there coral kingdoms? Pirate-infested archipelagos? Ancient shipwrecks?
• What trade routes slice across the waves?
• What dangers or mysteries lie beneath?

Water can connect, or divide. It can be your world’s heartbeat, but the absence of a sea can be as significant as its presence.

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10. Culture Vultures

Do different cultures create additional borders?

Sometimes, lines on maps are not drawn by wars or politics but by people.

• Where do languages shift?
• Where does cuisine change?
• Which places are defined by faith instead of flags?

Culture often runs far, far deeper than borders. Use your map to show this hidden geography.

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11. Wonders Of The World

How does natural or unnatural phenomena affect geography and culture?

For my money every good map has at least one weird anomaly:

• The floating island.
• The black forest no one returns from.
• The crater where a star god fell.
• Auroras showing different worlds.
• Ealing Broadway train station.

Natural wonders or strange phenomena can give your map a certain je ne sais quoi. Ask:

• Would it be marked?
• Or just whispered about in legends?

And what kind of symbol would you use to hint at something the map can’t explain?

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12. The Birds, The Bees And The Giving Trees

What sort of flora and fauna inhabit your world?

Plants and animals aren’t just background decoration. They are the world. Are your forests filled with whispering willows? Are your skies roamed by deadly dragons, or is it all just pigeons?

Flora and fauna help shape:

• Survival – What do people eat, wear, build with?
• Culture – What animals are sacred? Which plants are used in rituals or medicine?
• Conflict – Is that flower worth starting a war over? Would a kingdom kill for its spice trade?

Consider climate and terrain: jungles teem with life, tundras breed tough survivors. Think about what’s rare and what’s invasive. A single species can tip the balance of an ecosystem, or an empire.

Flora and fauna, like natural resources, do more than just exist, they help shape landscapes, borders and settlements.

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13. No Entry

Where is dangerous, mysterious or forbidden?

Not every place is meant to be explored.

• Where are the monsters?
• The haunted houses?
• The forbidden forests
• The Ealing Broadway train stations? 
• Where do the maps go silent?

Use blank spaces and forbidden zones to make your map feel bigger than the story it contains. Think how you would mark these areas on your map.

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14. Mapmaker’s Agenda

Who drew your map?

A map is never neutral. Someone drew it. And they had opinions.

• What’s been exaggerated?
• What’s been left off?
• Whose perspective does the map reflect?

A fictional map tells a story. And sometimes, it's one told with bias.

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15. More Than A Pretty Face

How does your map's aesthetic help tell your story?

This is where the fun comes in.

• Does your map look ancient or sleek?
• Sketched in ink or etched into stone?
• What symbols will you use to depict the various features?
• Is it only for you, or will your audience see it?

The style of your map should match the mood of your world: Gritty, whimsical, formal, haunting. 

Choose a look that tells a story before a single word is read.

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Conclusion

A good map doesn’t just show you where things are: it reveals why things are the way they are. It holds the shape of your world, yes, but also its soul, its history, its secrets. Every border hints at a conflict. Every road a path for your characters to tread.

When you build a map, you’re not just drawing places, you’re writing your story. You’re laying out the bones of empires, the paths of heroes, the boundaries of belief. You’re giving your world weight, texture, and life. Whether your audience ever see the map or not, its influence can echo in every word, every beat and every journey.

So don’t think of a map as just an extra bit of decoration. Think of it as a narrative tool, a silent storyteller, and a blueprint not just for your characters or your audience; but for you. Use it to understand the relationships between different people, cultures and places.

Drawing a map can help you see it all laid out and help you with every nearly facet of your writing.

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Let your world shape your map, and in turn, let your map shape your world.

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More World Building

Are you keen to dive even deeper? You can download our World Building Worksheet and World Building Document for free from our Resources store. These documents explore everything you’ve just read, and much, much, much, much more…

Other blogs in our World Building series include: 

• How to Choose the Right Genre (and Make It Your Own)
• How to Build Characters That Shape Your World

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