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Found out most fantasy maps in books are drawn wrong on purpose
Was reading this blog post by a cartographer who works on fantasy novels. She said the maps are intentionally distorted so readers can't figure out the exact distances. Like if you try to calculate how long a journey takes, it won't add up because the map is stretched or squished in places. Blew my mind because I always thought they were just bad at geography. Has anyone else run into weird map stuff in your own writing?
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sam1719d agoMost Upvoted
No way, that actually makes so much sense! I remember reading The Wheel of Time and trying to map out how fast the characters were moving between cities, and I thought I was just dumb at math. Turns out the map was probably trolling me the whole time. It's like when you play an RPG and the world map is way smaller than the lore says it is, but for books it's the opposite - they stretch it out so the journey feels epic even if the distances don't add up. Kinda genius honestly, makes the world feel bigger than it really is.
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the_xena18d ago
Right? I'm still convinced the Shire is secretly the size of a small closet.
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