Drawing the World for my Book by Donna Galanti

By Juanedc from Zaragoza, España via Wikimedia Commons

I spent three years writing and revising my first middle grade book, Joshua and the Lightning Road. It went several rounds with a hired developmental editor and then once I got an agent and publisher, it went several more rounds. 

On the first revision my publisher’s editor wrote this:
“There is a richness missing in the manuscript and there needs to be more solid world building. Where are we? Another planet? Another town? A different world? Are these worlds like ours, but different? How? What are the differences? Lack of sun? Is the air the same? Different?” 

Ouch, right?

I needed to ground the reader in my story otherwise they would be lost. As writers, we want to use senses to ground the reader and show how they are feeling – and we need to show our story’s world through the character’s eyes.

For example:

Are you on the ground in a scene?
You could write: “The earth was all gravel beneath my feet.”

Are you inside in a tunnel?

You could write: “The stale air threatened to choke me.”
If the characters are outside there could be a breeze.

Through dialogue you can also show time and distance such as:
“Tom’s house was just two miles away…takes a day’s walk to get there…one day’s travel by horse….I hadn’t been back since last summer.”

I had a sketchy map of my world but my editor suggested I draw a more detailed map to ground myself in the story – and ground the reader. 

Here’s my amateur map of the Lost Realm of Nostos:

 

This map was passed on to the illustrator, Al Sirois, who did the map for the book. Didn’t he do an amazing job with my chicken scratch?

 

And from this I had another designer create a poster as a giveaway:

And just for fun I also carved out the figures and places from the map to create memes and scavenger hunt pieces for bookshop signing giveaways.

I discovered much from my editor’s advice in drawing a detailed map of the Lost Realm in Joshua and the Lightning Road.

Drawing a map enabled me to:

•  Correct timeline and logistic issues. 
• Build a movie of the setting in my head and see where details of the world needed enrichment. 
• Ground the reader (and me!) in the world so they didn’t get lost in the story. 
• Incorporate a map in the book to guide readers visually. 
• Make fun promotional images like memes! 
• Create exciting book events like scavenger hunts with the map’s characters and places. 
• Design a poster of the Lost Realm for giveaways.

Overall, drawing a map for the world led me to find a richer meaning in my story that spidered out into other fun ways to share my book with the world - which releases 5-19! But you can pre-order Joshua and the Lightning Road now and enter to win an iPad Mini - and the map poster.

Do you enjoy world building in your writing or in the books you read? What’s your process for world building? What are some of your favorite books with rich worlds?