Lesson in Map Reading
Maps are an author's best friend. They give the author a
bird's eye view of the area he/she is researching. Turning to
maps before doing any other historical research lets the writer
build a solid foundation for future investigation.
When I started writing The Drop Of The Hammer, I spent
three weeks reading maps of the area. I compared old maps with
new ones, studied roadmaps to get to Creppe from every
direction, poured over natural resource maps to identify the
lead lodes, and examined topographic ones to get a better feel
of the difference in elevation between Spa and Creppe. My area
became real.
Walk the Road
There's a trick to studying maps in historical research.
To understand a map, the researcher has to step into it and walk
around. In true life you wouldn't flutter from one place to the
other. You can either go forward or back, left or right. If the
traveler decides to go forward from point A toward B, he will
not end up in A. It's the same thing when you walk a map. Don't
flutter. Travel across.
How To Step Into The Map
1) Start your journey from a city or a corner of the map.
2) Imagine you are walking or driving a car.
3) Follow the road.
4) Visualize the hills, the flatlands, lakes and mountains you
are passing.
5) If something looks interesting, stop and look at it. Maybe
you have a travel book or brochures with pictures of these
places. Look at them. Read about them.
6) Use your five senses. Smell the cut hay. Taste the salt in
the sea breeze. Listen to the birds chirping in the trees. Feel
the breeze caressing your skin. Touch a monument and feel its
texture.
The 3-D Exercise
This type of exercise helps the author turn the area into
reality. The writer can now mentally walk around the area where
his/her characters are going to live. If the author does not
know the area inside out, he/she is not going to be able to get
it across to the reader. If the author can't do it, he/she might
as well write about a box of cornflakes.
Assignment
1) Take a couple of maps. One map should be of a known area and
the other of an unknown area.
2) Known area:
Imagine yourself walking the streets. Use your 5 senses.
Write down what you saw, smelled, tasted, touched, heard, and
saw.
3) Unknown area:
Imagine yourself walking the streets. Use your 5 senses.
Write down what you saw, smelled, tasted, touched, heard, and
saw.
Check out my article on visualization: Using Visualization in
Historical Research.
