Map-making resources

[Katherine]

Does anyone have a map-making resource (online or software) that they would recommend? I’m looking for a way to keep track of the locations in a fictional town (buildings, roads, etc) and my drawing skills aren’t up to the task!

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

If you write in the "real world" like I do, I simply take a screen shot of Google maps and adjust it as needed.

[Dwayne, Head of Lettuce]

[Katherine]

What I need is more akin to Google Streetview, I guess. it’s an imaginary town, not a real place. Is there anything out there, besides games like Minecraft, that are capable of “placing” various key locations like the post office, the school, the highway, etc in very basic map?

[Graeme]

I would grab a small real location and rename it, and the streets.

[M.L.]

You can google 'small town America.' There are YouTube videos that have street scenes, pan across the city, bird's eye views, etc. Take a screen shot or two, and rename what you are using. This is as long as you are not including the pic in your book as someone might recognize the town.

[Graeme]

I often define settings with real-world locations. I just rename them. Google then gives me something I can use to understand where things are, how long it will take for someone to get from 'a' to 'b' which is very handy as I write thrillers and seconds count...

Plus, having a well structured setting (which you get for free (minimum time & effort)) when you use a real location gives confidence to descriptions.

[B.A.]

Dwayne came up with the best idea. Look for a small town on google maps. Print it off, white out the names of streets and add your own. You can change where things are and even change a street or two or add an alley with a marker. It would save you from trying to do the map from scratch.

[Randall]

My wife was a teacher and there is a site on the NASA website that has several satellite pictures of maps Hope that helps!

[Catherine]

If you want to use photoshop software I recommend GIMP. I used it to make my fantasy world map. Granted it's on a much larger scale and I don't have specific buildings or street names you'd probably be able to do it! There are a ton of videos out that talk about map building in GIMP so check that out!

[Micah]

Probably not what you really need … but I use a program called Wonderdraft for creating fantasy maps (for D&D games). You can do fancy or not so fancy maps in that. You can draw roads and drop icons for buildings and trees and whatnot.

It's really meant more for fantasy settings. But there are tutorials on youtube how to use it that you could check out to see if it's of interest.