Young Writers Society

I don't know where this fits really, here will do because it's writing related.

I've had some pretty obssessive geography teachers for the past few years, and learnt a bit (well, at least I think so because I keep getting good marks) so I was wondering how people fit geography into their worlbuilding (if you do it, of course) for Fantasy and Sci Fi. I mean, it your world a globe? If so, does it use the same sorts of principles as Earth? eg, tropical cyclones occur at about ten or fifteen degrees North or South of the equator, climates are caused by a migrating equatorial belt that move the systems of High and Low pressure. The Corriolis effect means in the southern hemisphere out weather come for the west, I think it's from the East for the Northern Hemisphere. Mediteranian climates ... and it goes on.
Is the world flat? Does water pour off the edges in a water fall? Can ships fall off? How does this affect the weather patterns we only get because Earth is a globe, on a tilted axis with a sun and a moon?
Is it some other shape, hexagonal? Flat starshaped? A dream world with it's edges lost in fog?


But what about your world?
I'm just interested, because I wanted to see how these climate patterns fit into people worlds, or if people even bothered about these things at all.

Personally, I think I'm going for a flat world, that you can drop off the edge. It's going to have a link to our world though. And I'm still working on how the climate patterns work, that's one of the reasons why I'm curious.

The flat world sounds kindda like Discworld (by Terry Pratchett). You could look that up for inspiration if you wish.

Most my worlds are on Earth. But when I do creatre a new world, I generally think about the basci geography (okay - so the world is smaller then Earth - so the gravity will be weaker there etc).

Oh, I've read some discworld books. I really like them. I was kind of thinking square shaped for mine, and not on four elephants which in turn stand on a gaint turtle.

IVE NEVER EALLY THOUGHT OF IT BUT THE EDGES oh sorry, im in caps, but the edges of a flat world being cloaked in fog sounds really cool!!!!

Well...I like cartography - so I tend to map any world I come up with. So far, I've never come stark-face-first to the question of round or flat...

It's left to a debate between characters in one instance, though not a very fervid one.

A dream world with it's edges lost in fog?

...I've written something about a place rather like that. But it wasn't a dream world. If I can get a scanner to work, I'll post the maps. Not that maps work brilliantly with somewhat amorphous worlds.

Great question though. Probably something too few consider...

*cough*likeme*cough*

Actually, I started creating a map for my world. It's Earth-like, and I think the only difference in the actual geography is the shape of the continents. But that's all. I don't know much about geography/cartography, so I never went in-depth with it. But I think you've given me a few really cool ideas to consider...

Wow... I've never really thought about it.

I should start using it!

I suppose I would use it to create conflict. For instance, if I were doing a story in the south (of USA, that is), to intensify the drama, I oculd always add a hurricane -- like in Key Largo!

Wow... I'm still amazed I didn't realize that before.

Thanks for pointing that out, El. It really does help.

I... don't do maps. I don't find them very helpful. Mostly, I just figure out where the different kingdoms in my story are and how they relate to eachother and let that be that.

However, if you asked me, I would probably tell you that the planet they live on is round and earth-like. I'm just not that imaginative in that particular area.

I usually do maps for my fantasy-worlds. It helps me figure out the relativity of places to each other, and generally how long a journey will take. Also, it lays it all out in one place with not too much information. I usually just do basic geographical features - forests, mountains, hills, beaches, rivers, oceans, lakes, marshes, swamps etc. I try and model real places, usually - it's useful to simply copy a real place for reference. This is useful for describing too because you can just get a picture off the internet of the place you've copied and wah-lah. Visual help.

In terms of physics (which is what the real question was) I usually go for an Earth-like world with the same climate. However, if we're talking Sci-Fi (which I've never tried, to be honest) I'd probably do some alterations (not to the extent of Star Wars, because half the planets make no sense - Hoth? huh? Tatooine? huh?) but so they could plaussibly exist. So I'd never really go for a flat world or anything because my brain would explode - I just wouldn't like it.