Hey, me, back after forever.
I've been absolutely struggling with getting bogged down and sidetracked, I had started my 1912 map nearly a year ago at this point, this is a question for those who are able to make maps so quickly. How do you go about making your maps, what program, how do you do your research, and what are some valuable sources (The list on Althistorywiki has not been touched in ages). How do you actually go about making the map, how do you stay motivated, how much a day do you work, etc etc etc.
I use Paint.NET, I have a file with a blank Q-BAM and several layers of references, including terrain, rivers, modern borders, and the borderpool, adjusting visibility and opacity on them to trace when needed. I also keep plenty of patches saved, including Bob Hope’s excellent coastline stuff, that I can put in a new layer.
For research, Wikipedia is my number one source, it’s usually got most of the info I need. If a page doesn’t have what you’re looking for, try it in different languages. The English page for Bulgarian subdivisions is lacking, but Bulgarian Wikipedia has great maps, same for Spanish Wikipedia if you want info on Colombia and Venezuela. Statoids is a good one for divisions, but there are some holes in its data (I couldn’t find districts of Hong Kong before the 1970s, for example), and there’s no maps, but descriptions are provided to help out. The David Rumsey collection is huge and helpful, but doesn’t have anything after the 1960s. The Hisatlas maps are a great source if you can find them, but be sure to have a PDF reader that can zoom in really close for some of them. Euratlas Periodis is amazing, it’s only 21 maps, one every hundred years between 1 AD and 2000, but the detail on them is stellar. Worldstatesmen can be helpful with its chronologies of events for different territories. YouTube videomappers can be really helpful, but just in case, I like to double check things I’m not certain of, not everyone who makes those maps is great at it, and even the best ones make mistakes, so be careful. And when all else fails, google is my last resort, you might not get anywhere and find nothing, but you might get lucky and find a good resource buried in the web. And finally, don’t discount offline resources too, atlases and history books can have plenty of helpful maps you can use for reference, especially books focused on one region or country, a quick visit to the library could provide more than several hours trying to coax a map from the depths of Google.
When making maps, I start in one region, usually wherever the main event of the map’s date is, and work my way outwards from there, one country at a time, but if one area is tough or repetitive, I’ll take a break and come back to it later. I start with national borders, then do subnational, then handle any irregularities like occupations, disputes, and rebellions. Rinse and repeat until the whole map is done.
For motivation, there’s no universal solution, it comes and goes, sometimes I’ll get distracted halfway through a map and quickly churn out an unrelated project, which can actually be good,since it’ll prevent me from getting burned out on a particular map. Don’t be afraid to take breaks if you need it, pushing yourself when you don’t have it in you is only going to cause trouble moving forward. When I’m dedicating most of my day to mapping, it can be anywhere from 2 to 7+ hours of work, depending on how much free time I have and how much I feel like going, again, don’t feel like you have to work on it constantly, take a break if you need to, whether it’s just a few hours or a week, a delayed nap is better than a rushed one.
Any more questions?
