Still, these historical times provoke contemplation on the lives of surveyors and explorers mapping the continent. Sometimes, as a writer, you'll write about real-world geographical places you've never been to. Some may question a novel’s authenticity based on an author’s experiences, yet research into a local area’s culture and topography can create perceived realism. It doesn't make the novel any less authentic; in fact, while there may be mild inaccuracies, an author who might extensively study an area could report it better than an author who's been there and writes based on anecdotal evidence.
I'm someone who does both. There are countless places I'd love to visit, but money is tight for us all. The next best thing is researching, but it makes you wonder how you can still be authentic to the places you have visited. For example, if I were to write about experiences being in the Southwestern United States throughout its mountains, arid landscapes, hot summers, and frigid winters, those would be purely anecdotal. Indeed, while it's accurate to the location, I have not extensively walked all over the place like some other dedicated authors might have. I think one of the greatest examples of this is Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and how he wrote the book.
It took Cormac McCarthy around a decade to write Blood Meridian, and the reason might surprise you. Because he was trying to be authentic to the post Mexican-American war period on the American side in Texas and Northern Mexico, he traveled the trails that the protagonists in the book walked to memorize the topography and immerse himself in both the culture of the southwest and be accurate down to the hill with his geographical interpretation. Though he had spurts of not even touching his project for months on end out of frustration, he eventually wrote the book in its entirety. To this day, critics consider Blood Meridian his magnum opus and more than just that; his work of fiction is considered a nearly accurate representation of Samuel Chamberlain's work as a scalp hunter (the historical man who inspired Blood Meridian) of the men he met while working with the Glanton Gang. Because of McCarthy's immense attention to detail, the book was exceptional with his dedication to his research.
Blood Meridian was published in 1985, and since then, technology and especially mapping have come a long way. Because it's so expensive to travel and often cheaper to just run a computer and immerse yourself there, computer programs that help simulate real-world geography are some people's best friends as writers. As silly as this might sound, my friends and I were playing Minecraft recently using a program called Arnis (not sponsored), and the program generates selected, real-world areas in a 1:1 scale. The program effectively simulates what it's like to be in a location, and while the 'blocks' themselves may not be completely accurate, the topography and street maps are generally very accurate. Sometimes, to write, you have to do anything where you can get information, and this is a fun, expressive way to figure out what real-world locations might be; even if you decide to fictionalize them by adding streets, buildings, bridges, etc.
Moving onto fictional locations, especially that of a fantasy novel, I think it's imperative that an author understands realistic geographical and topographical features. Wind patterns, towering mountains, continental interiors, depressions, coastlines—everything has its own microclimate. Naturally, you don't need to world-build every little detail to make sure it's authentic or realistic. In the future, when I write a fantasy novel, what I might do is keep the full map a secret and just base it on where the protagonists of the story visit, like a journey novel. This lets you do significantly less than determine the entire area of a planet; you can just do a small region instead. You can travel around 5-10 miles a day with an Ox & Cart, 20-30 by walking, 40-60 by horseback, and from 80 to 150 nautical miles by ship (these distances are averages and don't include weather, bandits/raiders, rugged terrain, etc. etc.).
While fictional, fantastical geography is one thing, another fun idea is the geography of other planets/satellites in our solar system by fictional terraforming. Since we have the surface maps of the Moon, Mars, etc., we can theoretically make a map that's almost pre-made in a sense in the sci-fi genre. You can determine how deep the oceans are along particular coastlines, where lakes might be, wetlands, arid areas, etc. My science fiction writers will know that life on the Moon and Mars will be significantly different from Earth beyond superficial sky views. The orbital periods, day lengths, and gravity, will all determine a completely different environment to Earth. If you weigh 1/6th your current weight on the moon, you will feel an immense difference even if the moon is terraformed.
The thing about writing is that knowledge is one thing, but one must never infringe on your own creativity. If you want to do something that doesn't follow the rules of geography or science, you don't have to follow it. These tips are strictly for research only; for those who are looking to write realism as far as geographical reasoning goes. In my personal opinion, I think geography is one of the most overlooked pieces of writing since it's the physical environment and surrounding areas. While physical geography determines a world (with resources to note), what determines a world just as much are national/subdivisional borders.
While geopolitics are worthy of their own blog post, I will say that each system has pros and cons depending on what you're evaluating. There's a reason that the United States and the Soviet Union were in a Cold War as ideological superpowers, but notice how the Soviet Union attempted to control the entire Northern European plain using satellite states. This was because throughout history, Moscow is essentially open to plains from any invading army from the west. Napoleon took Moscow; the German Reich initiated a battle on the city's outskirts, and it was clear that the only geographical advantage that the Soviets had between the west was the distance. Soviet leaders understood that their western flank was weak, so they attempted to control it all the way up to East Germany and Czechoslovakia. While that's an example of physical geography determining a major piece of Soviet foreign policy, there's more than just the physical geographical element.
Another example of geography determining national borders, geopolitics, and wars is resources. In fact, I'd argue that resources would be a much larger factor on national borders than physical geography. No nation has unlimited resources, and global trade benefits everyone because of the transference of funds, goods, and resources. For example, the United States produces the most food globally and exports tons of it to other nations. However, regarding coffee, the country can only grow it naturally in Hawaii and a small part of California (especially southern areas near San Diego). Meanwhile, Brazil is the largest coffee producer on Earth, so trade between these two countries on paper works very well. Even something as simple as this can determine national relationships and how aggressive a nation's foreign policy might be. The refusal of a nation in a fantasy setting to trade, along with its complete authority over its restricted exports, could instigate a war if the resources are viewed as a necessity, thus contributing to the realism element.
Since this post is already long, the last geographical thing I'll go over is ethnic borders. Like in real life, national borders do not always reflect ethnic borders. Africa and the Middle East are prime examples of this, and the reason ethnicities matter is mutual culture and language. Kurdistan is one of the largest non-sovereign state for example, and they're ruled by other powers that control and enforce their land. So, while it's easy to draw lines or squiggles on a map and say 'that's a country', that's usually how colonial powers did it when they decolonized. Depending on the time of what you write and how fictional the world is, nation-states might be the most common thing you put, or maybe it's more modern and they have a melting pot culture like the countries of the Americas and Oceania. Ideologies matter, but these are what truly mark national borders.
Thanks everyone for tuning in! As we speak, my current update is that I'm searching for good terms for distribution that allow me to keep the full rights of my book and grant it availability to a large market. Soon we'll have distribution, likely before we even know it! Who knows, maybe I'll even have the draft of this next book done before my debut is released. It's all a process, a journey, and learning how we proceed in this strange world we are born to.
Until we meet again, Happy Independence Day!
Dustin