case: (Default)
Case ([personal profile] case) wrote in [community profile] fandomsecrets2016-06-11 03:25 pm

[ SECRET POST #3447 ]


⌈ Secret Post #3447 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 56 secrets from Secret Submission Post #493.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Help visualizing a landscape

(Anonymous) 2016-06-11 08:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Hey guys, help needed on this as I have no sense of scale. I'm writing a fic set on a (magical) island in the Mid-north Atlantic (about 400 miles west of Scotland) and I just am having trouble visualizing it. The island is about 80 miles by 100 miles, and it is 2000ft tall cliffs as its shore (surrounded by a ship rending reef) broken only by a single crack where a river drains from it in a single great waterfall, falling to an interior which varies between 1500 and 1000ft above sea level. Its a literary fandom so there are no visuals except the book jackets, which are not very good for landscapes, and I'm just trying to get a sense of what it would look like.

It is described as being roughly like a diamond, with the top third given over to forest, the mid third is broken rocky heath and scraggly woods of birch, heather, and flag oak where cattle and pigs forage, and the lower third orchards of hazel, apple, soft fruits along with farmland for oats; it is also where the people live.

Is there any website that anyone knows that I can go and create landscapes on and try to get a sense of what it would look like in landscape terms, not to mention trying to work out travel times. The original author does great character stuff and great action scenes, but tends to skip on travel times and landscape descriptions. I'm finding myself with writer's block until I can work out just what the characters ought to be seeing and what sort of traveling they'd be doing. Any help on this would be great.

Re: Help visualizing a landscape

(Anonymous) 2016-06-11 09:22 pm (UTC)(link)
I was actually looking into something similair earlier today, and found the r/mapmaking wiki helpful:

https://www.reddit.com/r/mapmaking/wiki/index

Maybe you'll find something that'll help you there! :)

Re: Help visualizing a landscape

(Anonymous) 2016-06-11 09:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks, that is a lot of information there. Truth be told I was hoping for something a bit more visual, if that makes sense.

Re: Help visualizing a landscape

(Anonymous) 2016-06-11 10:06 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm sorry I don't have any specific world building resources for you, but maybe google pics of the Faroe Islands or Orkney Islands, or maybe Isle of Skye? They sound roughly like what you describe and it might help you get a better visual sense of the possible landscape.

Re: Help visualizing a landscape

(Anonymous) 2016-06-11 10:26 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't know about landscape creation, but taking a look at pictures of County Donegal in Ireland might help in visual terms? That's the nearest geographically to the position of this island. It sounds as though it's igneous rock, and Iceland and the west coast of Scotland and would also give suitable images.

Travel times will depend on what means of transport they're using. Foot, horse, dragon? Are there roads? The little_details com has several tags for travel. http://little-details.livejournal.com/tag/

Re: Help visualizing a landscape

(Anonymous) 2016-06-11 10:28 pm (UTC)(link)
SA Also, I'd like to know the canon! It sounds right up my alley.

Re: Help visualizing a landscape

(Anonymous) 2016-06-11 10:44 pm (UTC)(link)
SA Also, for a sense of the enclosure in the interior, try googling images like "caldera" "summit crater" and "summit valley". Places like the Canary Islands, Hawai'i and Pinatubo came up for me.

Re: Help visualizing a landscape

(Anonymous) 2016-06-11 11:03 pm (UTC)(link)
SA Sorry - this will be the last one! "Ring dykes" appear to be fairly close to what you want, like the Ring of Gullion in Ireland. But after thinking it over, in the middle of the island, you'd be looking out to 500' - 1,000' hills forty miles away, so actually not as impressive as a caldera.