Mapping without Seeing

[Gidde]

Step 6. Towns, roads, labels
Now that you have rivers, hills and mountains, you have all the information you need to put in your evidence of people: towns, roads, names for things. I just use dots for towns; if you love the way your inspiration map denotes towns, follow the same steps you did for the mountains, and be prepared; town symbols can take even more practice, trial and error. Once you have your muscle memory and instructions (or are prepared to make your dots), put in towns and cities, remembering the following: Cities and towns are often found on rivers, lakes, oceans, as each is a ready source of both water and waste disposal (not smart, but true for medieval-type settings). Roads connect major cities, and will happily cut through forests but go around hills and mountains (between symbols is a great place to put that mountain pass everyone uses). At the intersections of roads, towns and cities will grow regardless of no river etc. being there; they'll dig wells for water instead. Label your mountain ranges, hills, towns, cities, rivers, and even the big blank spots where you plan on having large tracts of forest or desert, etc.; it's much easier to draw these around words than it is to put in the labels afterward.