I'm a new participant here so forgive me if there's a more apt location for this inquiry. And it's a rather basic question, but I hope it can raise some more "deep" or abstract discussions on the nature of mapping. Here's what I'd like to understand:

What is a STORY MAP?

People tend to use this term in two or three ways.

I've seen it mean, first, a map of a region in which some elements of the associated story are labeled. So, using Tolkien's Middle Earth as an example, this would be a map of Middle Earth with a picture of a spider near, in fact on top of, Shelob's laird (Shelob is a big spider), and maybe a label with something like "Here Gollum and Sam and Frodo encountered Shelob." This looks to me more like an "annotated map."

Second, I've seen the term mean, a map to go along with a story. Thus, using the same example, it is roughly any fantasy map, including a map as published of Tolkien's Middle Earth. This seems to me a rather facile misappropriation of the term.

Third, I've seen it mean, a visual representation of a story's elements. So, you get something that shows where the climax comes along an arc, whether there are complicating elements one-third or two-thirds of the way along the length of that arc, and so on. It's not really a "map" (in so far as, I personally assume, the term "map" has to include something having to do with geography and area). It's more like an "abstract graphical representation of concepts arising from a particular story." Usually the line starts out low, crosses a point labeled "inciting action," then rapidly ascends to up high, where it has an "X" mark at the top of a peak, then falls down low again quickly past words like "denouement" and "conclusion." Eighth grade stuff.

But I think this forum uses the term in more sensible manner, or manners. I would just like to talk about how the term can be defined and what your own definition suggests about your own expectations of cartography, etc..

Your thoughts?