For this workshop, you will need paper, something to draw with, and something to color with if you’d like. Watch the video of the live stream and follow the steps below to make your map.
You can pick up a copy of Margaret’s upcoming book And Now I Spill The Family Secrets from our friends at Bookshop, where proceeds will help benefit The Believer and independent bookstores.
Step 1) Take thirty seconds and draw a shape that will contain your map.
Step 2) Now, make a label for your map. Margaret drew The Glumly Village. You can do this too, or pick your own name!
Step 3) Draw a local institution in your town. Margaret drew a sewage treatment plant. You can draw that, or anything you’d like!
Step 4) Draw a water feature. This can be a lake, a river, a swamp, anything!
Step 5) Draw your character’s house! If you’re doing a nonfiction map, you can draw your own house. If you’re doing a fictional map, go ahead and invent a dwelling for your character.
Step 6) Draw three kinds of terrain. You get a whole five minutes for this step.
Step 7) Draw a historical event or tragedy. You can mark where something important took place in your town—it can be small, like falling off your bike, or big, like a historical battle.
Step 8) Now, draw a local adversary. This could be a monster–or a frenemy!
