Umm...just wondering:
With the exception of White Raven's essence map of Machu Pichu, all the essence maps I've seen posted are of characters. Just kinda wondering what other uses there are for essence maps in fantasy writing besides just delving deeper into characters. White Raven's Machu Pichu essence map, proves that they can be used for cities. What else can they be used for?

This might seem like an odd question, but as more of a worldbuilder type who hasn't written a story in ages I don't really have any characters to make essence maps of, yet I am very interested in essence mapping. So what else can be mapped besides characters?

In Christ,
Jordan aka Mr. Squishy

Just about anything! Remember, Essence is simply a list of metaphors put into a structure. The metaphors are what you think of every time you look at/read/hear/etc. something. If I'm understanding Essence correctly, each object has an infinite number of Essences, depending on who looks at it/reads it/hears it/etc. One person might look at a blanket and it makes them think of sage, and another looks at the same blanket and thinks of smashed peas. It all depends on the person.

So basically, anything. A sunset. A flower. A piece of music. A piano. A book. A pink sweatsuit (which just happens to be what I'm wearing at the moment. ) Find the things that you think of when you look/read/hear/etc. the thing and put them into a structure. Got me?

Think I've got ya. But I think, if I understand correctly that everything has only one essence, but an infinite number of meta-essences/perceived essence, which is what we map. Could be wrong on that though.

And while I understand that you can theoretically make an essence map for anything, I've only ever seen this particular system for essence mapping applied to characters and am left wondering how an essence map for a non-character would look in this system. Wow, that was a long (but grammatically correct) sentence! I think what I should have asked is how can this system for mapping essences be applied to such things as races, countries, buildings, artifacts, religions, etc. I figure there is a way, it's just kinda intimidating to think about since I'm new to this and have no real examples to look at. If I had made a few maps of different characters and was more familiar with the system, it would be easier to see how to adapt it to meet my needs; however, it is much scarier to figure out how to adapt a system that I'm not familiar with.

Thanks for the help, though. I do appreciate it
In Christ, Jordan aka Mr. Squishy

"A certain someone"... I tell you it worked!

Anyways, they are perfectly right. You can do an essence map of anything you can conceive (and pretty much anything else as well). It was actually originally intended to capture ideas that were inconceivable, and then articulate them capably. So there are no limits.

Characters are just the easiest for some/most people, and so that is what generally comes up first.

I will be spewing out maps in ECSS++ and ECSSbasic for practically everything in my community story if it goes through, describing scenes, worlds, technologies, battles, people, ideas, plots, emotions, and everything else. So you might want to practice. Haha.

Interesting idea...you mean essence mapping can apply to other things as well as characters? I guess characters are where the benefits come to mind the easiest, but I can see how essence mapping could be used to characterize an 'evil' nation, for example.

eruheran

I've never mapped a character yet.
My first map was of a talismanic (my own word) stone named Corrin.
My next was of my username Seer.
Then I mapped Evening L. Aspen's username.
And should be finished with your username shortly.
That's four maps so far and not one has been of a character

I haven't done an essence map, persay, but I've thought about the essence of stuff for stories, and it's true that everything has an essence and everything has a way it's perceived. Since I write movies (and not novels ), knowing how things are perceived is invaluable, because you as the writer know more about the sitaution/place/creature/nation that you are writing about and you are able to bring that out in the writing.

(I really need to do an essence map sometime)