Do you ever use old maps of places, so when you are writing an Historical novel, you can name the streets they walk through, and would be walking though during that time?

David R. Gillham said he did this when he wrote City of Women, and the thought intrigued me.

I never thought about using old maps. Do you know of any good resources for finding them? That would be a good idea.

I love maps and I think using them to write historical fiction novels are a great idea. It provides a better perspective, especially if you are writing about a certain place at a time when the boundaries were different from what it is now.

I found a website that posts old maps they find from time to time. It is very interesting! http://www.bigmapblog.com/

Thaaat is an awesome site. 0.0

I do think that if you're going to go into detail about street names and specific buildings etcetera you should be accurate about it. It's disappointing when I find out something like that in a book was actually inaccurate. It's much nicer if they go to the trouble to match the place to the time.

But you don't have to be so specific if you don't want to spend as much time on research....

I don't at present, Elizabeth. I definitely would do this if I went back to my Elizabethan novel, though. So I'll let you know if I find any.



I definitely agree, Idril!

Thanks for sharing that link! Brilliant site.



*Nods* I think I'd be more disappointed though if I found out that all the streets used were made up. Even if every street you name isn't accurate, adding a few in that are is surely a nice touch, don't you think?