X Marks the Spot
Monday, March 7, 2011 at 8:00AM
As a young reader, I loved opening a new book and finding a map on the endpapers. Maps promised that the characters would travel from here to there, with plenty of adventures—and maybe some buried treasure—along the way. I had no idea that as a writer for teen readers, I would rely so heavily on maps and plans to construct my imaginary worlds.
In Toads and Diamonds, the book’s setting of an empire crafted from a hundred kingdoms is based on a real time and place: India during the mid-17th century, the era of the Mughal Emperors and construction of the Taj Mahal. When the story begins, stepsisters Tana and Diribani live in a western port town modeled on Surat. The plot involves a voyage south and eastward across the subcontinent, to a stronghold near historically rich diamond mines. How long, I wondered, in an era before planes, trains, and automobiles, should it take the travelers to get from here to there?
A current map answered the basic question of distance: about 550 miles. Fortunately, French jewel trader Jean Baptiste Tavernier wrote about making a similar trip during the period in question. It took his caravan twenty-seven days to navigate the route, often traveling at night to avoid the desert heat. In his memoir, he recounts the weather and the road conditions and what he ate along the way—and what the oxen and camels ate, too. All of that information helped me write about my characters’ travels.
Ah…treasure, photo credit: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History]
As a side note, there’s so much more interesting material in real life than you can fit in a book! It turns out that Tavernier is the same merchant who bought (probably smuggled) a huge blue diamond out of the Golconda Mines. The gem was destined for King Louis XIV of France and, as the Hope Diamond, eventually found its way to the Smithsonian.
Architectural plans added new story ideas. Researching palaces of the era, I found one I loved… in Agra. Waving a writer’s creative license, I transplanted the Jahangiri Mahal to Golconda’s steep hilltop site and adapted other structures to suit the hill’s topography. Drafting the map to the Ladies’ Quarter helped me imagine how the characters would behave inside.
Agra Fort Complex: Royal Apartments, Exterior view of great courtyard and porch of audience hall, credit ©John R. Dale / Courtesy Aga Khan Visual Archive, MIT]
Today, we value corner offices and penthouse suites. Back then, I learned, a noblewoman’s status was judged by how far her rooms were located from the royal ladies’ apartments! With its multi-story design including private and public courts, areas divided by filigree screens, balconied halls, and underground bathing rooms, the palace’s very specific architecture helped shape the characters’ daily activities. Chambers of similar size and shape might have very different functions, depending on their decoration, the number of access points, and their relation to other rooms. The fact that only three doors in the entire palace led to the outside world reminded me how restricted these women were. By contrast, the rooftop garden offered some escape from the protocol enforced below.
It was fun to play with the fort’s overall layout, too. When a character wanted to visit an artist’s workshop, I put one…here! Walking back to the palace, a wasp chased her into a prayer hall…there! The guards and soldiers and their horses needed barracks, stables, and practice fields. A merchant quarter, market, and residential areas fit snugly between the fort’s outer and inner walls. Putting all the elements on paper helped me when it came time to write the scenes set within the fort and palace. And, although none of the maps I used were meant to appear inside the book, they proved essential tools for visualizing the story.
Reader Comments (1)
nice post i looks interesting to read keep continue...