> Philip Pullman (author of the His Dark Materials books): “Writing is a matter of sullen toil. Drawing is pure joy. Drawing a map to go with a story is messing

> Philip Pullman (author of the His Dark Materials books): “Writing is a matter of sullen toil. Drawing is pure joy. Drawing a map to go with a story is messing around, with the added fun of coloring in.” It's the other way for me - in writing I can invent nonsense, and call it reality, and that's just how it is. However, the moment I start to create a map, I need to either consider the environmental factors of mountain and river placement on local geology, or invent an entire weather system that explains why it's acceptable for the forest to live where it does, because it'd be a desert in our world.