My - Real - Map

Good news! I finally - finally! - have an official map for my world!

Drawing a map for the place you write about - a place that doesn't exist on earth - is really really hard, a lot harder than I had originally thought. The first map I posted on here, I thought that one was it. I had the whole entire world right there, and then I realised that the story wasn't going to happen over the entire world, and the map grew sour for my story. So I drew another one. Again, drawing the whole world and then choosing the specific place in the world the story would take place. Didn't work. I drew at least five maps before I gave up. And then, when thinking about my story one day, when thinking about the different countries and peoples, a map came to mind. I hardly even noticed that I was imagining the map of my world and it almost slipped away before I realized what I was seeing. This map was what I saw, and it's sticking. I can imagine the story taking place here, something that I wasn't able to do with all the others.

So, that's one thing taken care of :D

The map doesn't look more realistic like the first one I did, I colored it this way to make it look more map like, more like something you'd see in a book. I'll probably end up doing a satellite-esque one sometime though.

Does anyone else have this much trouble creating a map?

I Need a Map

I'm having trouble properly writing the Chronicles and I know what the problem is.

I need a map.

Some of you might remember the map I posted a while back, declaring that it was the map for the Chronicles. Yeah. Not so much. As the story changed so did the idea of what the world looked like and so that entitled a new map. So I started on another one but wasn't satisfied with it and so I fiddled around with another one. But no. I can't find the right place.

Perhaps it's because nothing is truly matching the world I have in mind. It just isn't it you know? But I honestly don't think I'll be able to find anything that will match up and I'm just going to have to stick with one. It probably seems like I should just not do a map at all at this point but with a map, it could easily supply tons of information just by being there. Once I decide the place where my MC lives I could instantly know what the climate is like, if it's near a mountain, next to a river. . . And I can have a head start on what the places and people will be like in any other city because I'll know the surroundings.

So. . . I need a map. Call it procrastination or whatever but I call it planning and world building. The only problem will be finding the map. . .

Oh! I'd like to say yay! for Tahereh getting a book deal! That's totally awesome and I can't wait for it to come out!

And with the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan, I'd just like to say I pray that they recover from it, and for all those who lost friends and family due to the disaster. And I hope that the nuclear power plant gets under control soon, and that those who are trying to do just that will be safe as possible.

 (by pinkandroid on deviantart.com)

My Map and a Fantasy Reference

Wow, I'm already writing another post! Hurray :D

Well, I just wanted to show you guys my updated map of my world! It's still not finished, needs some more islands and I have to add the major lakes and rivers but it's about done:

(Click it!)

I also need to think of names for the oceans and the countries but I'm very satisfied with this!

On another note:

For probably a year now I have had this fantasy reference book that I got from an out of town Barnes and Noble, and have skimmed through some of it every now and then but never actually used it.

What a mistake that was.

I haven't thought to look through it again until someone on the WriYe forums brought it up, listing some very useful magic/worldbuilding questions the book asked. So last night I opened this book up again after so many months and found a wealth of fantasy information, including - but not limited to - some commonly used magic rules - as well as uncommon - and the different magics that have been practised in history by different cultures! This has greatly helped me with the problems I've had developing my own magical system. But magic isn't the only thing it talks about. It has a section on traditional fantasy cultures, real world cultures and a ton of other things! If you are a fantasy writer then I highly advice you get this book. It's The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference. You won't be disappointed.

Happy writing!

Christmas is almost here!

This is the reason I haven't posted in so long. I had to get gifts for my parents and help my mom figure out what to get everyone. I got my dad a tomahawk. Still don't know what he'll think of it but it's really cool looking. I got my mom a silver necklace shaped like an angel wing, reminiscent of my '09 NaNo about angels and how my love of angel wings came to be. She'll love it, I know. We got my dad one of those electric cigarettes and we're going to slowly get him to quite by lowering the tobacco content over an extended period of time, haha :) But that was a wild goose chase, we originally bought it at the mall, one of those little booth stores in the middle, and went home, got online to see if we could get it cheaper, thinking we could return it if we found it somewhere else. We did find it, way cheaper. So cheap we could buy three (two extra for gifts for others in the family) and a bunch of different flavors. My mom called up the people we bought the cigarette from at the mall and they said that the website sold refurbished ones. So she then called the website when finished with the mall people and they said they weren't refurbished in any way, so she ordered them.

So, today we went to the mall to take back the other one, and find out that they don't do refunds. Only exchanges. My mom was livid but there wasn't really anything she could do, no matter what she said. The people did not tell us that they didn't accept refunds and that's just not right to do to you're customers. So, we exchanged it for a case and refill things and, well, that's it. But we learned our lesson. Don't buy something until you check online first, and don't trust those people at those stores in the middle.

Whew. Anyway.

I really like the atmosphere of the time leading up to Christmas, it's jut a kind of lighthearted feeling that doesn't really come around during any other time of the year. Even in the chaos and stress of making sure you get everyone gifts (and what are you supposed to get everyone anyway!?) and you don't spend every last penny. What do you guys like about Christmas? Other than getting gifts, I mean ;)

I've been slacking off my story a bit this month, I thought I finished my map finally hardly a week ago but I've got to move the continents around some before I'm done and add in the islands. And I have been messing around with things like myths, customs and, cause of all this holiday cheer, potential holidays and where they may originate from for my worlds countries.

I'm also going to compile my list of goals for next year before the month is out, though I have a strange feeling it will have to do with writing.

My Map!

The last two days have been fun! I'm almost done with my ginormous map and when I say 'ginormous' I mean ginormous. Take a look:

Click on  it to get the full effect. The cellphone is just to give you an idea of how big it is. I had to move my couch out of the way cause there wasn't enough floor space after awhile. I probably went overboard regarding how big this thing is, but there is no way I would've been able to draw it on a small piece of paper, I just wouldn't be able to wrap my mind around drawing a whole world with continents and stuff on a little piece of printer paper.

Although, I did have a much smaller map that I was using before I drew this big one:

That's all I had before but then I traced it onto the bigger paper and added on and on and. . . Well, you get it.

I actually have to add one or two more continents before I'm done with it but I got too excited and took pictures of it, traced it into the computer using GIMP and made it look like an awesome map! Something I've never gotten to do before because I never had a desktop before with an actual MOUSE! All I had before was a 13'' laptop. But, anyway, here is the awesomeness of my map as it is so far:

Click on iiit!

I've still gotta add mountains and stuff like that and make it look more. . . map-ish and stuff but I'll do that after I figure everything out :D

Haha, okay. This is the first time I've drawn a map of this magnitude and actually got to put it in the computer to do stuff like this to it so I'm a bit excited right now. Drawing this map had been an awesome inspiration and brainstorm too! I've got ideas for different countries and conflicts and ways of transportation AND I think my story may take place somewhere else than I had it set all this time, but we'll see :D