Jalyha

As a mapping-curious individual who is here to exploit cartography for the sole purpose of enriching my world, I'm finding these forums to be strangely addictive.

The fact that it is not as busy here as some of my other forums seems to aggravate the addiction.

And now, you give me, a person to whom the need to write is as natural as the need to breathe.. a place to write what I will.

I promise I shall try to keep it map-related. Or at least world-building related. If I fail it will be at least pg-rated...

Well okay, I have little to no control over the words that flow from my fingers. No more so than I can control my breathing. I've heard there are people who can do that, but I'm not one of them. You should have seen me in Lamaze class... "He? Who?" and "What are you people DOING?"

But I digress. I suppose, for my first blog post in this map-making guild, I should write about all the lovely maps I've made. I would. I promise I would... if I had finished any.

My primary problem with mapping seems to be the same problem I have in my real-life activities: I get distracted.

It's ADD or ADHD or one of those acronyms. I've not been diagnosed with anything like that, but it does seem to fit. My mind jumps from one thing to the next with no apparent rhyme or reason. At least, not to anyone but me.

I can follow the thought progression perfectly.

Case in point:

I wake up, determined to work on my world map. I open the map and realize that my coastlines look funny. (See, I've been paying attention!) So I go looking for a tutorial on coastlines. I find a lovely tutorial, and read through the thread to make sure there are not any drastic flaws. One post references a map by AmazingCartographer14875910-1. I click the link. The map is fabulous. I see a house that has PRECISELY the effect I want for my Lite Challenge Village. So I open the village map, quickly, so that I won't forget. I sketch in approximately 2 lines, and realize that the dimensions of my buildings are way off.

Away I go to find a tutorial/hint/post/anything to tell me how to scale down my buildings without ruining the entire map. I search and search, and although I don't (yet) find what I need for the situation, I find a wonderful post discussing those funny lines on all the "parchment" style maps... what are those anyway? Oh THANK YOU. Now I know. I should add those to the map of the main "port" city in my book. Where did I put that map anyway?

Oh gosh, this looks awful. I remember now... I was supposed to make it less "round". Also... I need to finish it, so I can work on my book, which was the whole reason I came to thi...

Oh, look! I have a message. We're discussing my conlang, and I go on for quite some time.

Hmmm? Sorry, my kid just came and told me it's time for me to make breakfast, and give him his bath. Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiine.

And I'm back. What was I doing? I don't recall. Let's check for new posts. Ohh there's quite a few. Maybe I'll find something interesting, or inspirational or ...

*drool*

I'm sorry, where was I? and... OMG is that the time??? I've been up all night, and accomplished nothing.

*cycle through SCDD*

*Rinse and repeat*

Well. Any progress is progress... even five seconds' worth. If I keep at it, eventually I will finish something, right?

RIGHT??

(Does anyone read these things?)

Bye for now.