Amateur Author Reaching Out

[DawnFireWorks]

My name is Anthony T. Boling, and I am far from a cartographer, though I do have an interest in learning. I am however, an amateur writer who enjoys a large array of genres, and not bound to any one in particular. However, I haven't actually finished anything. Part of it is I get bored or distracted, and another part is I either loose my notes or another idea for a different project comes up in my mind. There isn't really much else to say without going into my life.

[ChickPea]

Hi Anthony, and welcome to the Guild.

I sympathise with you, as I'm also pretty bad for being distracted by new and shiny things. If you'd really like to improve your mapping skills, I suggest taking part in one of our challenges, probably the Lite Challenge to start. Each challenge has a theme and you've got one month to create a map based on that theme. I find that looming deadline helps me focus. You learn lots too, by creating maps you wouldn't have considered trying otherwise. Anyway, it's just a thought, not trying to be pushy! New people are always welcome.

Hope you manage to find your way around the forum, but if you need help with anything, just ask.

[DrRhubarb]

Anthony, whether it is illustrating, game creation, writing, or any creative project, ideas are the easy part, it's following through and putting in the hours that is the hard part. I think we all suffer from that. I call the beginning of any new project, the romantic period. That is the period where you are full of energy and excitement and you have managed to get other folks infected with the excitement. Then you start to build the framework of your idea. Once you get past this outline of the idea, then comes the honeymoon period where you are noodling out all these neat ideas and seeing the future you are building on this great project. Then comes the part where you have worked out most of the ideas and now you are sentenced to hard time. This is the period where you know what you have to do now and the end is so far away. This is the period where I often get lost or life gets in the way, or......squirrel!