Not sure what to say...

Well, I'm Jalyha. I'm not really a Cartographer, but I think I might like to be.

Perhaps if I say a bit about how I got here.

I'm a writer, or at least I always try to be. I'm quite good at it, but I've never finished anything. This time I got close and then realized that the way I'd pictured my (fantasy) world in my head, it just wouldn't work out right. My rivers and mountains were moving throughout the story, and I've no way to account for that type of magic. Big No-no.

So I drew a (really awful) sketch of my world, oceans and continents and islands. I flattened it out and tried sketching in the rivers and lakes and mountains. Forests and hills. I got so engrossed in my work that I forgot to eat dinner or go to bed. And when I was finished, it looked... awful.

Drawing the world, however, made me want to draw the moons and sun, and write descriptions. After a few months I ended up with an entire book about the world in my (unfinished) manuscript.

And I still didn't have a decent map. I tried again, this time with MS Paint and ended up with even worse maps.

I gave up, for months I didn't touch my world. But I couldn't get maps out of my head.

Finally I ended up on a website devoted to world-building, and some of those links led me here. Without registering for either site, I'd compiled enough new info to make a really pretty map of one continent.

It wasn't enough. I've been prowling your site for weeks, drawing maps and geographical features and ... well, I've become pretty much obsessed. I LOVE the entire process (what I've got down so far) and I think if I could do it *right*, and draw fabulous new realms for the rest of my life, I'd be content.

So... I registered, and here I am, with no idea where to start.

Hi!

~Jalyha

(PS: I talk a lot)