Vaniya - WIP

[Karro]

Too many. I suspect 1 in 3 fantasy readers is also writing a novel

Probably an accurate statistic.

Or at least attempting to.

This got me thinking. Of those writing a fantasy or sci-fi novel (let's say it's really 1/3 of all readers in these genres) how many will actually produce a finished work? Of those that finish, how many will submit to publishers or agents? (Or even, how many will submit to a vanity press?) Of those that get submitted somewhere, how many are read by a decision maker (i.e. editor) at a traditional, reputable publishing house? How many actually get green-lighted for publication and eventually make it to your local/online bookseller?

I was perusing the F&SF aisles of my local B&N recently, and was impressed that there were a lot of F&SF writers out there, many of whom I'd never heard of before. I'd wager there are somewhere in the hundreds of writers actually producing publishable material.

So, I tried to extrapolate the number of active readers in the community (which is hard to do, sales figures are difficult to rely on). So... I'm thinking maybe there's something like between 1 Million and 30 Million readers of F&SF between the US and Europe. This suggests there might be between 300,000 and 10 Million budding F&SF novelists, we'll estimate the number at roughly a million of us. Now it'd be tough to generate an estimate of how many of us actually finish a work - there's no published stastitic we could use for such an estimate that I'm aware of. But we can see that somewhere along in the above process, there's a precipitous drop from the number who are trying to write a novel to those who actually make it to the bookstore shelves. We're looking at a stat that may positively be marginally better than one-in-a-million, and could easily be much, much worse. Them's long odds!

I don't know if this thought will motivate us budding writers-to-be or discourage us? Me, I guess I'll keep on writing, no matter what, because even if I can't make it, even if it's truly impossible, I still love the craft.

Now... if only whenever I tried to take a postive step toward writing, since I hit a time-consuming snag that could take months to unravel in creating my map, I didn't keep hitting a point and saying to myself: "How can I write about 'x' without a half-decent map?" If only I were satisifed with a rough-and-ugly sketch!

[Gandwarf]

I don't know if this thought will motivate us budding writers-to-be or discourage us? Me, I guess I'll keep on writing, no matter what, because even if I can't make it, even if it's truly impossible, I still love the craft.

I try not to think about it. My goal wasn't to be published anyway. I used to write to make some money, but after my studies I got into the internet industry. The same year I started writing my novels, mostly as a hobby and a way to keep my pencils sharp

At the moment I have book one finished, the second book about 90% finished and the third book 50% finished. I have several people nagging me to send my first book to a publisher, but somehow I can't push myself to do it... probably because I think I will be rejected anyway

Ah well, good times!

/threadjack

[Ramah]

I hope to get the final version of this posted up either tonight or tomorrow. I made a start adding labels but I've become a little disillusioned in doing so. Most of this map, although kinda sketched out for many years, is new to me and it feels wrong to just go placing towns willy-nilly without much thought going into backstory. I want towns and features putting in there, but I want to take a slower, more considered approach to it.
So I'm going to wrap up what I'm doing with what major cities or places that I know and then call it done for now. I know it's not truly done and I'm absolutely positive that I will be adding stuff to the map for some time to come but I won't keep posting updates to it unless there is some major change or I finally call it completely finished.
I'm sure I could keep working on it for weeks or months and still not be satisfied, and all the while I'll be neglecting the real reason I started making the map in the first place which is the story it is supposed to be a visual aid to.

So for now at least, I'm calling it done.

So I'll post the next version in the Finished Maps forum shortly.

[Gandwarf]

Woohoo
I think you are doing this the right the way. Just placing things to fill the map has never made much sense for me...

[Dain]

Awesome map! Congrats! really impressive.

Sorry for the dumb question but does anyone know where to get the brushes used to label the cities (the rounds, squares etc.) Is it a brush or something else?
Thanks

[Miralys]

I really like how your map is evolving - the newest version is stunning. I didn't read through all the posts - did you give a brief overview what is happening in your story? I'd love to know!

[cfds]

The map is stunning. Only the borders of Romara look kind of weird. Why don't they lay claim to the land between the river and the mountains in their nord-east? The deep bay into Doras doesn't look to right either. But it is your world and there will be an explanation, I guess.