Map Making Blunders

Like any world builder, I love drawing maps.  Like a lot of things I love to do, I’ve had next to no training in cartography (incidentally, if you know where one goes to get such training, please let me know).

I try to do as much research as I can, so that what come out with is at least baseline realistic.  And of course, I’ve made mistakes.  I joined a con-cartography forum a while back, and finally got up the courage to post one of my maps.  In the very first comment, I was bluntly told my rivers were wrong.

It stung.

But he was right.  I had the basic understanding that rivers came from mountains.  I believed rivers split and branched off according to the lay of the land.  They actually do, but the process is more complex than what I understood, or what my map indicated.

Basically, I had massive rivers flowing out of my mountain ranges, and branching off into three or four different rivers.  Backwards design.  I took the critique, and I fixed the problem.  Despite how much it hurts to be corrected, I’d rather that than keep making the same mistake and looking like a fool.

So, here’s my new and improved map, corrected rivers and all.  Let me know what you think.  I promise, I won’t get upset

How do critiques make you feel?  Do you prefer blunt and to the point, or carefully worded?