Thank you for posting, tylertoo! I appreciate the kind words and your dynasty thread offers some really good advice on how to try and keep the fictional league compelling after the initial background story is set out. I'll be going back to it regularly for direction. I'm jealous to hear that you will be self-publishing your novel!
That is so awesome! I also think it's cool that your leagues began play on May 2 (my bday).
I agree with the sentiment that you can't get overly worried about what others might think, after your dynasty settles into a baseball league narrative. As long as you still find it compelling and enjoy it, then that should show through in your writing and reports. DreamTeams' and Eugene Church's leagues demonstrate that perfectly. I enjoy making repeated visits to DreamTeams' Metro Leagues for example, and exploring the cities.
I realized that most of what I wrote regarding my fictional world was downright boring, so I dropped it for a few years, not knowing what to do with it. But then I noticed one of the dynasties here on the boards presented their information using a timeline, and I realized that was what I needed as well. So most of my dry writing was converted to a timeline and I kept a few chapters that I really liked.
You have an incredible map - I love it! For mine, I just googled 'island maps' and found one that I felt I could work with -
Orcas Island off the coast of Washington State. I did a bunch of modifications to it in Photoshop.
I learned of the map-making program AutoREALM from
jwinbigler's dynasty, and downloaded it. It looks interesting, but I decided to keep the map that I had rather than spending more time on recreating it. I just wanted to get to the dynasty already! I've never got too hung up as to how big Braeland is supposed to be as well. I simply view as big enough to support my baseball universe. I guess somewhere along the lines of 'twice the size of New Zealand' or 'one third the size of Australia'.
Thanks again for your encouraging words!