Conceptualizing fantasy maps...

[Ascension]

If you were to extrapolate Tolkein's world then it would eventually wrap around, all worlds are globes. So I would say map out the entire world just to do it but then restrict yourself to one continent and maybe a few islands. This way you always have some room to expand if you need to and also provides the base for future stories. When it comes to showing maps for a book then just show the one continent. You can leave the other continents as vague shapes for now. It's fine for you to know more than the audience and you should, you're the stroyteller so always leave something in reserve.

The way I look at it is that on one continent you can have say three or four races of people (elves, dwarves, etc) and with the whole wide world left out there to explore you can put in other races (like orcs, halflings, and goblins) or others types of people (say like Asian, or African, or Polynesian). The main thing is to come up with some sort of superstition as to why no one has ever gone beyond the "known world" sort of like Christopher Columbus...he didn't fall off the edge but that's what people believed. They also believed that Atlantis is buried somewhere out there too hence the name for the ocean as Atlantic. Make up a story, the more outlandish the better.

[Ghostman]

If you were to extrapolate Tolkein's world then it would eventually wrap around, all worlds are globes.

In fantasy they don't have to be. You could have a flat disc, a ringworld, etc. Even a world shaped like a Möbius strip. Really, imagination is the only limit when one doesn't have to care about realism.

[ExMachina]

If you were to extrapolate Tolkein's world then it would eventually wrap around, all worlds are globes. So I would say map out the entire world just to do it but then restrict yourself to one continent and maybe a few islands. This way you always have some room to expand if you need to and also provides the base for future stories. When it comes to showing maps for a book then just show the one continent. You can leave the other continents as vague shapes for now. It's fine for you to know more than the audience and you should, you're the stroyteller so always leave something in reserve.

The way I look at it is that on one continent you can have say three or four races of people (elves, dwarves, etc) and with the whole wide world left out there to explore you can put in other races (like orcs, halflings, and goblins) or others types of people (say like Asian, or African, or Polynesian). The main thing is to come up with some sort of superstition as to why no one has ever gone beyond the "known world" sort of like Christopher Columbus...he didn't fall off the edge but that's what people believed. They also believed that Atlantis is buried somewhere out there too hence the name for the ocean as Atlantic. Make up a story, the more outlandish the better.

My thoughts exactly, the story would be restricted to one part of the world with possible references elsewhere for future stories to build. The purpose in getting the whole map done now is to ensure things such as continuity. In addition, if I create the whole map I can then produce a regional map where I zoom in on the place where all the action is occurring and I can understand how it fits in with the world around it.

@philipstephen: I took a look at the discworld and found it's exactly what I had in mind. Except of course it would not be on the back of a giant sea turtle. The limitations come with my abilities to use Photoshop for something that is not mapped out in a tutorial.

Thank you all for your ideas and discussion, its certainly helped me along.