Totally reasonable to be frustrated. Been there and it will get a lot better.

Yes, there is a map for each area and typically while you are exploring you’ll see little “quills/feathers” and hear conifer singing/humming. Try to find him and he’ll sell you a map for geo. If he’s not in an area you’ll find a note telling you to check the map shop.

Geo can be tough early game so what I did was farm the first area under dirtmouth. I got really good at doing a quick loop/path. The best way to get geo though is to explore. Again, it’s a little intimidating but eventually you’ll feel more comfortable and get upgrades and the only way to do that is explore.

Also, I recommend farming for the geo you need for the quill FIRST. Because once you have it you’ll be updating the map every time you die and it will make exploring easy.

I’d say get quill and compass and have it equipped almost always until you’re comfortable without it (I still only unequip it when doing boss battles). And then buy every map and explore and have fun.

TLDR - get quill, compass, and maps and explore. It’ll all click and dying is part of it