The Art of World Building

5 World Building Tips (Vol 3, #11): Cultures

Here are today’s world building tips! The theme is cultures. You can read more in Chapter 5, “Creating Cultures,” from Cultures and Beyond, (The Art of World Building, #3).

Tip #1: “Determine Cultural Vision”

Have an overall vision so that we avoid creating manifestations of culture that clash with each other. An obvious example is elves acting refined at dinner but acting like savages when making love. Invent a vision (which springs from values) that guides our invention of culture, so incongruity doesn’t spring up unless we want it to.

Tip #2: “Race as Culture”

A frequent complaint is when a fictitious race has a mono-culture – every society in that race is identical. The difficulty of creating cultures likely causes this oversight. Don’t make all elves the same regardless of where they live or the social class to which they belong. It’s not realistic – and yes, people do complain about it.

Tip #3: “Create Culture You Can Use”

Some aspects of culture are far more useful to us and should be our focus. This includes greetings, meal etiquette, phrases, rituals, and daily life routines. Other items like songs, clothing, and architecture styles are less helpful because readers won’t see them (less true in visual mediums).

Tip #4: “Alter Earth Expressions”

We can leverage anything from Earth, but changing our expressions is a quick way to make people seem like they’re from somewhere else. “What the hell” becomes “What in Tartarus” for example. Make a list of things you say and just invent alternate versions. It doesn’t take long, and the cumulative effect works.

Tip #5: “Alter Daily Routines”

Creating a daily life schedule that differs from Earth is a fast way to make a place seem different. Be sure to use climate as part of this. People in cold places may venture out in midday when it’s warmest, while those in hot/humid places might say indoors for a siesta. Having a sense of location helps with regional variations on culture.

Summary of Chapter 1—Creating Cultures

This chapter discusses the differences between a culture and a custom, and that morals, values, and beliefs underlie cultural aspects. A cultural vision should be based on these and inform all decisions subsequently made. World builders can determine the scope of an invented culture, as some are regional, or throughout a sovereign power. Cultural depictions have visible, audible, and performance aspects that can be defined. These include body issues such as body language, hair styles, gestures, clothing, and more. Greetings and farewells should be defined because characters will use them. Similarly, swear words, slang, expressions, and colloquialisms can be created to characterize interactions. The daily life of a culture is depicted in dining, bathing, sleeping, employment, and transportation rituals and behaviors, while pastimes, holidays and more create a respite. Even architecture can be influenced by culture.

5 World Building Tips (Vol 3, #10): Other Systems

Here are today’s world building tips! The theme is other systems. You can read more in Chapter 10, “Creating Other Systems,” from Cultures and Beyond, (The Art of World Building, #3).

Tip #1: “Simplify Monetary Systems”

Audiences don’t care about our monetary system or want to remember it. We’ll seldom be mentioning it anyway. In the U.S. we just say “dollars” and “cents,” never mentioning pennies, nickels, etc., so do the same in a fictional world. It can even be smart to say that an $100 item here is a 100 credit item in SF, for example. Why figure out what everything is worth?

Tip #2: “Invent Some Crimes”

In a world with magic or new tech, we have crimes unknown to us on Earth. This is a fun imagination exercise, including deciding punishments. Be reasonable about why the laws exist and find ways characters can be constrained by them or run afoul of them. This is likely with traveling characters.

Tip #3: “Know Your Units”

In commerce, units of weight mean the amount of gold, for example, determines the value. But units of value mean the item has no value beyond what’s printed on it, like paper money; the paper itself is worthless. Units of value become worthless when the government backing them collapses and may not be present in fantasy settings as a result.

Tip #4: “How Educated Is Everyone?”

In fantasy settings, educational levels tend to be lower, as in the 1500-1700s on Earth, while SF often suggests people are more educated, but they needn’t be. Ignorant people can drive a car well, and maybe they can fly a spaceship, too, especially if it has an A.I. they just need to command. Either way, we should work out how much education is expected and whether characters met that expectation or not.

Tip #5: “How Informed is Everyone?”

Regardless of education, information flow can be compromised. In fantasy, it’s typically word of mouth and prone to some inaccuracy. In SF, it might be better, but that’s assuming people have access to data; they may not, and for our story needs we can choose how ignorant they are. This helps us create biases that place them at odds with those who bring more info, creating conflict. This is a good reason to restrict information flow in both genres.

Summary of Chapter 10—Other Systems

Other systems exist in our setting and warrant development. Education systems will determine opportunities available to characters, including employment. We’ll examine educational systems and their impact on employment, plus where and how people are getting educated or being disqualified from it. Health systems include medical and mental, and they range from great to terrible, each having significant impacts on lives. Information systems aren’t just for SF, because fantasy settings need to disseminate information, too, and have their own ways of doing so. Understanding monetary systems and how to keep them simple is another focus and includes how to determine the value of time, labor, and materials. And no world is complete without laws, crimes, and punishments, so developing a legal system is a critical world building task we breakdown into a manageable task.