World-Building 2: Let's Get Cultural

[Prof. Sky Alton]

While it’s not always true that people make a world, they’re certainly a crucial part of it. You can have as intricate an ecosystem or history as you like but it’s the characters who readers will relate to. This isn’t just a test of whether you can come up with believable people though, it’s whether you can come up with a country full of believable people (or at least, convince your reader that the people they aren’t directly introduced to would be believable should they ever come along). A solid way to create this illusion of richness and crowdedness is to come up with cultures. These are groups of people who have been raised with the same ideas and values; while they will have their own individuality, their culture should tell us a bit about them and their past. It will also inform their actions (even if they’re rebelling against that culture) and might give you useful ways to create tension with other characters as their different values or priorities clash.

Cultures don’t just have to mean a whole host of different races (your elves, dwarves, toadstool dwellers…), though that is a tried and tested method. It could simply mean the difference between the people of one city and another or even of one profession and another. What cultures mean for your world will depend on what sort of world it is and how big a bit of it you’re focusing on.

For this task, please come up with 3 cultures or groups who exist in your world (whether it’s entire nations or much smaller groups in one particular setting). You could consider what they believe in, where they live, wat they value and what they’d consider success in life. You could also come up with some sample tensions that might come up if you put characters of each of these cultures together.

Your thoughts should come to at least 200 words. You’ll earn 20 beans for completing this prompt as well as it counting towards the chance to snag our shiny Quill and Ink award.

There is no deadline as such for these prompts but if you’d like it to count towards your chance of earning the award for a specific year, we’ll need it by the end of that school year. If you’re comfortable sharing, then post below. If not, email your story to us via hol.bookclub @ gmail.com (without the spaces). Oh and remember it’s a good idea to check through your piece carefully for spelling and grammatical errors as they make it harder for people to properly enjoy your work.