World-Building 4: Food, Glorious Food

[Sky Alton]

Much like with clothing, food is one of those things that seem quite incidental to the plot but actually have tons of hidden importance. Like clothing, people’s choice of food tells us a lot about who they are, where they come from and what ingredients they have access too; it’s one of those points of consistency that it’s easy for you to maintain once you’ve worked out roughly what your various characters would consider an normal meal. It’s also an instant point of comparison when your characters arrive somewhere new.

Moreover, we as humans place a massive amount of significance in food and there have been many academic studies exploring the portrayal and effect of it in stories. Would that first night at Hogwarts have seemed quite so special if J.K Rowling hadn’t described the feast in such detail? Food appeals to a reader’s love of the minute detail: as incidental as they may seem to the plot, trivial seeming things sure up a world.

For this prompt, we’d like you to design a meal that would be consumed in your world: you could do this by making a graphic of the meal itself on a plate or by showing us how it would be described in-world (as an entry in a recipe book, on a cook’s menu board or the like). It could be a celebration meal or a sparse supper someone throws together after a long day. If you make a graphic of the plate, please label the various items to aid our understanding.

Your work needs to be original: taking something off the internet and claiming it as your own is plagiarism. Remember to keep everything HOL appropriate, adhering to all HOL rules, and please keep your submissions 600x600 pixels or smaller. Please also include a short description of your image.

You'll earn 20 beans for completing this prompt as well as it counting towards the chance to snag our shiny Ink Splatters 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 image and description to us via hol.bookclub @ gmail.com (without the spaces).