At last. The post you have all been waiting for ...

Every post in this series so far has been leading up to this.


The people. The people who live on this massive chunk of land we named and mapped out, who belong to the history we fashioned, and who hunt the animals and harvest the plants we created.


The culture is probably the most important part of world building. Especially if your MC, or if any of your MCs, grew up there.


This post is going to be unique because of how important the content is. I’m going to go step by step as usual, but I’m going to go through the previous posts and go in depth about how they influence the people of your world. (If you missed any of them and want to catch up, you can read post one on maps here, post two on history here, and post three on wildlife here.)


So.



Step #1 (Aka. Post 1): The Map

Where you live really influences culture. A village in the mountains is going to have vastly different daily activities than a village, say, on a tiny island. A village in the desert will have to get most of their food by trade, so the villagers will not be gardeners and they will rely on something else to get goods to trade with. But a village placed in lush green fields with ground perfect for farmland will be full of farmers.


Make sense?


I'm going to use my map again as I create a culture. I'll plop the scanned pic of it here for you.



Alright. So, I already have an idea of my main character's backstory, and in my mind I see him coming from the far right of this map, in the province Chenpei. His home village is among the hills you see to the right of the rivers.


So he lives in farmlands. With rivers. Hmmmmmm.


Get your creative juices flowing. Logic it out. His family is probably not what you'd call wealthy, since there aren't going to be a bunch of big cities and opportunities here in the middle of nowhere. But living where they do, they won't need much money anyway. The people are likely tight (an everyone knows everyone kind of thing) and so it's a quiet town allowing those who grow up there to do so peacefully.


And just from that, from deciding the people are mostly on their own out here in these farmlands, and pretty self sufficient, I already know quite a bit about the culture of this little town. They do as they're told for the most part, because they like their quiet life and don't want to be disturbed. So they send in their taxes (which could be very high and causing a rebellion in less quiet places) and they don't complain. This works out perfectly for me because my MC in this project is a thief. He's crazy and always on the run, very defiant ... You can see how the culture of his little world shaped him. Plunk a person like him down anywhere, and he's going to do all he can to defy every stereotype and rule placed before him.


NOTE: As I'm building the culture of my MC's hometown, it spreads out. I know that most of the villages around his will be similar. There are few big cities in this area, and even those are small. The BIG cities where lots of people are will be further north of the province, closer to the desert and the border.



Step #2: History


What happened in your story world in times past? What happened before the Now will really effect culture today. Say there was a war fifty years ago. Not everyone will have recovered from that. And the war had to happen between two countries ... and someone had to lose. These two countries probably don't get along too well, which gives culture and conflict. The people would still be recovering too. They might have to be careful about rationing out food and water and clothes.


Say one hundred years ago, the people of Chempei and Khamir had a war. The ruler of Chempei, after looking through old history books written by the Founders (the four Chinese people who found this world) finds something about a great wall from the Founders' homeland that was built to keep out intruders.


The emperor thinks this is a good idea.


So he decides to build a wall.


Now, this influences culture in several ways. Villages near the wall most likely house lots of imperial soldiers who are either quiet and nice to the villagers (ha) or who like to rough them up and make them cook for them and stuff. TENSION. CONFLICT.


NOTE: see how much world building does for conflict? If you're stuck in your WIP, just do some world building!

ANOTHER NOTE: The history is likely going to include religion. What do these people believe? What do they worship? Back to the village of farmers that my MC grew up in, they lead quiet lives. They, as a whole, don't really care about religion. But there are probably a few older natives who are very adamant about it, who rise early every morning with the rise of the sun to pray in the hills, and go out every sunset to do it again. Instead of praying as we think of it though, they spread their arms and face the rising/setting sun and close their eyes and throw their head back and they stay that way for sometimes hours at a time. The village children who have not been taught what this means might even dare each other to sneak out and poke one of the statue still worshipers to see if they'll move.


Step #3: Wildlife

As you've probably guessed, this has an enormous effect on the culture. What they eat, how they eat it, when they eat, how frequently they are able to do so.


Are pets common? What types of pets? Why that certain type? Are medicines hard to come by, or are there an abundance of healing herbs to help treat illnesses and pains?


You can use animals to come up with great local stories/myths too, that mothers tell their children to scare them into obeying. Say there is rumor of a giant wolf that dwells in the hills. At night, the wolf ventures down into the village. The children must stay in their beds and not venture out, or else the big bad wolf will snap them up and devour them.


Yum.


What if there's a certain type of weed that, even at the smallest taste, causes a rash to spread over your tongue and down your throat?


What if the Empress of the land loves lilies, so the villagers grow them in her honor, and hang them over their doorways as a sign of respect? And, each time they enter their home, they look up at the lily and cross their heart, as a promise of loyalty to the royal family.


There are so many possibilities.


And remember: A little goes a long way.



Step #4: Day to Day Life

Another really good way to develop culture is to figure out what your MC does everyday [Or, if your MC is crazy (like mine) then what their parents or best friends do].


Do they rise to pray with the sunrise? Or do they rise before then to take the long walk to their work in the city twenty miles away? What do they eat before they leave? Do they walk there, or do they have a horse or bike or some other method of transportation?


When they get there, how are they treated? Is their boss terrible or does he never even show his face? Do they get a lunch break, or do they work till dark with no respite? Do they make their way home in blackness? Do they have to carry something to protect themselves against robbers who might lurk on the sides of roads, waiting to rob the workers heading home?


There are so many possibilities. And it all affects your MC. How they act. How they think. How they respond to situations. How they treat others. What they believe. 



That's it for now! I am very sleepy and can't really think of much else right now. Not to mention camp nano starts today and as I am typing this, I still have to write over 2k words. *pounds head against desk* AND IT'S 12:30. WHAT DID I GET MYSELF INTO?


Any-who. There are just a few things coming up this month.


Due to camp nano craze, I will probably end up skipping one or two posts, or just writing very short ones.


Also: I am guest posting over at A Writer's Faith on the 16th. Fun, right? I'm so excited and honored! I will not be writing a full post here on that day, but I will link you to Katie's blog so you can read what I have to say over there. XP


That's about it, I believe. Did you like this series? I will probably write another post to add in any extra aspects of world building that I forgot or didn't have room for (like religion).


Do you enjoy culture building? Is it hard for you? Are you doing camp nano? Anything else going on? Please share in the comments!


<3

Welcome to part 3 of my To Create a World blog post series! If you missed the first two posts, you can read the first one here (on mapmaking) and the second one here (on history).

 

*small shrieking sound*

AKJDhsFLKJSDhFLSD

AKLJhdFHS

MAAAHA BELAHDSFJSD

Ehem. Sorry. Just had to get that out of my system.

I love world building. Now I will make you love world building.


Introduction:

Creating a world may be fun, but it is far from easy. There are many elements to creating a believable fictional setting, and many more to creating a good one. I'm not sure how many posts this series will include, but it is going to target the creation of a fictional world. This is aimed towards Fantasy writers, not Sci-Fi (although I might take on the challenge of creating a galaxy, I have never done so before and am thus inadequate to give advice on such a thing).

There are many steps to this creation process, but the first step (if you're starting from scratch) would be to make a map. If you already have done other work on your story world, that's fine. But I think it's easiest to start with a map (really, you can start pretty much anywhere) and I have to begin somewhere, so this first post will contain my map creation process.



Making a map takes time. I usually draw up my outline and put down the major places on my map, then hang it on the wall near where I do most of my writing. I will gradually build on it as I write the book/series. The map for my WIP has only recently been mostly completed, and it took about seven/eight months to do so. So don't stress and try to do the whole thing right now! It's okay if your map is empty-ish for a while. It'll grow as the story does.

There are several steps to creating a wonderful map. I am by no means an expert, but I'd like to think that, of the things I'm good at, this is one. So I'll walk you through my process of making a map.

NOTE: I am going to be creating a new fictional world as I create this post series so you can see my process from scratch. I have no book idea to take place in this world. I am creating it just for fun you.


Step #1: The Outline


The outline used to be the hardest part for me, but it doesn't have to be. It can actually be really simple. This is what I do.

First, I pick a country on Earth. It can be a continent, an island, or even our whole world. But I pull up a map of it and study the outline. I'm going to be using China for the basis of my inspiration of this map.

Here is a screen shot from Google Maps that I will be referring to:

Thanks, Google!

NOTE: Do not let yourself be bound to the map. If you start to feel the creative juices flowing and want to add something that's not on the map you're referring to, DO IT. You want to make differences. You want your story world to be unique. This is just a guiding line. To see how land masses look around the edges.

See those islands? Beautiful. (I'll definitely stretch beyond China for this.) So grab a piece of paper and get to work. I usually do this without watching my hand. I stare at the map on the screen and go a bit longer in places and a bit rounder in others. I might add the shape of India to the top right of China rather than the bottom left. Get creative. Don't worry about making any mistakes. Not yet.

ANOTHER NOTE: I flipped this picture on its side while I made the outline. This is a good idea if you don't want anyone to have any idea you're using whatever country you're using as a reference.

Alright, now I've made my outline.

This is the bare outline. Nothing fancy ... yet.

It's a little hard to see, since I didn't draw it very hard and the scanner didn't pick it up that great. I edited the photo to make the lines really stand out, but even so, I drew lightly so I could tweak as much as I wanted. You might not be able to tell much about the outline, but I took some liberties with it. I also did this map in a way I've never done before. Normally, I make a map of the whole world. But on this map, the sea is to the left of it, but there is land beyond the map. So this only covers part of the world I am creating, which is okay. A lot of maps are like that. Go check out a book.

Now, this is completely barren and empty. It's just an outline, after all. Which leads to ...


Step #2: The Terrain

Land and ocean. Mountains and valleys. Rivers, lakes, streams. Hills and fields, forests and deserts. The different types of terrains are incredible. We have a lot to work with, and that's just using what kinds of terrain we already know. You can even invent a new type of terrain, if you want!

NOTE: Be sure to make a 'Legend' on your map so you can keep track of what symbols you're using for what.

As you create your terrain, this is prime time for culture ideas as well. I'm making a strait in my map, and straits have reefs. So this could be a popular tourist attraction. People could come far and wide to see this great reef. The islands around it could contain some of the largest cities in this world, heavily populated. I could go on and stretch out from there. The possibilities are endless.

Think about your book while you're doing this. Are your characters travelling a lot? Find out where they grew up. Find out where they go. What challenges do they face in their journey? What is the weather like? Do they have to cross frozen rivers or raging ones? Jungles or forests?

Alright, here's my map with some terrain to spice it up.

See, it has nice, pretty terrain now. YAY!

I'm not sure how well you can see this. I edited it quite a bit to try to bring out the changes. Hopefully you can see enough.

Okay, so I added some rivers, a couple of deserts, a big mountain range, some farm land ... Looking pretty good, huh?

Now for perhaps the trickiest part. Even harder than outlines. Harder than what terrain should go where.

*drum roll*


Step #3: Names

Yes. The dreaded task of naming each and every one of those rivers, mountain ranges, and deserts. Every city, all the islands ... UGH.

I will say, you do not have to name everything, but you do have to name a lot of it.

There are many ways to do this, and I do all of them so that I can get as much variety in naming as possible. You can just pull names off the top of your head. You can use a generator (I don't do this, but I know a lot of people do). Since I'm basing this world off China, I'm going to look up a list of places in China and tweak their names. For example, I could take the 'na' of China and put it in front to make 'Nachi.' There's a name. Not a very good one, granted, but it's a name, isn't it? I could tweak it a bit more. Na-Chai. That's more tolerable. I might stick it on a small city.

So, yeah, do this. The names of a lot of places don't matter that much, but the names you should focus on/put the most effort into are definitely the world, the kingdom or province that the bulk of your story takes place in, and the big, key cities in your book. Those are what readers will pay attention to. Those are what you have to use most. Make them sound good. Make them realistic. Make sure they're easy to say. Have someone read them to see if they are pronounceable. Of course, you want all your names to be like this, but especially the ones that will come up a lot.

I've got a common theme going among my names now. Tapti, Guan, Shanghou. Lung-Zhi, Na-Chai, Zhen-Shou. Then you don't need a generator. The names just kind of start coming (usually).

And now I've named my top three provinces: Khamir, Tare, and Chenpei. (I did come up with this really quickly, so don't blame me if the names are a little strange.) Now I shall show you scanned version with names. (Because I know you are absolutely dying to see.)

It has names now! YAY!

Ehem. This isn't my best map ever, but I'm kind of happy with it. (I have a story idea for it now, which will be really fun to write whenever I get to it. There are already several in line, so it'll have to wait a while.)

So there we have it! Of course, these are just the basic, general steps to making a map. Every map, just like every story and every writer, is different. As you write, you will figure out more about your story world and landmarks and big places and stuff and can add them to your masterpiece. But now you have the basic map to work with! Fun!


That was long. And it took forever. But I hoped it helped! Now go make a map. Don't worry about failing. If you fail (which is highly unlikely, given all my positively stunning advice) you can just toss it and try again. If you're not comfortable putting a picture in the comments, please email me and show me what you created! I'd love to see your work. :)

Next week I will post Part 2 of To Create a World on ... *drumroll* You'll find out. MWAHAHA! Can you guess what part 2 will be? Gold star if you can. XP

So drop by next Saturday. I hope this post was helpful! Did I forget anything? Do you have any other thoughts about map making? Please share in the comments!