Hey, it’s Emily!
Last week, Gabrielle talked about Religion and Mythology and how those stories influence a culture and illuminate its values. Today, I’d like to take our worldbuilding subjects further, to a related but even broader topic: culture. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines culture as “the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group,” but—in the context of writing—I might define culture more as the values and behaviors that make a certain country or group of people distinct, both from other groups in your world and from other groups in other fictional worlds. How do your characters’ lifestyles set them apart and communicate who they are to your readers? We’ll answer that question today and determine the strategies to create a unique culture for your own world.
Starting With a Foundation
One of the most helpful tools when forming a culture is to base it in reality. The real world is a wealth of unique cultures, and often the best fictional worlds come from the little details that writers found inspiring from the world around them.
For example, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko—the creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender—based the cultures of the Air Nomads, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Water Tribe on Tibetan, Chinese, Japanese, and Inuit cultures respectively. DiMartino and Konietzko took inspiration from East Asian architecture, music, fashion, mythology, religion, and values to form the rich worlds in Avatar. Even each type of bending is styled after a real-world type of martial arts. I recommend watching Xiran Jay Zhao’s YouTube videos on the cultural inspirations in the show to learn more about the research and inspiration behind Avatar's worldbuilding. The first video, focusing on season one, is linked below.
Though the inspiration behind the worldbuilding in Avatar is quite overt, you can also take a more subtle approach. Instead of basing an entire realm on a preexisting country in the real world, you can find smaller elements of a culture to emulate or even combine elements from many cultures to create a new one. Say you appreciate the fashion of Ancient Greece, the pacifist values of the Buddhist religion, the hearty cuisine of Russia, and the advanced modern technology of Japan. By combining them, maybe even adapting some details, you can now create a world in which citizens wear long draping garments, refuse to carry weapons, eat warm dishes of roots and meat, and interact with robots. You can then have each of those elements relate with each other. Maybe these citizens can afford to be pacifists and not carry weapons because the robots that they built protect them. Maybe they wear long draping garments to regulate their body temperature when they eat their warm dishes.
The most important rules to remember when taking inspiration from the real world, though, are to observe dutifully, research thoroughly, and incorporate respectfully. This includes when you choose to base your story in the real world, too, instead of making a world from scratch. Be careful not to turn someone’s country or culture into a caricature. Ask the right questions and try to understand. You might be surprised by how much more you’re inspired once you take a closer look!
Using the ABC’s of Culture
As you gather elements you want to include in your culture, one method to help tie everything together is the ABC’s of Culture. When I was a freshman in college, I learned about the ABC’s of Culture from my Intercultural Communications class, and this model helped explain a lot about why certain cultures function the way they do.
In the ABC’s of Culture, A stands for Artifact (what is a staple of this culture?), B stands for Behavior (why is this a staple and how do people use it?, and C stands for Concepts (what does this communicate about the culture’s values?). Here’s an example: In America, one well-known Artifact is McDonald’s, a prevalent and popular restaurant. It is a staple because it is a fast-food restaurant and helpful for busy people on-the-go (the Behavior). And the Concept or values this communicates is efficiency and work-ethic—people prioritize extra time for work and activities, and thus spend less time eating than at a sit-down restaurant.
Consider using this same model to explain the culture in your own world! What are the staples of your culture? Maybe your country is known for its libraries, its jazzy music, its fish hatcheries, its advanced robotics, its colorful fashion. Why do your citizens prioritize these things? What does this say about their values? And now, you’ve got the beginnings of a realistic world with fleshed-out cultures.
Elements of Culture
The elements of culture are seemingly limitless. You can have many different staples, many different Artifacts, many different factors that relate to each other. For example, in Honeycomb’s last three blog posts, we’ve already discussed a world’s geography and environment, government and history, and mythology and religion. In our upcoming blog posts, we’ll talk about language, literature, magic systems, and technology. Yet there are still more: cuisine, attire, trade and exports, careers, entertainment, arts and music, architecture. Each of these elements influences the others, so be sure to be intentional when crafting the components of your culture.
How It Affects Your Story
Worldbuilding is a really fun activity for writers, but what separates the hobbyists from the professionals is then taking your worldbuilding and applying it to your story itself. How do the cultures in your world affect your plot and characters?
Lately, I’ve been reading David Edding’s The Belgariad series for the first time, and in Book 2, Queen of Sorcery, two characters have conflicting opinions on the socioeconomic status of the country’s citizens because of the different cultures they come from. The main character, Garion, grew up on a humble farm and so has appreciation and compassion for the everyday people. His new friend Lelldorin, however, is the son of a baron in a country with a strict social hierarchy. As a result, Garion and Lelldorin have several arguments about the state of things:
“Does it make you proud, Lelldorin?” Garioni demanded. “Does it make you feel good to know that your own countrymen are so afraid of you that they run from the very sight of you?”
Lelldorin looked baffled. “They’re serfs, Garion,” he said as if that explained.
“They’re men. They’re not animals. Men deserve to be treated better.”
“I can’t do anything about it. They aren’t my serfs.” And with that Lelldorin’s attention turned inward again…
(David Eddings, Queen of Sorcery, pp. 69–70)
The above conversation reflects two different characters and their values, but Garion and Lelldorin’s respective cultures affect the plot, too, when Garion later learns that his friend is involved in a controversy against the king, and he has to take action to stop him. The best writers make their worlds’ cultures matter; they take plot, character, and world and blend them all together so that no pillar can stand on its own without demolishing the story.
Your World, Your Story
I always recommend to my fellow writers to learn from each other. Read and study the books that not only feature intriguing and distinct cultures but that also make the cultures essential to the rich world, complex characters, and planned plot. Let us know in the comments below which cultures and worlds inspire you and your writing! We’d love to hear it!
And don’t forget that we here at Honeycomb would love to help you with your books too! We want to offer ourselves as resources, which is why we offer these free blogs as well as free sample edits on our website. If you’ve found our free resources to be helpful, then consider checking out our consultations calls and editing services as well. We would be happy to answer any questions you might have and thrilled for the chance to support your writing!
Till then, bee brilliant!
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