Writing Cultures #2: Belief Systems

This is part two of a blog set about writing culture. If you haven't read part one, which is on settings, I recommend checking it out first over here: Writing Cultures #1

You now have an awesome setting for your book and culture. So what's next?

Let's talk about belief systems.

Belief Systems are really one of the most important things when it comes to defining a culture. Religion and faith is what outlines a culture's morals, their celebrations, their principles, their architecture, mythos, etc; Even if it isn't a religion, strictly, every culture has an outlining set of morals that is seen as common sense and courtesy.

Which is why I'm bundling them all into the label of Belief Systems. Just for ease of clarity.

So for a fantasy world and culture, how on earth do we make a belief system that feels realistic, deep, interesting, and sensible?

Let's look at some different types of belief systems in fantasy series, and see what they do both the same, and differently.

THE SKY IS FALLING! - Writing Descriptions

I was planning on doing part two of the cultural series as my next blog, but a certain event changed my mind.

I woke up the other morning to it raining. It was the drumming kind of rain, a heavy downpour that made a steady roar on the rooftop above me.

It was quite lovely, and expected.

Then something else happened. Something very unexpected.

It started to snow.

Let me repeat that. It was September 19^th. It was snowing.

Yes, yes, I do live in Canada. Northern Alberta, no less. To people who don't know, I'm sure this comes as no surprise. Had this snow come near the end of the month, I wouldn't have been surprised.

But this was September 19^th. It was barely out of Summer.

And yet, here I was, staring forlornly out of the window as freezing white flakes drifted down from the sky, making the fields and roof a horrifying white. For several hours the sky's dandruff continued, moving between tiny specks to massive clumps, painting a picture that fully revealed that yes, summer has ended and a Canadian winter is on its way.

Thankfully, the snowfall was light enough and it was still warm enough that the snow was completely gone within an hour or so after it stopped falling, so there's no need to panic.

Where am I going with this?

Two things: 1) Summer is over, and this is a sad event. 2) Let's talk about description.

Writing Cultures #1: Location, Location, Location!

So, you want to write a Fantasy or Science Fiction book. You want to do something new, something exciting, something that sets your worldbuilding apart from everyone else's.

You need a unique culture for your unique world!

But, how to write it? If you haven't been able to experience a culture different from your own, how do you know what to do to make a culture that isn't like every other fantasy culture, feels realistic, and feels unique?

This is a problem I ran into when trying to add a unique culture to my fantasy series. I looked for advice, but nothing seemed to help. I could see the unique cultures in other series, and I understood how they worked and, to some degree, even how the author made their choices in creating the culture. However, when it came to writing my own culture...I was stuck. I had no idea where to start.

Recently I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Cambodia for two weeks. Two weeks isn't a particularly long time, but through those two weeks I learned what truly makes a culture, even though I only managed to scratch the surface of Cambodia. I learned more in those two weeks than I had in what felt like endless research into how to write cultures.

So, I wanted to share what I learned so help answer some of the questions that I had problems finding clarification and answers on.

There's a lot to go through, so it will be broken up into segments. I hope that it helps answer some questions.

So Many Subgenres, So Little Time!

So you're interested in fantasy. Well, there's a whole lot of fantasy out there, and looking into the waters can be...well...let's just say they can be intimidating.

What do I mean? I mean SUBGENRES!

Man. Even the word looks intimidating, doesn't it?

No worries. Subgenres are simply a way to define a storytelling trend in a book. Genres in general are used for marketing purposes. It's much easier for a person who is looking for a mystery novel to have an entire section of a book store dedicated to what might interest them than to need to read the back of EVERY book and search through EVERY shelf just to find something that they might find interesting.

Yes, genre can be quite handy for the book-consumer, and for those who need to sell said books to said consumers. Genre simplifies things, so that a person in search of a cozy romance doesn't accidentally buy an H.P. Lovecraft anthology.

It looks so simple. Then you get into subgenres.

Oh, dear. What are those?

It's quite simple. Subgenres are the genres within the genres.

On a single horror shelf, you might find a slasher horror, a psychological horror, a supernatural horror, a Lovecraftian horror, the list goes on and on.

A fantasy shelf can be just as convoluted.

So, if you're new to the subgenre game, here are some of the more common subgenres in fantasy, and the basics of what they mean.

Intro: Why Am I Here?

Hello there! My name is Nicole, and welcome to my blog!

To get what I'm here for out of the way, here's what I'm planning to blog about:
I am a bookworm and writer, so this blog is going to be writing and book related.

What kind of writing and book-related content, you may ask?

In particular, I write fantasy. I am not yet published (at the time of writing this), but I have been writing consistently for the past decade. In recent years in particular I have been doing a lot of research into writing, and I'm constantly trying to improve my craft.

I'm a self-taught writer. The extent of my writing education is through searching the internet for lectures, going to conferences, and studying the way that the books I read are written. And, to be honest, there are some subjects that, in spite of searching, I still struggled to find answers for. Different techniques that, the deeper I searched, the more confusing things seemed. I could read and listen to everything I wanted on subjects like culture and worldbuilding and magic and character, but sometimes the answers I found didn't...click, for lack of a better term. I could understand what was being said, but I still struggled to make what I learned work in a story. I had the pieces, but for a long time I was struggling to put them together.

Which brings me here.

Sometimes the best way to learn something is to hear it from a different point of view, and I figured that maybe my point of view could be helpful to someone else who is in search of answers.

I know that I'm still learning, and I am by no means an expert in writing. Then again, there isn't a single writer out there who knows everything there is to know about the craft. Learning is a constant thing, and I'm excited to learn more through this blog as well.

So, once again, welcome to my blog, and thanks for stopping by!