R.M. Archer's Blog, page 6

Book Review: Winter’s Maiden by Morgan L. Busse

Morgan Busse is an author who has come up numerous times over the years I’ve been in the online Christian writing world and a handful of her books have made it onto my TBR, but her upcoming Winter’s Maiden was the first of her books that inspired me to apply for an ARC. To my surprise, I got one, so today I’m here with my review!

(Required disclaimer that though I received a free copy to review, the following opinions are my own.)

What is Winter’s Maiden about?

Warrior. Survivor. Daughter of the North.

From the moment she is born, Brighid fights to survive in the wastelands of Nordica as a clanless one. But when a new power arrives offering a trial to join the Nordic warriors, Brighid enters, hoping to rise above her station. Soon she becomes one of their fiercest fighters and joins the war against the south.

Kaeden carries the blood of the ancient Eldaran race in his veins but turns away from his heritage after the death of his parents. Years later, he is called back to his homeland and invited to be a healer for the southern forces. With the help of an old mentor, the power inside of him starts to awaken. However, his life is turned upside down when a mighty warrior of the Nordic forces is captured.

As Kaeden interacts with the enemy, he discovers there is a darkness behind the Nordic Wars, one that is manipulating the people of the north. But who will believe him? And is there a power strong enough to break the hold of this hidden adversary? Or will the world burn in the flames of war?

The first few chapters of this book really hooked me. We’re introduced to Brighid and the midwife Elphsaba who takes her in, and the midwifery scenes were excellent. Very vividly written, powerful, and great for establishing the characters and some of Brighid’s abilities. Once that was all established and the story moved on, however, the writing seemed much less consistently vivid and the depth of the characters’ perspectives was largely lost. There seemed to be a lot more telling than showing in the style of the writing, with a lot of areas feeling skimmed-over and a lot of developments attributed to characters without seeming to be earned on the page.

There were a number of scenes that did feel very cinematic, like I could vividly imagine how they might have played out in a movie very well, but that fell a little flat on the emotions in writing. They had not only the same level of imagery as a movie scene, but also the same level of distance (in a book that seemed to be intended to have a deep POV).

The characters were interesting in concept and clearly had interesting struggles, but they weren’t as compelling on paper as I would have liked because it felt like there was so little depth to the way they were written. That said, they were interesting enough for me to follow through an entire book while I was in an overall reading slump, so the writing certainly could have treated them worse.

I did wish we saw more of Gurmund; I found his POV chapters to be some of the most compelling, after the first few chapters with Brighid, and I would have loved to see more of his struggle with the other hjars and how he handled that; it felt like he sort of disappeared after the halfway point.

Kaeden, meanwhile, was a large part of the reason I picked up this book in the first place–I was interested in his role as a healer and seeing that play out, plus he’s mentioned in 2/3rds of the blurb–but as I neared the halfway point and he hadn’t shown up I actually started to wonder if I had confused this with another book. He doesn’t enter the story until just past the halfway point, and I didn’t feel that he got the same sort of establishment to his character that Brighid did; his “refusal of the call” felt very inconsequential on multiple occasions and I would have liked to see more of his struggle play out with more meaningful reluctance along his arc, as well as meeting him earlier in the book. The elements of the world that are introduced with him, however, I found to be some of the most interesting of the book!

Sadly, the worldbuilding–another reason I was interested in Winter’s Maiden–fell prey to the same lack of depth in the writing; the world itself was interesting, but didn’t feel well-explored in the way it was written. I did enjoy the spiritual parallels employed and how they were portrayed, and Brighid’s abilities were always interesting to see. I would have been interested to see more about the core conflict of the story established before it became a full war, because the motivations felt unclear to me. But overall the plot made sense, even if it had its weak spots.

Overall, this was a fine read. It only took me a few days to read despite my reading slump, so it has that going for it, and I do think that conceptually it’s a great book; I just wish that the writing had put more flesh on those concepts.

Rating: 3.5 stars

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Book Review: Silk by E.B. Roshan

Some of you may recognize E.B. Roshan’s name from when I reviewed her book Orchidelirium last year. Today I’m reviewing her upcoming MG graphic novel Silk, and I’d like to thank Ms. Roshan for allowing me to review another of her works!

(Required disclaimer that though I received a free copy to review, these opinions are my own.)

What is Silk about?

Farz and his family are Silki-charmers; they follow the giant, spiderlike creatures known as “Silkis” through their jungle home, harvesting their precious silk. It’s been their family’s tradition for generations. But Silkis can be dangerous and not everyone wants them around. Farz may be ready to try a different life, but he doesn’t want the Silkis to disappear forever.

I’ll start off by saying I think Silk has a really interesting underlying story, working through how to handle changes in industry, especially when there’s a family tradition to uphold in the middle of it. This was part of what drew me in to reading it in the first place, and I do think it’s a strong story with a strong theme.

Most of my critiques of Silk come solely from its format. This is a graphic novel, but it felt like it was written in a way that would have been more fitting for a non-visual short story format. As a graphic novel, it felt very text-heavy rather than feeling like it utilized the visuals of its frames to full effect–especially as there were a handful of frames that seemed very repetitive, where we saw a character’s thoughts and later saw them communicating these thoughts to other characters with the same or very similar visuals as a backdrop. Graphic novels are a hard format to balance between text and visuals, so I think the skew is totally natural, but I would have liked to see the visuals leaned into more and used to greater effect.

That said, I do think that the visual design of the world was interesting–especially when it comes to the humanoid species that inhabit it. Their markings did seem a bit busy in black and white, but that’s a matter of preference and it was never so busy that it became unclear what was what within a frame. I’d definitely be curious to see more of these characters and their species in the future!

What immediately drew me to this story was the concept of the world and the family legacy idea tying into its silk industry, and I do think all of that was handled well. The world was visually interesting enough to warrant the format, the development of the silkis was interesting, the interactions between the characters were believable and compelling–especially between the main character Farz and his sister Diljin–and I think the theme was done well. While I would have liked to see a bit more visual depth and perhaps a bit more time spent developing the ideological clash between the siblings, I’m glad I read Silk and I look forward to more graphic novels from Ms. Roshan in the future!

Rating: 3 stars

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Birth Rites & Celebration in Fantasy

As I promised in my last post about death (and funerary customs), this week I’m flipping things around and talking about new life! Birth rites and celebrations, to be specific (and not to be confused with birthday celebrations, which I covered a few weeks ago). So, without further ado, let’s look at how your culture might handle births and new babies!

Birth Itself

This may be more or less relevant depending on what your story calls for, what characters are involved, and even whether your characters are human/oid or not, but it may be helpful to determine what the atmosphere of a birth is like in this culture.

First of all, think about who might be present for a birth. Is the father involved or kept out of the room? Are any relatives called? Is a midwife or doctor present? Is a religious official called right away?

Who is present will be somewhat dependent on where births usually take place. Are they expected to take place at a hospital or other place of medicine, or are they generally just at home? Depending on how nitty-gritty you want to get, you might consider whether there are any common pain-killers administered during birth or if women have all-natural births. (Some of these factors will depend on your culture’s view on medicine and the natural design of things.)

Birth might look very different if your culture doesn’t have live birth at all because their species lays eggs, for example, instead. In this case, birth may be considered to occur at the time of hatching and those beyond the mother and child may have very little to do with it. In cases like these, most of your attention may fall to the other considerations in this post due to nature as much as relevance.

Naming

One important thing to consider when a new character is born is how they receive their name (and when and from whom). Characters might receive their name at birth–whether their name is decided upon birth or has already been chosen beforehand–or may not receive their names until a dedication ceremony (which we’ll get to shortly) or even later. Some cultures may give names based on birth order or other in-born traits, in which case naming is probably quite simple and automatic upon birth.

If names are given by the parents, then they may be selected at or before birth and are likely used around the home immediately, but may or may not be announced to those outside the household until a dedication ceremony. If names are bestowed by a religious or political official, the family may use a nickname until the child’s legal name has been given with ceremony.

Some cultures may give children multiple names, whether with different meanings or for different uses. Some cultures may, for example, offer a name to be used in public and another name to be used around family and close friends. Some may have additional names that almost no one knows because names are thought to give power over the one named. For cultures where multiple names are common, different names may be given by different people and/or at different times.

You may also consider what names are generally expected to mean in this culture. Some cultures may choose names based on sound alone, others might select based on meanings that are important to families, others may refer to one’s place in society or one’s perceived destiny, others may indicate one’s familial ties and/or birth order, etc. Knowing these expectations can also allow you to break them as appropriate and write believable responses to this break in tradition.

Dedication Rites

Not every culture will have something in this category, but you’ll likely want to at least ask if your culture has some sort of rite dedicating a new child to a religion or societal purpose, or simply announcing their birth to the community. Announcement ceremonies may fall more into the next category we’ll talk about, so for now we’ll focus on cultures in which new children are dedicated to a faith or to a specific purpose within their society.

Dedication to a religion might look like a baby dedication, an infant baptism, the offering of a child to work in a place of worship, or something else to similar effect. This would obviously involve the parents and the religious leaders–whether of their town or of the greater clergy of their religion–and may also include extended family and/or the greater faith community. There might be a sacrifice involved–to redeem a child or as a thank offering–a vow made by the parents and/or faith community, a blessing given to the child, a prophecy made, an immersion or anointing or some other symbol of what’s being given to the child or expected of them as they grow, etc.

Dedication to a certain societal role might look somewhat similar, though obviously civil leaders would be involved and religious leaders may or may not be. A new child might be assigned to a particular job; a particular type of job; a particular area of the town, region, etc.; in situations where children are distributed by the government rather than by birth perhaps they’re even assigned to a particular family after birth. In cultures where strength is important, a baby may be tested to gauge their current and future strength. As usual, the precise workings of such a ceremony will be shaped by what your culture values.

If your culture has either sort of dedication ceremony, consider what this means for your character in the long-term. What are the binding effects of such a ceremony? Are there guarantees of the blessings given? Is the child expected to grow up a certain way? What are the consequences if they try to veer from their destiny or assigned place in society? In short, can these rites be broken/rebelled against later in life and, if so, what are the consequences?

Celebration and Honor

As a last consideration directly related to the baby, think about how a new birth might be celebrated. Are there parties thrown to celebrate new births? If so, who is involved? What does the party entail? Are there gifts given, special foods eaten (perhaps related to fertility, healing, growth, etc.), decorations set aside for such an occasion?

Think about whether this is the same for every child or if these celebrations differ from one child to the next in a family. Perhaps the firstborn has greater honor, for example, or perhaps there are certain numbers that are sacred to this culture or a number of children a family is expected to bear in order to be considered “fruitful” or “accomplished” and celebrations are more distinct when these numbers are reached.

The style of celebration may also differ from family to family–based on differing values or means–or based on social class, religious background, etc.

Care for the Family

Lastly, think about how care for a new baby may extend to their family as a whole. Does this culture have anything akin to baby showers, to help the family accumulate the things they need for the new baby? Are meals brought to grant the mother a break following the birth? Are gifts given informally? Are older children welcomed into others’ homes or watched over by visiting friends and relatives to let the mother focus on the newest sibling? Are friends and relatives willing to tend to the house while the family focuses on their relationships with one another and adjusting to an additional member of the household?

The level of support that a family receives may depend on what this culture views as the community’s responsibility, what it views as the family’s responsibility, and how it views family as a whole. Joyful support may be much more common in a culture that values children, and may even increase as a family grows; while a culture that sees children as a burden or distraction may leave families to do more on their own and support may even taper off as a family has more children.

Births are an exciting thing, and new babies can add a lot more to a story–and characters’ lives–than seems to often be explored. Tell me in the comments: What are your favorite books that include new babies? Have there been births in any of your books?

Not sure how to develop a cohesive worldview for your culture that explores what’s important to you? Sign up to the newsletter and get access to a full worksheet of Worldview Focus Questions!

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Creating Fictional Funerary Customs

Today’s topic might seem somewhat morbid, but it’s one that may be important if you plan to kill off any significant characters. (Don’t worry; I’ll be balancing it out by talking about the ceremonies surrounding new births next week!) If your character dies (or is thought to die), how is that handled in your world? How does your culture view death? That’s what we’ll be getting into today.

Cultural View of Death

The first thing to determine is how your culture views death. Is death seen as an injustice, something against nature? Do they view it as being stolen away from the world or an eternal existence being cut short? Are characters viewed as being taken up by the gods when they die, for good or ill? Is death seen as honorable, whether as a whole or in certain contexts–such as through sacrifice for the character’s nation or religion? Is it seen as the natural mark of having fulfilled a life-long purpose? Does this culture have any concept of a resurrection or reincarnation after death?

Generally, this will boil down to two questions: Is death viewed as a negative, positive, or neutral occurrence? And what is believed to happen to those who die (in the immediate and in the long-term)? The answers to these two questions will influence pretty much everything else.

Another important question to ask in this context is what this culture believes about the body and soul, and how closely they’re believed to be connected–if at all. A culture that believes bodies have no purpose once the spirit leaves them will likely treat their dead very differently than a culture that believes a soul will one day return to its body or that the two are entirely inseparable (or one that doesn’t believe in souls at all).

Handling the Body

Once you’ve developed your culture’s underlying beliefs about death, you can think about how they’re likely to handle the body of one who has died. Are they likely to burn the body as an offering to gods? Bury it intact to await a later resurrection? Give it to the sea to be reclaimed? Cremate the body so that it can be divided among beloved places or loved ones?

This is a question in which the relation of body and spirit will likely be a crucial point. If bodies and souls are never separated, a mariner culture might seek to return body and soul to the sea spirits they believe in while a culture that believes in keeping the deceased with their family might cremate them and divide the ashes; in a culture that believes souls return to their bodies, bodies may be buried, mummified, or otherwise kept whole and/or preserved (whether they’re preserved or merely kept whole may depend on whether they believe the body will be reused exactly as-is or if it will be remade and glorified); a culture that believes the body serves no purpose after death because it’s been abandoned by the spirit might burn the body or otherwise “dispose of” it, or might instead preserve it in a mummified state and/or coffin for the sake of remembrance.

You might also consider what would be thought of as dishonorable ways to handle a body. Maybe that mariner culture avoids land as much as possible, and being encased in it (buried) is a means of trapping a body forever and seen as a great punishment or dishonor. Or maybe cremation is considered desecration in a culture that believes souls will one day return to their bodies (this might even lead to a belief in ghosts as the spirits that have no bodies to return to, in certain cultures). This can also lead to some significant culture clash if two neighboring cultures–or an immigrant from some other culture and the culture they live in now–have vastly different ideas of how a body should be properly respected!

Memorialization might also look different from culture to culture. Some might mark graves–whether to honor those buried or for the practical purpose of avoiding trying to bury someone else in an occupied plot–others might keep artwork of the deceased in the homes of loved ones and otherwise not mark their identities, yet others might have entire elaborate tombs or coffins–perhaps filled with their most prized possessions either to preserve them or send them along with the deceased.

Handling the Spirit

We obviously touched on this somewhat in the previous section, but your culture’s customs may have additional elements that are specifically focused on properly seeing off the spirit of the deceased. Perhaps there is a custom designed to help send the spirit off to the afterlife–or merely symbolize that journey for those still alive; perhaps there is a memorial service allowing the deceased’s loved ones a chance to say goodbye; perhaps the deceased’s spirit must be set at peace in order to keep them from haunting their loved ones or their home, so any last tasks must be completed by the deceased’s loved ones soon after their death.

In Virilia, for example, those who die are thought to join the gods in the stars. Because of this, memorial services include a lantern-release ceremony that represents the deceased’s spirit rising to join the stars.

Care of the Family

Lastly, consider the effects of a character’s death on the family left behind. Is there a time of fellowship and encouragement after funerary ceremonies? Are meals and other general needs tended to by the community for a period after a relative’s death? How are families cared for after the death of a relative? Or are they expected to simply carry on with ordinary life after the deceased has been put to rest? What additional responsibilities fall on the family of the deceased after their death–whether the deceased’s everyday work or unfinished business? Do they have any support from the community in this additional work?

Think about how widows and orphans might be taken care of after a character dies. Are widows expected to remarry (whether it’s expected to be a relative of their deceased husband or simply a new husband from elsewhere in the community)? Are orphaned children taken in by other relatives, other members of the community, or an orphanage?

There you have the most critical considerations for funerary customs if you’re intending to kill off a character (or if you just want to be prepared for the possibility if the story calls for it). Have you ever killed off a character before? What is the strongest character death you’ve seen in a book, show, movie, etc.? (Warehouse 13, for me. If you know, you know.) Comment below!

Not sure what your culture’s values are yet or how to shape them effectively so they can inform these and other customs? Check out the worldview focus questions in the resource library!

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Worldbuilding on a Small Scale

Most of the time I write about how to build whole, sweeping settings and deeply nuanced cultures… but what if all you need for a story is a single town, a school, etc.? What do you prioritize when you’re worldbuilding on a small scale instead of an epic scale? That’s what we’re going to talk about today.

Core culture

First, as with larger cultures, you’ll need to determine the core of this town’s (or region’s, school’s, etc.) culture. What are the core values of this locale? Do they have any collective goals?

Are there any key sub-cultures to be aware of? (e.g. Hogwarts has an overall culture of learning and defense against evil, but each of the houses has their own unique sub-culture in addition.) What are each of their core values and goals?

And where are your primary characters supposed to fit into this culture and/or its sub-cultures?

Dissonance

With the core culture of the place determined, you can focus on what would clash with this culture. Where would conflict arise? This might be from some of these existing sub-groups (e.g. Slytherin causing problems at Hogwarts), a new group of outsiders with their own dissonant values (e.g. a town taken hostage by a group of bandits in a Western), or your main character themselves (e.g. the big city girl who returns to the small town in a Hallmark movie).

In any case, you want to stir up conflict. If your main character is the source of this dissonance, if they feel out-of-place in this culture, that can be an excellent source of internal conflict as well as external conflict (such as the city girl seeking individual success who is thrust back into a context of building up community, the academic pushed into a setting where they must put their knowledge to use in the real world, the character unfamiliar with social cliques who must find their place in a highly cliquish environment, etc.) But maybe your character is the hero preserving the culture’s main values from outsiders who want to destroy it, or they’re learning to balance the distinctions between sub-cultures as they sit on the fence between them (also good for internal conflict).

Details

Once you’ve established the foundational culture of the setting and at least one source of conflict, you can focus on the details to make your setting meaningful to the characters and vivid to readers.

Think about what your character would be doing in this setting. Do they have a job? Are they helping to plan an event or defend the setting? Is their goal to build relationships or learn something new? What do they do in their down time here? How does the setting shape their everyday life?

Consider the characters who would be around your main character. Who are their friends? Influences? Superiors? Do they have a love interest? How do these characters fit in with the culture you’ve established, and how do they challenge your character or reinforce the character’s existing ideas?

What are the most notable locations in this setting? Is there a gazebo in the center of town where the character likes to hang out? Is the school library a common location for strategy meetings or study sessions? Is town hall or the clan’s castle a recurring location? Where does your character live or sleep? Who do they associate with each key location?

And lastly, how does the setting feel? What is its overall aesthetic? Is it academic, astonishing, cozy, earthy, etc.? How can you shape the details of dress, food, architecture, etc.–as well as the behavior of the characters–to convey this feeling to the reader?

While you can build a small-scale setting with all the same depth as a grander-scale world (as almost a mini-version of a broader world), all you really need are the foundational values and the details that bring the setting to life.

Want to learn more about these foundational elements of worldbuilding, especially using details to convey depth without fleshing out everything underneath? Check out the Worldbuilding Toolbox!

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Fantasy Cuisine & Mealtimes

Are you tired of feeding your characters generic medieval fare? Do you need to figure out who should be eating first or how food should be served up in your mealtime scenes? Are you just curious to see your world through the eyes of a foodie? Then this is the right post for you. I’ll be getting into what your characters eat, why they do or don’t eat the things that they do or don’t eat, and how meals look in your world. Let’s get started!

Food Availability

The first and most obvious question to ask about food in your world is what your characters have access to. What edible plants and animals can be found in their geographical context? Beyond that, what edible plants and animals can be traded in from neighboring or even distant cultures? For that matter, what foods can be transported in your world once they’ve already been prepared? Do your cultures trade recipes at all?

Likewise, what foods are not available to this culture? Do they lack the equipment, ingredients, or recipes to make certain things? Are there plants that refuse to grow in their climate? Animals they don’t have the skill to husband? Knowing what they don’t have can be just as instrumental in shaping a fictional cuisine as knowing what they do have.

Food Prep Options

Once you know what ingredients your characters have at their disposal, you’ll also need to determine what sort of equipment they have on hand for storing, preserving, and preparing food. Do they have means of keeping things cool? If so, how cool? Does the same method work year-round or can they only keep things cold during certain times of year?

Do they cook things the traditional way–over heat–or are they prevented from using this method for some reason (because they live on boats, their climate is too cold for warmth to last long, they’re a species that can’t handle heat, etc.)? If they can’t use heat, do they have to age everything? Do they eat a lot of fermented foods? Do they freeze foods to eliminate germs instead? Do they even know/care about germs, or do they simply eat things raw?

Of course, some cultures may also use a mix of these methods–some foods may be heated, while others may be chilled, fermented, or eaten raw. In some cases, obviously, this will depend on the nature of the food in question; in others, it will be a matter of preference. More creative or experimental cultures may try the same foods with several different preparation methods to find out which ones are best–whether for flavor or health. Their priorities as a culture will dictate their priorities here (a scientific or health-focused culture will be more worried about eating well and eliminating threats to health, while cultures that value creativity or variety might simply be looking for as many ways to eat different things as possible)–as will their beliefs about food, specifically, which we’ll get into next.

Beliefs Around Food

Once you know the breadth of the options available to your culture in a technical sense–the ingredients and equipment/skills they have at their disposal–you can look into how these options are shaped by your culture’s view of food on a spiritual and philosophical level.

The most broad consideration in this vein will be to think through what your culture sees as the purpose of food (or what 2-3 purposes they see food as serving, primarily). Do they see it only as a means to an end, fuel for their lives? Does it have spiritual meaning, a physical reflection of the way that people need to be spiritually nourished? Is it an art form? A tool for fellowship and hospitality? Is it an element of worship? Is food seen as a pleasurable thing to indulge in? The answer to this question will affect the breadth of what is eaten and how.

Next, consider whether there are any restrictions on what is seen as edible in this culture–beyond what is literally edible vs. inedible. Are certain plants or animals seen as “unclean”? Is the culture vegetarian? Pescatarian? Vegan? Are these guidelines seen as coming directly from a deity, or are they inferred from other values the deity has given them? (E.g. a culture that is anti-violence might see hunting as violent and thus be largely vegetarian, even if their deity hasn’t given them a directive not to eat meat.)

Lastly, are there any foods seen as sacred or otherwise special in this culture, set aside for particular purposes, contexts, or days? Are there foods set aside for birthdays, weddings, festivals, or religious ceremonies? Do particular combinations of foods mean something specific? Does this culture have ways of communicating through their food or the way their meals are laid out? Which leads us to…

Mealtimes & Mealtime Etiquette

Here we get beyond what your characters eat and into the details of when and how they eat. The most obvious thing to start with is to determine how often your characters have meals. They might be like hobbits, eating seven meals a day; they might have the American count of three; they might have one smaller meal and one larger meal; or they might only have one large meal per day. How often your characters eat will depend on a few things: how much they need to eat (particularly an important consideration for non-humans), their cultural view of the function of food (as previously discussed), and the depth of their understanding of nutrition (how their bodies respond to food when it’s spaced out vs. all at once, how they handle fasting, etc.). Cultures that see food as a mere necessity might have just one or two meals so they can get eating out of the way, or they might not have any set times because they just eat when they need to. Cultures that see it as a communal activity (and value community) might have more frequent meals as a means of drawing together families and communities–and granting more frequent opportunities for hospitality. Cultures that view it as an art form might have only one or two meals a day because it takes a while to prepare food to perfection. Other cultures may operate on a model of intermittent fasting, they might have one smaller meal in the morning to prepare characters for the day and a larger one in the evening to celebrate a good day’s work with family and friends, etc.

This ties in with the next question, which is: How are different meals set apart, if at all? Are there meals that are seen to serve a merely utilitarian function, while others are viewed as religious or communal? Are all meals family meals, or are some meals “every man for himself” and others designated to be spent with family? Are people in this culture expected to be ready to welcome strangers in for any meal (in a culture that values community and charity, for example), or can they be more relaxed and prepared only for their own families or expected guests?

What does it look like for your characters to prepare for a meal? What dishes and utensils are used, and how are they laid out before a meal? Does shifting their placement have meaning? (For example, in cultures where you can communicate that you’re finished or that you would like more of a certain dish by arranging your dishes and utensils a particular way.) Are there any ways to snub guests (or hosts) in the placement of dishes, which should generally be avoided? Is it expected that hosts and/or guests will wash their hands before a meal (or their faces or their feet, for that matter)? Are certain activities prohibited during a meal (such as singing, burping, placing elbows on the table, etc.)? On the flip side, is anything expected of those at a table together (such as passing dishes, exchanging stories, keeping silence, saying a prayer, etc.)? Is etiquette the same for adults and for children, or are there two different sets of expectations depending on a character’s age?

How are meals served? Does this culture generally use a buffet style, family style (passing dishes around), or plated ahead of time model? Are there guidelines for the order in which people are served at the table (does the oldest or youngest person go first, or are guests given preference, etc.)? Who generally does the serving (servants, the lady of the house, the head of the house, the children of the host, everyone serves themselves, etc.)?

Beyond the order in which food is served, what is the order of who may eat first? Are both orders the same? Can one’s place be forfeited (say, if a child reaches for the food before it’s been properly blessed and served are they moved to the end of the line) or can one be brought up in the line (say, if the host wishes to give special honor to a particular guest)?

Communal Meals

Next, I want to bring up meals that are specifically communal and how etiquette does or doesn’t differ in these contexts. Some meals may be central to a community–think of things like block parties or celebrations that a whole community participates in around a meal. How do the rules of a meal change or stay the same? Are there changes made to simplify logistics? Or are logistics adjusted to accommodate the same types of etiquette?

Say you’ve decided that the head of a household says the blessing over a meal and gets to be served their food first. For community meals, does this privilege move upward to the head of the community, followed by the heads of household, then trickling down as usual? Or are tables set up for each household? Or does each table seat a few households, and the eldest head of household eats first at his table, followed by the others in age order? There are lots of variations you can explore from just one set of etiquette.

Meals to commemorate special events and holidays might also have different rules from the usual. Etiquette may be more formal (or more relaxed), or it might be changing for particular characters (if, for example, the celebration is for a coming-of-age ceremony or a new year and characters are moving out of childhood etiquette into adult etiquette). Certain foods may be enjoyed that aren’t on other occasions, special dishes may be brought out, special attire might be expected at the table, etc.

Religious meals have a whole new set of considerations, because these are likely symbolic and might even be perceived as sharing a meal with a deity. These meals might be taken more rarely and will likely have distinct requirements from other meals in terms of how they’re administered, by whom, and to what purpose. Distinct etiquette will likely flow out of this–though in some cases the etiquette may be largely parallel if the culture views all other meals as reflective of these sacred meals. Religious meals may hold symbolic meaning–reminders of particular religious events, for example–or may be seen as communion with a deity following a sacrifice, or mere fellowship with fellow believers and/or the deity/deities themselves.

Fasting and Famine

Lastly, I want to talk about the absence of food, starting with intentional absence of food (fasting) before getting into inadvertent absence of food (famine).

The first question is whether this culture sees fasting as a thing to do. Is it something they do for health reasons, religious reasons, or to share experiences with those battling famine? Or do they see it as ridiculous because food is a necessity that you shouldn’t withhold from yourself? If they do fast for one reason or another, how frequently do they do so? Is fasting something that’s done together as a community (either on a routine basis or as part of a particular, infrequent observance like Lent), or is it a private matter? Are both considered appropriate in different contexts?

How does this culture handle supplying food to those who have none? Do they have any equivalent to a soup kitchen–whether organized by a civil or religious body? Are members of the community expected to extend hospitality and feed those in need “on their own time”? Are scraps and fragments left at harvest time so that those who have need may gather? Are fields open to those who need to harvest food for themselves in general? Does this culture even care, or if this not an issue that they have addressed? (In some cultures at certain times, it might not be something they need to consider at all.)

What are the causes of famine in this culture’s part of the world? Do pests come through and destroy crops or infect livestock? Are natural disasters prone to destroy food supplies? Does this culture not tend to its soil well and thus have poor yield? Are they unskilled at raising their livestock, so they lose a lot of what meat or animal byproducts they would be able to use?

When famine does hit, are there any hardier sources of food that remain? What is left behind that they have to get creative with so they don’t get sick of it during droughts, blights, and other times of famine? (These might be crops or animals, depending on the needs of what they grow and raise.)

Lastly, where does this culture turn during a famine? What neighbors can be turned to when they have no food left? Who has better crops, more reliable weather, or stronger livestock and is willing to provide this culture with what they need? What is this extra food worth to this neighboring culture; what trades are agreed upon in these seasons?

This post was particularly question-heavy, but I’d love to hear in the comments which of these considerations most piqued your interest and what you’re most excited to work on next!

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Birthday Celebrations in Fantasy Worlds

When I wrote about how to develop your culture’s timekeeping ideology and methodology last month, I concluded with a brief section on “lifespans and personal timekeeping.” Y’all expressed interest in a post that focused on that topic specifically (and I was recently inspired by a letter in which Tolkien went into great depth about the birthday customs of hobbits, which I highly recommend checking out as an example of this done well), so here it is! Let’s talk about birthdays.

To Celebrate or Not to Celebrate

The first thing to consider, of course, is whether your culture even celebrates birthdays in the first place. As I said in my general timekeeping post,

In a society that thinks more communally or that doesn’t make a big deal of keeping time, birthdays might not even be a consideration; it may not much matter how old you are as long as you’re doing things with your life. The same may be true in a culture that sees time as something designed by a deity; to mark time around your own life may be seen as selfish and even idolatrous.

But there are options between the two extremes of “celebrating every birthday” and “not celebrating the progression of life at all.” Some cultures might celebrate only certain milestone birthdays, such as when a character comes of age or when they hit an age of eldership (especially in a culture that values the wisdom of elders and/or in which only characters of a certain older age can take particular roles in that culture). And, of course, life milestones such as marriage may be celebrated independent of birthdays.

If your culture does celebrate birthdays frequently–if they highly value individuality, life, or growth, for example–then refer back to their general markings of time. Do they celebrate once a year (and if so, how long is their year)? Do they celebrate on the anniversary in every moon cycle? If they were born on the day of an unusual cosmic event (such as an eclipse), is their birth celebrated more rarely because it’s only celebrated when that event comes around again? How precisely are birthdays marked, in general?

Party Planning

Once you’ve decided how frequently this culture celebrates its birthdays, you can start to ask what birthday celebrations look like. First of all, how long do celebrations run? Are they kept to the specific day of birth? If this culture doesn’t keep precise track of dates, are they longer to “cover their bases,” so to speak, and ensure that the day is celebrated somewhere in there? Do they figure it’s close enough to just pick a day nearby? Is the length of the celebration based on how long a baby took to arrive (either the length of the pregnancy or the length of labor)?

Then, what are the elements of a birthday celebration? Are special foods brought out–either foods specific to birthdays in general or selected by the person being celebrated? Where do birthday celebrations take place–at home, in a place of worship, in a community space–and is it decorated for the occasion? Are decorations standard no matter what age you are, or do they differ based on age or personal preference?

Who is invited to celebrate? Are birthdays a family affair? Are friends invited? Is the whole community expected to contribute? Does it depend on the person being celebrated–their preferences, role in the community, or age?

Gift-Giving

The first thing to consider with gift-giving, is, of course, whether this culture exchanges gifts for birthdays at all. Then, if there are gifts, are they given to the person being celebrated, by the person being celebrated, or both? (I loved that in hobbit culture gifts are given to the birthday hobbit by relatives of a particular proximity, as a family responsibility, and gifts given by the birthday hobbit are to recognize those who have served a meaningful place in their life–especially within the past year. It’s a very family-centric custom that still extends somewhat into the broader community.)

Consider the purpose of these gifts. Is it to equip the aging character for the coming year (or season, if they’re celebrated more frequently)? To provide a memory for the character to keep in tangible form? Is it simply an acknowledgment of the character’s importance to the gift-giver? (If so, does this affect price? Are there ways these gifts are exchanged discreetly to minimize offense?)

An Alternative to Birthdays

If your culture doesn’t celebrate birthdays for one reason or another but still wishes to recognize those within its community, consider whether they might celebrate remembrance days after a character’s death instead. This might be particularly common in a culture where death is seen as honorable for one reason or another (going on to the afterlife, completing one’s lifelong contribution to the culture, giving one’s life for the culture in battle, etc.), or a culture that sees remembrance as a greater honor to the deceased than celebration during their lifetime–keeping the character alive in memory after they are no longer alive to make new memories.

Days of remembrance would likely fall on the date of a character’s death–though they could still occur on the character’s birthday–and may be more uniform than birthday celebrations since the personal preference of the one being celebrated might be a lesser concern. But, of course, there will likely still be some personal touch as the living characters seek to bring to memory who the deceased was. While some things–such as gift-giving–will obviously differ between a birthday and remembrance day celebration, many of the same questions–of length, how the character is recognized, who is involved, etc.–will need to be considered.

There are some of the core considerations for developing your culture’s birthday celebrations. Comment below and let me know which element you’re most excited to develop, how birthdays are celebrated in your world, or if you have any questions you’d like expanded on further!

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Thoughts on Dune

In January, I finally got around to approaching Dune. In the months since, I have watched the first Timothée Chalemet movie twice, read the book, and watched the second movie, and all of my thoughts on all of it are kind of tangled up together, so here is one “review” post to cover all of it, for anyone curious.

Movie #1

I was going to wait to watch this movie until I’d read the book, but Dune was thick, a little bit intimidating, and (mostly) just never seemed to float to the top of the TBR stack. So eventually I decided I didn’t want that to prevent me from enjoying the movie, and I watched it. As a movie, without the book to compare it to, I thought it was excellent. The pacing of the questions posed in terms of worldbuilding was absolutely perfect. Usually the characters have to draw me in for me to be invested in a movie, but with Dune it was the worldbuilding that sucked me in and wouldn’t let go despite my feeling ambivalent toward most of the characters. And the arcs were interesting, especially as they were shaped by the world, even with characters I didn’t “love.”

It was very well-told, very well-paced, cinematically lovely, and the score was a good fit even if most of it wasn’t my personal favorite. And it sparked my interest in finally reading the book because I’d gotten a taste of the world and characters and I really wanted to get Herbert’s depth and understand his vision for them.

The Book – Part 1

(Part 1 for me; the first half of the book. Not literally Part 1 of the book.)

The first half of Dune was hard for me to get through. The characters I had liked for their nobility in the movie were just as gray as everyone else in the book, and I had to be in their heads; I was no longer a casual observer to the drama, but in the heads of these characters who were all compromising or outright corrupt in their own ways. Plus, the movie had already introduced all of the interesting aspects of the world in this part of the story; there was nothing new on a positive note–except the excerpts from Princess Irulan’s writings, which were genuinely my favorite part of the first half of the book. But this also meant that, overall, the first movie was a fairly faithful adaptation.

I had heard that things got weird in the latter half of the book, and I was hoping that the movie improved on things there just as the first movie had improved on this first half, in my opinion.

Though I intended to finish the book before watching the second movie, I did not manage to accomplish this and only got through the first half, so watching the second movie was also like watching the movie before reading the book.

Movie #2

I did not enjoy Dune: Part 2 as much as the first movie, but it was actually not for any of the weirdness that I’d heard about from the second half of the book; in fact, much of that was omitted altogether. No, my biggest issue with the movie was that it spent way too much concentrated time on the Harkonnens. In the book, there are chapters from the POV of the Harkonnens, and they’re… disturbing. They’re meant to be disturbing. But those chapters were brief and had several chapters of focus on the “good guys” in between, making them much easier to manage. I had to walk out of the theater for a strategic bathroom break during the movie’s focus on the Harkonnens because it was so long and so concentrated and so wicked. Yes, they did an excellent job of capturing how despicable the Harkonnens are, but this is one thing that I think the book did much more artfully.

I also just didn’t find this latter portion of the movie’s story as compelling, personally, though I couldn’t tell you exactly why–at least not without comparing it to the book.

The Book – Part 2

After watching Dune: Part 2, I almost didn’t want to bother picking Dune back up. The interest was almost dead. But I’m glad I did, because I actually enjoyed the second half of the book much better than the first–and much better than the second half of the adaptation. I started out reading through the second half out of sheer stubbornness, but I was quickly drawn in by the cultural elements that the movie had left out, how the Fremen handled family, Alia’s character and how she was viewed (and her part in the conclusion), the cunning behind the Harkonnen’s actions that is largely lost in the movies, the influence of characters from the first half (who died in the movie but not the book) in the second half, etc. In the book, Fremen society shines brighter in the second half; Paul becomes a part of Fremen society, and we become immersed in it with him. And that society-building is a huge strength of Herbert’s; Fremen society is so internally consistent, its values are clear in every detail, it is just a prime example of creating a cohesive culture around a couple of core values and traits. And I loved getting to see that showcased in the book in a way that they largely skimmed over in the movie.

The climax, too, was so much more satisfying in the book; it felt like all of the pieces came together for a really great finale, whereas the omissions in the movie left the movie’s climax kind of unimpressive.

In Conclusion

At the end of the first half of the book, I wasn’t sure I would be glad that I’d read Dune. I would appreciate having read it, for its literary history merit, but not the actual reading of it. Having read the whole thing, I am actually glad that I read it. I did really enjoy the Fremen culture and how it was built. That said, I do not think that Dune is a must-read; it is pretty morally ambiguous, so if morality and/or characters are a draw, then it’s probably not for you, and I wasn’t especially impressed with the writing style. Worldbuilding is really its only core strength, in my opinion, so I would recommend it as a worldbuilding study more than as a great read.

Movie-wise, I do still love the first movie. I still think it paced everything beautifully and it’s a great introduction to Arakkis and the setup of the Dune story. The second movie was fine, if not to my personal taste (my husband enjoyed the worldbuilding in the second movie more than I did, since it was more focused on the religion and politics that he’d wanted to see more of in the first movie); if I were to rewatch it, I would want to do so with the ability to skip the whole Harkonnen middle section, which was actually not especially relevant to the remainder of the story due to some of the omissions in the movie vs. the books. But it wrapped up the story well enough.

If I were to create my own version of Dune from this experience, I would meld the first movie with the second half of the book and find it quite an enjoyable whole, lol.

How about you? Have you read/seen Dune? What did you think? What were your favorite elements? Would you watch/read it again?

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Creating Fantasy Etiquette

Do your characters mind their manners? If so, this post will help you determine what manners they’re minding; if not, this will help you determine just how rude your characters are. Etiquette differs from culture to culture, and this post is for you if you haven’t yet considered what good manners look like in the fictional culture(s) you’ve created!

Greetings & Farewells

I’ve discussed how greetings and farewells may be communicated in terms of language before, and saying the right thing is an aspect of a polite greeting or farewell. Your characters should know (or conspicuously not know) if those above them in station–or those they don’t know well–should be given a fuller greeting than the more abbreviated greeting they may use with their family members or friends. There might even be entirely different greetings for use with different groups of people. Farewells likewise.

But since I have discussed language before, I want to focus here on non-verbal ways of greeting and goodbye-ing.

First, naturally, are first meetings. How you greet someone the first time you meet them (and perhaps even how you say goodbye the first time) will often differ from how you address them after that. If you’ve created a culture in which everyone is seen as a friend–or even a family member–the first time you meet them, either all the time or under particular circumstances (e.g. if they’re a citizen of the same country, if they’re a member of your religion, etc.), perhaps there is no distinction between first and later meetings. Or characters of a high rank may not be required to distinguish their greetings for those of lesser rank. But in cases where there is a distinction, think about what that may be. Do characters shake hands upon first meeting? Do they bow a certain way? Do they press a hand (or both) to their chest, maybe with a particular hand position? Do they spit?

I love the way Frank Herbert draws from the Fremen culture he’s built a custom of spitting as a sign of respect (“wasting” precious water for someone else), and the conflict it creates as this gesture means drastically different things to the Fremen vs. the Atreides. Some cultures may use kneeling as a greeting, but have different styles of kneel depending on who is addressing whom; though very little detail will likely ever get into my books, I developed a whole kneeling system for the kingdom of The Masked Captain in which the placement of one’s hands, which knee remains raised, and whether or not a sword is involved all have meaning (indicating rank, vowing protection or respect, etc.).

Where everyday greetings differ from first greetings, consider whether they have overlapping symbolism or distinct symbolism of their own. Maybe new acquaintances are met only with a nod of the head, keeping distance between characters, but those who know each other clasp hands to communicate trust and/or closeness in contrast. Maybe trust is communicated through the clasping of bare hands between those just meeting, but friends hug and communicate that same trust by touching their hand to an exposed arm or neck, carrying the same symbolism through.

As with everything, think about what is important to your culture and what they would communicate in their relationships with one another. In cultures where rank matters, greetings will likely reflect that; in cultures where rank isn’t a big deal, it won’t be a big deal in greeting. Where connection is important, touch and/or skin-to-skin contact may be an important element of greeting; where strength is important, maybe it matters how tightly you shake someone’s hand or embrace them; in cultures that value beauty, perhaps greetings are intricate works of art–almost like a dance (or dancing outright!)

The same principles can be applied to farewells. Think about your culture’s values, what is being communicated, and what factors (rank, closeness of relationship, etc.) may lead to variations.

Titles & Address

Titles are another topic I’ve handled from a linguistic angle, but I want to expand on it here just a little bit. There are multiple sorts of titles and means of address that we could get into: titles like “king” and “baron,” titles like “mother” and “uncle,” titles like “your majesty,” etc. These are all covered in that linked post. But there are other ways characters might address one another, with terms of endearment, their job title, or even insults.

Think about how children may be referred to, for example. In the real world we might refer to a child as “kiddo,” “tyke,” “squirt,” etc. Does your culture have any similar terms? As an example of how to apply this, I recently developed that children in Mandoria are referred to as “sprout,” when not called by name, which goes with their emphasis on growing things and the similarities between growing things like trees and people.

This category may also have a great deal of overlap with the previous points on greetings, especially when it comes to gesture. If certain individuals or groups of people are greeted a particular way, that is how they’re greeted/addressed and may also be connected to their title (if, say, you must always bow to the king when addressing him). Address may, however, be more frequent than “greeting” (again, take the “bowing when addressing” example; perhaps you greet the king by kneeling, but each time you address him–perhaps along with his title–you must incline your head in a lesser bow), making it a somewhat different consideration.

Hospitality & Association

Before you can greet or address someone, you must first know whether it is someone whom you should associate with–or even may associate with or must associate with. In a class system, perhaps it’s improper to associate above or below your class; perhaps there are rules as to who may address the other first; or maybe there are limits to the kind of association one may have with another (e.g. a member of an upper class may speak to a member of a lower class, but may never invite them over for tea).

These rules, whether official or simply accepted, may develop based on class, race, gender, etc. Some might even be healthy–e.g. preventing truly inappropriate behavior between unmarried men and women, preventing one class from overbearing on another’s customs, etc.–while others may be less so. They may affect who is allowed to associate with whom as well as who is expected to associate with whom. Perhaps the members of a particular class, organization, etc. are expected to all know each other and engage in hospitality with one another, and not to do so is just as impolite as it would be to associate with someone who is not a member of the expected group.

Think about what guidelines may have arisen in your culture–whether out of explicit values or out of practicality (if members of a particular class have no reason to interact much, perhaps they simply didn’t force it, and now it’s considered strange or outright taboo to break that habit when opportunities for interaction do arise)–and what limits they may create. Are the lines between groups absolute or are certain behaviors accepted while others are not? How does it differ when Group A initiates interaction with Group B vs. the other way around?

Polite Conversation

Not all topics are proper for polite conversation, but which topics those are will depend on your culture. Perhaps a medically-inclined culture speaks quite frankly about bodily functions, while a culture valuing privacy above all might not even acknowledge a burp–or allow one in public at all (more on the etiquette of bodily functions in a moment). Some cultures may think that it’s completely normal to speak of births and deaths, while others may find it disrespectful to the families involved.

This, too, may depend on who is speaking. There may be different standards for different groups, with particular groups expected to speak more “crudely” than others. This may be a double-standard, or it may be a difference in sub-culture between groups (and there may be those who see it from either angle within your culture, leading to conflict).

Polite conversation may even have fewer allowed topics than restricted topics. Maybe acquaintances are only expected to speak of each other’s health and the weather, while friends have a broader pool to choose from. (I may have taken these particular topics from my recent My Fair Lady rewatch.) Again, think of how this may differ based on what group(s) your characters are from and the closeness of their relationship.

Mealtime Etiquette

Mealtime etiquette can range from quite simple (“here are three things you are not allowed to do at the table”) to quite complex (with the position of your dishes comprising a whole language telling your host when you’re finished, whether or not you liked your food, if you’d like more, etc., etc.).

There may be etiquette around who serves the food (whether it’s served all at once or passed around; who does the serving, in the former case; etc.), who eats first (the head of household? The oldest person present? The youngest present? The highest in rank? The most needful?), how much of one’s arm is visible at/on the table (keeping both hands above the table for the sake of proving you mean no ill will; keeping elbows off the table for sanitation; etc.), whether burping is allowed (or frowned upon or encouraged), whether a blessing is said (and how said blessing is addressed, and who says it), etc., etc.

Some of these things will be influenced by social structure (e.g. if authority structure is important, it may be more likely that the head of a household or group says the blessing and gets to eat first), the meaning of a meal (religious meals may be more structured than household meals, for example), the overall values of a culture (cultures valuing charity may prioritize feeding the needy before feeding the more well-off), etc.

If you do want to make table etiquette a language to itself, you’ll need to know what dishes and other accessories (like napkins) are used in a typical place setting–which could potentially comprise half a blog post to itself on the topic of meals as a whole. (Comment below if you’d like to see a post on that topic!)

Etiquette for Bodily Functions

This last category could be pushing the line of proper etiquette in and of itself, but I’ll do my best to remain polite. (Or, of course, you could skip this section and head straight into the conclusion.)

Your culture will likely have etiquette around various bodily functions that may occur in public–sneezing/nose-blowing, passing gas, burping, hiccuping, etc. Some of these things are rather hard to avoid when they come up (e.g. sneezes); your culture may simply accept them for this fact, or may have provisions for making them more polite–excusing oneself after passing gas or burping, others saying “bless you” when one sneezes, etc. These may be based on simple etiquette (“how do we make this offensive thing less offensive out of necessity?”) or superstition (e.g. beginning to say “bless you” under the belief that someone’s spirit–or the Holy Spirit–left them when they sneezed).

There may also be etiquette provisions for things that aren’t exactly public but are also unavoidable–such as the permission Rachel had to stay seated in Genesis 31 due to “the manner of women.” Particularly for cultures that are straightforward about bodily functions, these provisions may be polite ways to accommodate private facts of life when they affect one in a public setting.

There are my tips on creating fictional etiquette. Comment below with the most unique element of your culture’s etiquette–or the element you like best–and/or which category of etiquette you’re most interested to develop next!

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Calendars & Timekeeping in Fantasy

Have you ever thought about how your characters keep time? Our observation of time shapes our days, years, and lifetimes, shaping what we focus on when and how we are able to interact with others. If you haven’t yet shaped the calendar and divisions of time in your world, now is a great time to start. ;) This post will help you understand the critical principles to think through as you develop your culture’s calendar and timekeeping methods.

The Basis of Time

The easiest way to begin breaking down your culture’s view of time is to ask what they look to as the basis of their measurements. Do they look to one (or more) of the celestial bodies to shape their days and years? Are their seasons based on agriculture, husbandry, or the weather? Are their times determined by something earthly at all, or by a spiritual decree?

Think about how your culture’s marking of time fits with the rest of their values. A nocturnal society may have no need to measure the passage of the sun, but instead measure the passage and phases of the moon and/or the movement of the stars. An agrarian society whose days operate based on the rising and setting of the sun might not measure much by the moon or stars at all. A religious society might pay closer attention to both, believing they were created by their god, whether for the explicit purpose of measuring days and seasons or not.

What your culture pays attention to as the natural measure for time will affect how it divides time, measures time, and even determines the timing of special days/holidays.

Divisions of Time

Days, weeks, months, years (and decades, centuries, millennia). These are the divisions we operate under–not to mention the smaller divisions of hours, minutes, and seconds; or the less precisely measured (or precisely accurate in their use) divisions like mornings and evenings and the seasons.

While your culture will likely have days, at least, they may or may not be 24-hour cycles; they may be closer to 12, relying on daylight rather than passage of time, they may be longer or shorter if they’re based on working hours, or they may be as long as a combined “morning and evening” or “evening and morning” (which still may not be 24 hours depending on the astronomy of your world).

Years, too, will likely be measured by passage around the sun (depending on the astronomy and astronomical understanding of your culture), a number of sets of moon phases, a set of seasons, or something unique to your world like the emergence of a particular species or the passage of a slow-moving moon.

But weeks, hours, minutes, seasons… these may all differ or be more vaguely observed depending on your world and your culture’s attitude toward time (which we’ll address more specifically later). In a world that observes time by the moon, perhaps a week spans every every stage or every couple stages of a moon’s passage through its phases (for a real-world example, from full moon to first quarter/waning half, from first quarter to new moon, from new moon to third quarter/waxing half, from there back to full moon–or you could include crescent and gibbous if you wanted to break it down further!). Maybe an agrarian society measures weeks by the height of their crops. Maybe a polytheistic society has a ten-day week, with a day for each of their gods.

Smaller increments of time may be measured for the sake of particular tasks–cooking, baking, smelting, etc.–in which case they may be based around those tasks. Maybe an hour is known as a “leavening” because it’s based on how long they leave their bread to rise, for example.

Other measures of time may not be necessary to this culture; maybe they don’t bother with anything smaller than “mornings” or “evenings” because they prefer to let things take as long as they need to take or the bulk of their tasks are long or continuous rather than short or precise. On the other hand, a very precise society might have very precise measurements of time and may be more particular about how measures of time stack into one another (like our 60 seconds to a minute, 60 minutes to an hour, 24 hours to a day, etc.)

Special Days and Holidays

I’ve talked about holidays before, so I won’t spend too much time on them here, but the way that your culture measures time can affect both when they set their holidays and how long those holidays last. Holidays based on historical events will, obviously, be based on the time in which they occurred; the time in which they’re celebrated may be more or less precise depending on how precise your culture is or isn’t about keeping time. (Maybe cultures that aren’t as precise use this as an excuse to have longer celebrations; if you party for days, surely one of those days is bound to be the right one.) Other holidays may be tied to certain seasons or natural cycles, differing some (or a lot) in their location on the calendar each time they’re celebrated.

Besides holidays, your culture may have other special days that come up more frequently or have different purposes. Perhaps they have days or seasons of mourning and remembrance, perhaps days or seasons of rest, etc. These, too, will shape–or be shaped by–the rest of your culture’s timekeeping. Our 7-day weeks, for example, are defined by the sabbath. In the Old Testament, there were 7-year and 70-year cycles that shaped the rest of the Israelites’ calendar. Your culture may have similar changes of pace every so often.

Measuring Time

Now that we’ve discussed what your culture bases their timekeeping on, we can ask how they actually measure the passage of time as it passes. For example, cultures that keep time based on the sun may have sundials or sticks with which to measure the sun. Moon-observant cultures might have devices that allow them to measure the width of the moon and determine its proximity to fullness. Others might measure based on the height of crops (as previously noted), the general height of the sun (measuring with their hands rather than a sundial, for example), the position of the stars, a clock with hands and/or numbers, a device that measures time by the flow of water or sand, etc.

Consider not only their attitude toward time and how they keep it overall, but also what resources they have at their disposal and how much invention they’re willing to invest in keeping time. Maybe they have intricate clockwork, or maybe they’re content with a stick in the ground. This, too, will reflect your culture’s overall attitude and values.

Attitude Toward Time

As a near-final point, let’s look more closely at your culture’s overall attitude toward time. Do they have a mindset of “Teach us to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom”? Is it more of a “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” attitude? Do they view time as a precious resource, or as just another part of the everyday backdrop to take for granted? Do they believe time must be filled to the brim with work or other activity, or do they make time for rest?

In a similar but distinct vein, what do they think of time and history as a greater whole? Is time viewed as cyclical, does it have a clear beginning and end, or do they see some combination of the two? Is destiny seen as fixed or malleable? Are people believed to have an afterlife beyond the limits of time to look forward to, or is time within their world all they have?

The answers to these questions will greatly influence how much attention and care your culture gives to time–both in general and within their everyday lives.

Lifespans & Personal Timekeeping

I won’t spend a lot of time here before I wrap up, but I want to add a brief note about timekeeping as it relates to individual lifespans (with things like birthdays). In a society that thinks more communally or that doesn’t make a big deal of keeping time, birthdays might not even be a consideration; it may not much matter how old you are as long as you’re doing things with your life. The same may be true in a culture that sees time as something designed by a deity; to mark time around your own life may be seen as selfish and even idolatrous.

In other cultures, however–those that highly value individuality, life, or growth, for example, and don’t also have objections based on other values–birthdays may be normal. In such cases, the general principles discussed before will apply; more precise timekeeping cultures will likely be more precise about birthdays, less precise cultures less precise; birthdays may be celebrated over a longer or shorter period of time; etc.

I may talk more about age and birthdays in another post; comment below if that’s a topic you’d be interested to see me cover. In the meantime, the closest I have is a post that discusses coming of age in fictional cultures.

Now I’d love to hear from you! Have you built fictional calendars before? What patterns does your culture follow in its timekeeping? If this is a topic that’s new to you (or even if it isn’t!), which point(s) did you find most interesting?

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