Joshua Palmatier - building cultures
First, off, thanks to Gillian for offering to host me at her blog. I really appreciate it!
For those who don't know of me already, my name is Joshua Palmatier and I publish under that name and a pseudonym, Benjamin Tate. All of my novels are from DAW Books, and all of them are fantasies set in alternate worlds. This means that in my novels I need to create real and believable cultures, and so Gillian asked if I could talk about how I create operational cultures and societies. My current series—started with WELL OF SORROWS and continuing with the just-released LEAVES OF FLAME—contains three main cultures, along with a few "side" cultures that readers run into along the way, and the worldbuilding that I did for these novels is one of the main elements praised in the reviews they've gotten.
I think the first step to creating a culture is to consider the setting and the world where this culture is supposed to live. In my series, the premise was that a new continent had been discovered across the ocean and it had been settled along its coast already. However, the settlers needed to expand their territory, and so they began sending wagon trains out into the unexplored plains to the east.
This setup gave me the initial "feel" for the human culture—those that had discovered the continent and were beginning to settle it. I wanted that culture to have the same feel as one of our own European cultures at the time that the American continent was discovered. However, I didn't want it to BE one of those European cultures. I wanted it to simply have the flavor of one of those cultures. But this gave me a foundation on which to build the rest of the culture. Starting with that very generic base model, I began adding elements to the culture that would make sense in this "new continent" context.
For example, I needed the settlers to be contentious, so I divided the homeland into various Families and decided that the Families were at war with each other, something I called a Feud. The Feud was happening at home, but it would naturally spill over into rivalries in the new world as the Families vied for power and resources in this new land. This would cause a major shift in the homeland, depending on who was gaining power and land faster. And as tensions rose in the homeland, the lesser members of each Family—the peasants in essence—would seize on the new world as a place to flee the coming war, thus causing even more tension in the new world as it becomes overrun by refugees.
From this simple setup, you can see how the world is fleshing itself out and defining itself. All of this is happening in my head, without having really written anything at all. I have a flavor for the culture, and now a setup. The rudimentary elements are beginning to take shape—Families divided, each Family composed of those in power (part of the Family itself) and those beneath who keep the Family running (guilds, trading houses, etc). Each Family would need its own army, to keep everything in balance. I then begin adding layers to the culture. What kind of religion do they follow? I chose a belief in one god and modeled the religion after Christianity, but loosely. I took into account the land in which the Families lived. This created nuances between the different Families. Those along the coast took on aspects of Mediterranean cultures—olive groves, terraced buildings and streets in the harbors, those higher in power living in mansions on the cliff heights with open-air rooms and colonnades supporting the roofs, etc. In my mind's eye, all of these layers gave the culture a texture, enough that I could see the green-blue of the ocean near the harbors, could taste the salt of the water in the air. It's sort of Italian, sort of Greek, with a little flare of the Machiavellian in the interplay between the Families and the Feud. Some who have read it felt the homeland had a mob flavor to it.
But you can see from this how the culture was created. I started with a very amorphous foundation, a "flavor" that I'm looking to capture that fits the story setup. And then, as I write, I begin introducing multiple layers, each forming from and adding to the layers already present. I add a religion (always important), sometimes multiple religions. I think about the geography and how it might shape the culture that would spring up there. I think about what the buildings will look like, what clothes the people would likely wear (this depends on climate), what foods they might eat. I think about how their society needs to be set up, and how they'll have incorporated an army into their culture. The answers to these questions expand my understanding of the culture I'm creating, and the answers interplay off of each other as well. Consider how the religion factors into the political structure—is it integrated into it, or is it separate? In my homeland, the church ends up being a power in its own right, almost another Family in essence. It uses and manipulates the Families for its own ends. As the layers grow, the culture and society takes on its own feel, its own texture, and the people that live in this culture come alive for me.
I did the same for the other two main cultures in the books—the dwarren and the Alvritshai. You can guess the foundations for both of those: the dwarren are my take on dwarves, but these "dwarves" live on the plains in a complex system of tunnels beneath the ground, like a prairie dog warren. I have them riding gaezel instead of horses, bringing in a ripple of Africa. The land they live in shaped my version of "dwarves." The idea of "settling the west" led me to give these dwarren a culture similar to Native Americans, although like my human culture it's just a flavor, a touch of that culture. Similarly, the Alvritshai lived in the far northern regions beyond the mountains. But the encroaching ice moving southward has forced them to adapt to the mountainous regions they once thought of as their border, pushing them into the plains.
So that's how I create an operational culture: start with something simple and then add layers based on the land, the setup, and sometimes just something that strikes me as cool (the prairie dog warrens, for example). The culture and society ends up being an amalgam of all of these things. You have to keep in mind that I'm a very "organic" writer, meaning that I don't outline my novel ahead of time. I usually have a picture in my head of where my characters end up at some point along their journey and I sit down and begin writing toward the vision. The fun of writing for me is to see how they get there. So this approach to creating a culture and society is organic in nature. I let it grow and shape and reform as I write. But that's the way I do it.
Thanks again to Gillian for letting me stop by and chat with you all. Feel free to ask questions in the comments. I'll swing by every now and then and try to answer them as best I can. Good luck creating your own societies in your own writing! And remember to have fun while you're at it. If it isn't fun, it isn't worth it. *grin*
For those who don't know of me already, my name is Joshua Palmatier and I publish under that name and a pseudonym, Benjamin Tate. All of my novels are from DAW Books, and all of them are fantasies set in alternate worlds. This means that in my novels I need to create real and believable cultures, and so Gillian asked if I could talk about how I create operational cultures and societies. My current series—started with WELL OF SORROWS and continuing with the just-released LEAVES OF FLAME—contains three main cultures, along with a few "side" cultures that readers run into along the way, and the worldbuilding that I did for these novels is one of the main elements praised in the reviews they've gotten.
I think the first step to creating a culture is to consider the setting and the world where this culture is supposed to live. In my series, the premise was that a new continent had been discovered across the ocean and it had been settled along its coast already. However, the settlers needed to expand their territory, and so they began sending wagon trains out into the unexplored plains to the east.
This setup gave me the initial "feel" for the human culture—those that had discovered the continent and were beginning to settle it. I wanted that culture to have the same feel as one of our own European cultures at the time that the American continent was discovered. However, I didn't want it to BE one of those European cultures. I wanted it to simply have the flavor of one of those cultures. But this gave me a foundation on which to build the rest of the culture. Starting with that very generic base model, I began adding elements to the culture that would make sense in this "new continent" context.
For example, I needed the settlers to be contentious, so I divided the homeland into various Families and decided that the Families were at war with each other, something I called a Feud. The Feud was happening at home, but it would naturally spill over into rivalries in the new world as the Families vied for power and resources in this new land. This would cause a major shift in the homeland, depending on who was gaining power and land faster. And as tensions rose in the homeland, the lesser members of each Family—the peasants in essence—would seize on the new world as a place to flee the coming war, thus causing even more tension in the new world as it becomes overrun by refugees.
From this simple setup, you can see how the world is fleshing itself out and defining itself. All of this is happening in my head, without having really written anything at all. I have a flavor for the culture, and now a setup. The rudimentary elements are beginning to take shape—Families divided, each Family composed of those in power (part of the Family itself) and those beneath who keep the Family running (guilds, trading houses, etc). Each Family would need its own army, to keep everything in balance. I then begin adding layers to the culture. What kind of religion do they follow? I chose a belief in one god and modeled the religion after Christianity, but loosely. I took into account the land in which the Families lived. This created nuances between the different Families. Those along the coast took on aspects of Mediterranean cultures—olive groves, terraced buildings and streets in the harbors, those higher in power living in mansions on the cliff heights with open-air rooms and colonnades supporting the roofs, etc. In my mind's eye, all of these layers gave the culture a texture, enough that I could see the green-blue of the ocean near the harbors, could taste the salt of the water in the air. It's sort of Italian, sort of Greek, with a little flare of the Machiavellian in the interplay between the Families and the Feud. Some who have read it felt the homeland had a mob flavor to it.
But you can see from this how the culture was created. I started with a very amorphous foundation, a "flavor" that I'm looking to capture that fits the story setup. And then, as I write, I begin introducing multiple layers, each forming from and adding to the layers already present. I add a religion (always important), sometimes multiple religions. I think about the geography and how it might shape the culture that would spring up there. I think about what the buildings will look like, what clothes the people would likely wear (this depends on climate), what foods they might eat. I think about how their society needs to be set up, and how they'll have incorporated an army into their culture. The answers to these questions expand my understanding of the culture I'm creating, and the answers interplay off of each other as well. Consider how the religion factors into the political structure—is it integrated into it, or is it separate? In my homeland, the church ends up being a power in its own right, almost another Family in essence. It uses and manipulates the Families for its own ends. As the layers grow, the culture and society takes on its own feel, its own texture, and the people that live in this culture come alive for me.
I did the same for the other two main cultures in the books—the dwarren and the Alvritshai. You can guess the foundations for both of those: the dwarren are my take on dwarves, but these "dwarves" live on the plains in a complex system of tunnels beneath the ground, like a prairie dog warren. I have them riding gaezel instead of horses, bringing in a ripple of Africa. The land they live in shaped my version of "dwarves." The idea of "settling the west" led me to give these dwarren a culture similar to Native Americans, although like my human culture it's just a flavor, a touch of that culture. Similarly, the Alvritshai lived in the far northern regions beyond the mountains. But the encroaching ice moving southward has forced them to adapt to the mountainous regions they once thought of as their border, pushing them into the plains.
So that's how I create an operational culture: start with something simple and then add layers based on the land, the setup, and sometimes just something that strikes me as cool (the prairie dog warrens, for example). The culture and society ends up being an amalgam of all of these things. You have to keep in mind that I'm a very "organic" writer, meaning that I don't outline my novel ahead of time. I usually have a picture in my head of where my characters end up at some point along their journey and I sit down and begin writing toward the vision. The fun of writing for me is to see how they get there. So this approach to creating a culture and society is organic in nature. I let it grow and shape and reform as I write. But that's the way I do it.
Thanks again to Gillian for letting me stop by and chat with you all. Feel free to ask questions in the comments. I'll swing by every now and then and try to answer them as best I can. Good luck creating your own societies in your own writing! And remember to have fun while you're at it. If it isn't fun, it isn't worth it. *grin*
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