People/Customs: Magic and Magicians

Hey everyone. This is diving into the idea of magic, magicians, and what impact they're going to have on your people and customs today. There's not a lot for those who are doing real world settings, but you might find something for a later novel or if you're introducing magic in another way. Let's break this down and figure out what we're doing here.

This section can be found on the world building website here.

The first section is about the rules of magic. When I think of magic, I think of it as a way of causing x for y to happen, but it's a lot deeper for that. Say that I'm using healing magic to close a wound. Where does the energy or magic come from for that? Let's say for this project, that comes from within myself and has to be replenished, either from time to time or after closing a life threatening wound. If it's a small wound, I'll be fine and I won't really need to worry about my energy levels. If it's bigger, then I will. The friction of that can be woven into your story but it also helps to know when your character will or won't use it. Also, how they will taught when and where to use their magic. So that's the first section with rules of magic and it dives deep into what you should consider.

The second section is wizards themselves. I touched a small bit on how magic effects a wizard with what I put in the last paragraph, but you should also think how it effects them long term. It also goes into how long it takes to study, what others think of wizards, and basically, making a mini society of them. It's not a bad idea but you might not want to dive that deep. That's okay and you might just want to skim the surface. Or maybe nobody thinks magic's all that special because a lot of people do it / expect it. But you should have a small idea of your wizarding society going into writing your novel and how it effects society / humanity at large.

The third section, for me, is fun and deals a bit more with Earth AU than second world. I think that's because, when I think second world, I never think of a world as technological savvy as the world we have now. However, we do need to think of how magic effects the technology that we have. For example, can a person who uses electricity magic short circuit whatever he or she wants? Or can they only do that to certain types of electrical items? The section brings up the idea of magical weapons, which I never think about when putting magic into my novels, but I might start doing that. I would also think about if wizards are mistreated / wanted because they could help with manufacturing or just making life better as well.

The last section is some miscellaneous questions but one of the ones I like asks if magic is legal in your world. It's one of those questions that I know I don't think about - of course it's legal - but for it not to be legal would be interesting. That is definitely putting plotting in your world building because you'll use that in your story. Even if your main character doesn't use magic, another might, and you can dive into all of the ways that it helps and hinder the pair. Or how the main character might turn their friend in and so on. There's also about magic abuse, magical beasts, and so on. I would take a long look at it and think about how it might help or hinder you.

So, we're done with people and customs in this second week of world building. I hope this is helping you create the world of your novel or series. Until next time, keep on plotting (and writing!).

People/Customs: Exercise for Alternative Earth

I almost didn't make this post. I felt that those who are writing for this setting are basically set. They could use the advice I gave for the real world setting and that would be that. There was no reason and I could take the day off from blog writing and just chill.

Yeah, I realized how wrong I am when I opened Mystery of the Dark to edit it. It opened at the beginning, where I use a setting that is like an AA meeting, that we need to touch on this. So, yes, you can take the real world advice and maybe even the second world advice if you're jumping far into the future, but let's talk about this a brief bit.

Depending on how much you're going to keep Earth the same, we might have the same customs. If you're just adding something, like magic or supernatural creatures, then we might keep a lot of the same customs. There might be more of customs that are not traditional, like Samhain, but you might also have something for vampires like a blood feast. Or the rite of the full moon if you have werewolves. For this, I would highly recommend looking into customs that are not of the mainstream and see if any of them would fit. It would give your novel a bit extra oomph and maybe one that you didn't think about.

For those who are either going into the past to change something or into the far future, you have to think how the actions of humanity are going to change what we do. For example, say that the bombing of Pearl Harbor never happened and we never got into World War 2. We wouldn't celebrate, even the small bit that we do now, Pearl Harbor day in June. Would we still have a Veteran's Day in November? It's some of the small things that you need to take into account when twisting our history. 

Same goes if you're jumping into the future. Is there still the USA and, if there is, do we still celebrate 9/11? Did we forget or is there something else that took it's place? How do we celebrate the long ago wars, like World War 2, or did something take it's place like World War 3? I know these are uncomfortable questions, because I don't mean to make my readers uncomfortable, but you need to think about how what we has now effects our future. It might not at all. You might decide that people still talk and celebrate a lot of what we celebrate now. You might decide that we don't but that's because something new took it's place. Or that it is just so far into the future that we just don't remember why we celebrate, just that we do.

That's some of the things to think on as you continue down this road of world building. It's going to be uncomfortable but that's when we grow as writers. So, until next time, keep on plotting, being uncomfortable, and hopefully, when you can, writing.

People/Customs: Exercise for Real World Settings

You know how, yesterday, I talked about the idea of Christmas and how you might or might not have a tradition around that? We're going to focus on that idea for this exercise into people and customs today. Just because we're dealing with the real world doesn't mean that we can ignore the little customs or the bigger ones of daily life. Or the random people in our daily lives, like the very nice baristas at Starbucks who make our coffee.

Bonus points if you can guess where I'm writing this right now. Thank everything for PSL and salted caramel season.

So, for today, take one of your customs, either big or small, and think how you could fit it into your novel (if you want to). Maybe you celebrate the first day of fall by having your first PSL of the season. Maybe you celebrate something that mainstream America doesn't and, even though your characters are not of your nationally or religion, they could observe someone going through it. But try to break down one of your customs today and see if it can fit within the vision of the world you're portraying in your novel. It might send you in a different direction than you thought you were going in or it might make you realize that your own reality plays into your novel's reality more than you know.

Until next time, keep on plotting (and writing!).

Week 2: People (needing people...)

Welcome to week two of NaNoWriMo world building prep! This week, we're going to be talking about the idea of people in your world. Now, I am not talking about your main, major, or even minor characters. When we talk about people in the gaze of world building, we're talking about the average Joe or Jane that is walking about. They're not special, they're background, but they are just as important that you know about them. Without them, your main, major, and even minor characters will have a very limited group of who to speak with.

Just like last week, there will be ways to break it down into real world, Earth AU, and second world. There's an entire part of this world building that deals with mages and magic, which is very much Earth AU and second world, because, depending on who you speak to, the magic of this world is very limited in what it can do. Or what it's called, which we will not get into, but I will lightly touch on this when we get to that part of this week.

Now, people are just one half of this equation. We're also going to be talking about the customs that people use in their daily and not-daily lives. For the real world and Earth AU people, this would be something like how does your community deal with Christmas? Is Christmas celebrated? If not, what holidays are celebrated and are there any pockets of the world that try to celebrate Christmas? Now that's a very watered down version of the questions that the world building gets into but it's more to give you an idea of what to expect. Maybe there's another new holiday that everyone celebrates with glee that is more important but this is part of what you should be thinking about.

The second world people can do the same thing, but you need to take into the aspect of why. To take the example of Christmas, that's a tradition rooted in different parts of the world, with different customs, but basically celebrated within the same month / week / day. If you create something like that, then you need the background to back it up. I can go to the history of Christmas and know that it has roots in both Christianity and Paganism. Sometimes you're going to need the deep roots and with others, a simple "it was created in the honor of X hero" will be best. You need to make sure that you pick your battles with world building and customs / holidays, just like you do in writing with showing us the story that's in your head.

The reason why I brought up Christmas as an example is that, I know, for me, that's it's still celebrate in 2050. I even have a main / major character who is a C&E Catholic, meaning he's lapsed and only goes to Christmas midnight mass and the Easter mass. However, a reader who knows what that means with no explanation or perhaps a lapsed Catholic as well, can recognize that and possibly want to read more. It goes back to the little things in novels that make it something readers want to read and don't think about it while we do all the time.

In the end, people make your novel and their traditions and culture make the people. I hope this helps with making you think about the nitty gritty of your novel. Until next time, keep on plotting (and writing)!

Helpful Exercise: People and Customs from Patricia C. Wrede. If you're second world building and even thinking about magic, here's magic and magicians for another exercise if/when you have the time.