When developing your culture's social norms, consider gender and socio-economic roles, criminal behavior and punishment, and actions that are commonly considered improper or immoral. widely regarded as acceptable though not systematically enforced).
instituted by law or religion) or informal (i.e. On the other hand, writers penning lighter, less fantastical stories can probably get away with making up details as needed.Ī norm is a standard of social behavior expected of a people group. If you’re writing a sweeping fantasy epic or sci-fi adventure, then developing your cultures during the pre-writing process is likely the best decision. Neither option is inherently better than the other, but you may want to take the nature of your story into account before making your decision. Thankfully, this is fairly simple to do given that cultures are comprised of various elements such as customs, attitudes, iconography, and social institutions.Īs with general world-building, you can develop a fictional culture from the outside in or the inside out, devising cultural elements as needed or crafting fully-realized cultures before putting pen to paper.
Like any difficult undertaking, developing a fictional culture from scratch becomes easier when you break the process down into small steps. For speculative fiction writers, developing our worlds’ cultures is key to not only creating a unique experience for readers but crafting strong characters, which in turn strengthens our stories’ plots and themes.īut how do we build something as complex as cultures of our own making?
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