Mar

31

Have I Really Hit 500?

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Today marks my 500th post to this blog. I never thought I would ever get this far, but yet, here I am.

I have to admit, some of my early posts make me cringe, but I’m not going to delete or rewrite them. I think, like holding on to early drafts of stories, it’s important to see how far we’ve come. If you dare go back to the very beginning, my first posts in December of 2005, you’ll see this blog didn’t have much in the way of a focus. Yes, it’s always been “Worldbuilding For Fun and Profit”, but what I wrote rarely was on that topic.

That doesn’t mean everything I posted was useless. In looking through those early days, I remember where I thought I was headed. It’s not where I am today, but that’s fine. That’s the way things go. And wouldn’t you know it, I’ve completely lost my train of thought for what I was going to write next. Isn’t that always the way things go?

So, what does the future hold for this blog? Lots more posts about worldbuilding and writing in general. I hope you’ll stick around as I move forward toward post #1000.

Mar

30

Worldbuilding in the Gates of Amduat: Education

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We briefly looked at education before, when talking about General Social Organization & Government, but now we’re going to take a look at it in a bit more detail.
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Mar

29

What Do Your Characters Speak?

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When creating a culture, one of the things you need to think about is language. How do they speak? Do they have different languages for different situations? Take a look at medieval Europe: French became the language of nobility and diplomacy, while the common people spoke whatever their native tongue was. At some point, however, if your world is something other than modern day Earth, you’re going to think about the actual words.

This is where speculative fiction writers tend to show their stuff. They slip words for things into their work, and it’s a typical way to show the readers they’re not in Kansas anymore.

It’s all fine and dandy to make up a couple of words here and there, but if you’re considering doing more than that, you need to make it realistic. Languages are made up of patterns, letter and sound combinations that occur over and over again. Don’t believe me? Think about one of the ways they teach kids to read: phonics. When developing a language, you need to be aware of the same thing.

There are many resources out there for creating a new language. I really like Holly Lisle’s Create A Language Clinic*. I own it and have used it for my writing. If you don’t have the time, however, to spend creating the language from scratch, then check out the Awkwords word generator. It takes word parts that you enter (like th, ph, ai, y, and so on) and then generates as many words using those word bits as you wish.

Now that I think about it, using those two resources together would make things go a whole lot faster. I think I’ll give it a try.

* In the interest of transparency, the link to the Language Clinic book is an affiliate’s link. If you buy the book through the link, I earn a bit of money.

Mar

28

Worldbuilding in the Gates of Amduat: Manners Revisited

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Manners are up for discussion again today, covering some things I think we missed before.

Are there different kinds or levels of manners, such as “High Court” versus ordinary meals? For the nomads, no, I don’t really think so. Nor for the townspeople. For the temple, however, important meals are very much a ritual, with each step/phase of it outlined and guided by tradition.

Now, something I’d forgotten about – rules of precedence. Who gets to go through doors first? This will require something thinking. First person to the door opens it – this usually the second in command. First person to walk through the door is the most important person – elders, followed by heads of tribes, then heads of family, then everybody else. If a priest is present, then the priest goes through first. If more than one priest is present, the one who’s of higher rank goes first. If there are people of equal rank, be it priest, elder or head of tribe/family, then the female goes first. If there are more than one female of equal rank, then it’s a crap shoot – whoever gets to the door first goes through.

When and where are people supposed to be on their best behavior? At the temple, it’s at all times – fairly rigid set of rules about what you should and should not do. The townsfolk and nomads are a lot less strict. Best manners are expected during ceremonies and the hospitality rituals. Other than that, as long as it’s not rude or crude, it’s fine.

Mar

25

Worldbuilding in the Gates of Amduat: Diet

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We’re looking at food again, but with a slightly different angle.

How many meals a day are considered normal? For the temple, it’s three meals a day. The most substantial is breakfast, with “lunch” being light, and supper being larger than lunch but not as large as breakfast. Heavier (richer) foods are usually served at night so as not to interfere with the requirements of the day.
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