culture dossier

History. How did this civilization shape itself? What defined its people? Did they go to war? Were they culturally advanced? What values to they hold dear? What's the physical appearance of this culture's people?

Language. How does the culture's language sound? Do they have a language of their own? Several? Or do they borrow a language from another culture? I often refer to real-life languages when I jot this down to remind myself of the feel of their words.

Architecture. Tall or short buildings? Sparse or dense? What sort of art? What sort of design of philosophy? Are the buildings practical or artsy? What's the look of a standard home on the inside?

Food. Does this civilization crave meat? Vegetables? Fish? Do they use a lot of spice? Is their cuisine varied or restrained? Do they have several signature dishes or little to none? What do they drink? How strong is their alcohol? Do they prefer ale, wine or spirits? How interesting is their cuisine to others?

Clothing. What's the traditional attire? What's the modern attire? What looks does this civilization tend to go for? Do they like something tight or loose? Something that makes them imposing or that reveals their shape?

Religion. Do they worship a god? Several? Which ones? Did they found this religion? How fervent are they? How do they regard those with a different religion or even none at all? How deeply rooted is religion in daily life? How has it affected the civilization's history?

Relationships. Is this civilization on good terms with others? Which ones? How do they treat strangers, newcomers and tourists? Do they like to travel elsewhere? How are they on a political level? What sort of social ideals do they hold? What sort of government do they prefer? Is there a figurehead?


I sometimes also make a flag design for some of the most important civilizations in an attempt to convey their ideals under a more abstract and visceral form.

I don't keep a "dossier" on my cultures. Culture is an organic and complicated thing that cannot be defined in a list of attributes. I do often write historical or analytical documents "from" the world the culture exists in, if I really want to clarify a point for myself. I generally let the civilization grow organically in my mind. I might have something like a Master Narrative somewhere, as a quick summary, but most of my written info is set up as if it comes from that culture or world, and usually in the form of a fact-supported article.

I really just keep track on how people interact with each other. I make up the history to match how the people act (e.g. people from place A hate people from place B because of some ginormous war), and I can always change it when I edit my book. I make up everything else as it comes by, like architecture, food, and clothing. I kind of just wing it all.

Shurikane (post 2), I like your list. I haven't made a point of listing cultural characteristics under specific headings like that, but when I think back through the features of the different cultures in my WIP, your list covers all the things I've considered. Also the different aspects tend to inter-relate naturally, e.g. one of my cultures is arrogant and humourless, and that comes through in their architecture (straight lines, blocks of hard granite etc), food (bland), language (formal, Latin-like) etc, whereas their wild mountain-dwelling neighbours stack up natural rocks for buildings, eat lots of freshly-hunted meat, talk in a harsh-sounding tongue etc.

I've gone about creating cultures from the, what I'll call the "Top Down" and "Bottom up" perspective.

Top Down: Doing a Dossier first before writing. Listing how issues like:

How was the culture created?
What place does religion hold?
Is there money?
How does the economy function?
How are their morals shaped?

Then you can get more technical:

What do people do with their free time?
How do they threat their elderly / dead?
Is there crime?
What art movements are there?

This approach I feel helps flesh out the culture and it can be fun to think up all these things, even if you don't use them in the WIP itself. Because after all, its fricken hard to define a culture. Try defining American culture. You got your religious rightwing nuts, pansy leftwing hippies...

Also when I did this approach I found I tended to info dump because I had so much info, which isn't good for your story.

Bottom up: Lately I have more fun (and less bloated writing) by having a general idea of the culture and a few key distinctive points, then start writing and have my MC walk through its streets, discovering the many little things that make up the culture as I discover them.

I'm along the same lines as Liosse de Velishaf and Fade. I used to try to create worldbuilding profiles before writing my stories, but then when I started writing my stories, I learned more about the cultures that way, and what I found out through the writing often contradicted what I'd come up with in the profiles. I really can't just create a dossier or profile from scratch and then do the writing. I found out that the best way for me to learn about the worlds and cultures I create is to just write them in action and experience them for myself.

I can take notes AFTER I create the worlds through the writing, so I don't lose track of things, but I don't keep dossiers or anything like that. Most of the important things I just remember because I know the world so well.

Geraint said:

Shurikane (post 2), I like your list. I haven't made a point of listing cultural characteristics under specific headings like that, but when I think back through the features of the different cultures in my WIP, your list covers all the things I've considered. Also the different aspects tend to inter-relate naturally, e.g. one of my cultures is arrogant and humourless, and that comes through in their architecture (straight lines, blocks of hard granite etc), food (bland), language (formal, Latin-like) etc, whereas their wild mountain-dwelling neighbours stack up natural rocks for buildings, eat lots of freshly-hunted meat, talk in a harsh-sounding tongue etc.

Click to expand...

I didn't have a list like that at first - that is, until I actually had to flesh out some cultural differences between a handful of characters and had begun jotting down notes to keep track of who did what and to make sure things actually remained consistent.

In the end, I gathered up these notes and typed up a more comprehensive list for future reference, this way I always know what sort of things I need to point to.

I swear I'm not trying to plug my own site, but I just wrote an article on this very thing earlier today. It's part on an ongoing series I've been trying to find time to write. It's really weird that I came across this in the same day. Here's the portion of the article that deals directly with your question.

Races

How many races will you have? Each race increases your work exponentially, because each race represents at least one separate culture (and probably has multiple subcultures,) which requires details for a multitude of factors.

* Languages: How do races speak within their race and with other races?
* Government: How is order maintained? Who makes the rules? Who enforces them?
* Politics: who are the power players, and what are their agendas? Are they violent, passive, or something in between?
* Arts and entertainment: what do these beings do for fun? Do they have music, sculpture, painting, games of chance, games of skill, written language, or formal education?
* Technology: How do they communicate or travel over distances? How sophisticated are their buildings, fortifications, weapons, armor, medicine, astronomy, chemistry, and other sciences?
* Economics: How are goods and services exchanged? Where is the supply? Where is the demand? What goods and services are produced? Who wants these products?
* Religions: What do these beings believe? What impact does religion have on the rest of their society? How many different religions are followed by the race, and do they tolerate each other?
* Environment: How does weather and topography affect the race? What do they eat?
* Other: What about holidays, calendars, time keeping, taboos, superstitions, and prejudices?


Please feel free to check out the rest if you feel so inclined.

These are all excellent and well-planned points. Still, the bottom line always is to create rules and then be unerringly consistent.

satyesu said:

the link's busted.

Click to expand...

Fixed. Sorry about that. It had an extra "http://" thrown in there somehow.

I create as the story is written.