Classes have started for me! So the blog is going on its every-other-week schedule. The next post will be on September 17th. From time to time, I\u2019ll let you know how my poetry studies are going, and I may inflict another poetry post or two on you.<\/p>\n
A few days ago an online grammar-correction company approached me by email, complimenting my blog and offering me an Amazon gift card. I\u2019m pretty sure the company rep was hoping I would recommend the program here. I ignored the email but checked the program with some writing samples. First I copied in a paragraph from the manuscript I\u2019m working on. Then I typed in a few sentences from a friend\u2019s published book. The program picked up mistakes that weren\u2019t there, and it went beyond grammar into the complicated region of style. Next, I tried out a paragraph from Peter Pan<\/i>. To its credit, the program recognized that the Peter Pan<\/i> paragraph wasn\u2019t original (which it didn\u2019t for my friend\u2019s book), but it still found plenty wrong with the writing!<\/p>\n
The point is, I\u2019d stay away from automated grammar and writing assistance. We need to master these areas ourselves. Besides, I can\u2019t believe that a program, at least at this point in technological development, would recognize interesting writing that takes a few chances.<\/p>\n
Take that, you bribe-offering person!<\/p>\n
Now for this week\u2019s post. On July 14, 2013, Elisa wrote, I am having problems with making up my cultures. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, very much, but I’m having a really hard time. I feel they are not clearly defined enough, and try as I might, I can’t come up with truly interesting, DIFFERENT cultures. They seem too close to other ones, or real ones, and I don’t want that. It’s not as though I’m really bad at it or anything, but they seem to lack definition.<\/i><\/p>\n
I looked up \u201cculture\u201d in Wikipedia, and found a lot of help, so I\u2019m copying in part of the article, which I confess I didn\u2019t read all of:<\/p>\n
Aspects of human expression include both material culture and ephemeral elements. These include:<\/i>
\n\u2022 Language and dialect<\/i>
\n\u2022 Science<\/i>
\n\u2022 Technology<\/i>
\n\u2022 Cuisine<\/i>
\n\u2022 Aesthetics – art, music, literature, fashion, and architecture<\/i>
\n\u2022 Values, ideology<\/i>
\n\u2022 Social conventions, including norms, taboos, and etiquette<\/i>
\n\u2022 Gender roles<\/i>
\n\u2022 Recreational activities such as festivals and holidays<\/i>
\n\u2022 Commercial practices<\/i>
\n\u2022 Social structure<\/i>
\n\u2022 Religion<\/i><\/p>\n
Since this is fantasy, I\u2019d add Magic and Powers as two additional categories. And there are probably more. Child-rearing practices come to mind. Here\u2019s an early prompt: Jot down other aspects of culture that occur to you.<\/p>\n
Wow! We have a lot to fool around with.<\/p>\n
And here\u2019s another prompt: For those aspects that may come into in your story, list the possibilities. I\u2019ll try it with dance:
\nfast
\nslow
\nprim
\nexhibitionistic
\nalone
\nin pairs
\nin lines
\nin squares
\nwith stamping and clapping
\nsilent
\npartners traded
\nbumping into other dancers
\nstanding on one\u2019s hands
\nbouncing on one\u2019s head<\/p>\n
I got a little strange at the end, which is fine when we\u2019re trolling for ideas.<\/p>\n
Since Elisa is dealing with warlike countries, we may decide that one civilization has advanced offensive weapons balanced by the magic of another land. The third may be a buffer between the two.<\/p>\n
We don\u2019t always have to contrast the three, either. We can reveal the dance of one, the cuisine of another, and the attitudes of the third toward education (which might fit into the child-rearing category). But whatever we show needs to have a place in our plot, in my opinion. I don\u2019t care for an information dump. If dance isn\u2019t important to our story, there\u2019s no reason to delve into it.<\/p>\n
Most of what the reader learns about culture will probably be best discovered through our characters. Our narrator, whether third-person or first, may need to give us some background. In Ella Enchanted<\/i>, for example, Ella devotes a paragraph to describing ogres before the reader meets them. But just a single paragraph. The action moves forward most smoothly when we keep the explanations to a minimum. We show the reader how a culture handles dance, for example again, by having our MC gyrate and shimmy or step sedately with a beloved or despised partner.<\/p>\n
Culture permeates everything, whether in fantasy or realistic fiction or real life, and there are variations even within a larger culture, even in contemporary stories, and certainly in life. Families, as you may have noticed, have their own cultures. My mother\u2019s idea of a good life involved art appreciation, Culture with a capital C, so when we were children my sister and I were taken to museums, theater, ballet, concerts. How lucky we were! My friends\u2019 parents had different interests, which benefited my pals in other ways.<\/p>\n
Here are three prompts:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Your MC is orphaned and has to live in new circumstances. Pick one of these and write the scene that follows his arrival in his new home, or write the whole story: a foster home; an orphanage; with his grandparents; with his seven first cousins; on the streets.<\/p>\n
\u2022 From her earliest childhood on, your MC feels that she was born into the wrong family. Write a story that covers a crucial week in her life.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The culture in your story may be shaped by the conditions under which the people live. Write a story that takes place in one of the following settings or situations (or you can combine): underground; in a severe climate; among a tribe of people who do extremely dangerous work; in a country that\u2019s been at war for fifty years. Be sure to reveal the culture of the society you pick.<\/p>\n
Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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