Worldbuilding Through Culture

INTRODUCTION TO CULTUREBUILDING - Storytelling

Here are a few great examples of how culturebuilding informs character and story.

As you read them, think about the opening of your story. How much culturebuilding can you fit into the first few paragraphs, and how subtly can you do so? How early can you sow the seeds of understanding, and foreshadow the revelations that are in later chapters?

Most importantly, how can you set your characters, your story, and your readers up for success and mutual understanding?

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

What have we learned? That our protagonist is a hobbit. We don't know what hobbits are yet, but they live underground and they like comfort, and probably, based on what was said about the sandy holes, plush furniture and good meals. Readers can also infer, because I assume he's going to be the protagonist, this hobbit is human-esque, as readers prefer to read about creatures that resemble themselves.

So the World: Some sort of fantasy land, with creatures that we don't know, but who greatly resemble us in that they want comfort, safety, and good meals. We'll be with a protagonist who seems a lot like us, and thus easy to empathize with.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick

A merry little surge of electricity piped by automatic alarm from the mood organ beside his bed awakened Rick Deckard. ­Surprised—it always surprised him to find himself awake without prior notice—­he rose from the bed, stood up in his multicolored pajamas, and stretched. Now, in her bed, his wife Iran opened her gray, unmerry eyes, blinked, then groaned and shut her eyes again.

"You set your Penfield too weak," he said to her. "I'll reset it and you'll be awake and—­"

"Keep your hand off my settings." Her voice held bitter sharpness. "I don't want to be awake."

He seated himself beside her, bent over her, and explained softly. "If you set the surge up high enough, you'll be glad you're awake; that's the whole point. At setting C it overcomes the threshold barring consciousness, as it does for me." Friendlily, because he felt well-­disposed toward the world—­his setting had been at D—­he patted her bare, pale shoulder.

"Get your crude cop's hand away," Iran said.

"I'm not a cop." He felt irritable, now, although he hadn't dialed for it.

"You're worse," his wife said, her eyes still shut. "You're a murderer hired by the cops."

"I've never killed a human being in my life." His irritability had risen now; had become outright hostility.

Iran said, "Just those poor andys."

What have we learned? Our protagonist is some sort of hunter who kills something called an "andy", which is not human. Despite this, his wife feels sympathy for them. The protagonist is married, and lives in a world with technology that allows you to control your own moods.

So the World: Science Fiction, with a level of bio-hacking technology in a domestic setting that conveys that tech and humanity is going to be a big part of the story. It also introduces a cop / bounty hunter character, which makes the reader think they may be in for a noir or detective novel set in a sci-fi world.

The Bogart by Susan Cooper

The little boat crept closer, over the grey-green water of the loch. Tommy could hear the slow creaking of the oarlocks, and see the white hair of the lean old man bent over the oars. His father said the MacDevon was one hundred years old, but Tommy had never had the courage to ask if it were true. The MacDevon was a clan chief, the last of his line, and you didn't ask a clan chief a question like that.

"Good Day, Mr. MacDevon." He caught the bow of the dinghy as it crunched into the small stones of the beach. This was a weekly ritual: the old man's shopping trip from the island of Castle Keep.

What have we learned? That there is an old man who lives in a castle on an island in a loch; we are probably in Scotland, and that there is a young boy who helps the old man. We know that it must be closer to modern times, if the clan has died out and The MacDevon is the last of his line. We also know that the old man mustn't be wealthy, because he only owns an old dinghy that he has to row himself, and he has no one to send on his shopping errands.

So the World: Run down castle in modern Scotland where the clan chief is old but respected by the locals, and is possibly thought of as a quaint relic. We know this is a fantastical novel by the title, so we assume this bogart will be in the castle we've just been introduced to.