Worldbuilding Blocks: Creating Culture

On the many questions to ask when creating a new world

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I’m often asked in interviews about how I write cultures that are different from mine. As primarily a fantasy writer, creating worlds and cultures is always of interest to me, however, I think similar rules come into play whether you’re creating a culture from scratch or writing about our world.

How to build a culture?

I try to start as close to the beginning as possible, if not with the creation of the world itself then with beliefs about creation. Where are these people from? What was the geography and climate of their place of origination and how did it impact the stories they told about themselves and the world? The influences on a culture are both from within and without, but I like to begin with the internal motivations.

What types of food—crops and wildlife—were readily available to them? Were they forced to be nomads following herds of livestock in order to survive? Were they a desert people who had to search for water or follow the migration patterns of their food source? Or did they live in a fertile land and became farmers, able to put down roots both literally and figuratively and grow in the same place for generations? If this was the case, did their society develop with less access to others who were not like them?

Worldbuilding involves answering a lot of questions and grounding those answers in a reality from which you can grow the people who populate your world. How did these circumstances: the land, seasons, climate, and resources affect the stories the people told themselves? How do they show up in their myths and folklore, their deities and ideas about humanity? (I say humans because that's primarily what I write about, but insert whatever species you like here).

How did the stories that these people told themselves evolve into religions? Who do they worship and what rituals does this include? What benefits did these people get from their veneration—were they making sacrifices to a deity for rain, clear skies, wind, or sun? How was their belief in their god or gods stoked and reinforced and who had the power over these beliefs: priests, kings, shamans, sorcerers?

Out of their beliefs about the world grow their beliefs about family structures. Did these beliefs create a matriarchy or patriarchy and how does family design come into play? What are the gender roles and ideas about gender and identity? How are courtships handled? Did they foster arranged marriages, were women or men given away to form alliances or did they value love matches? What jobs can women hold and does their position as mothers, or potential mothers, earn them respect or marginalize them? What is the role of children in the society? Are they seen and not heard, pampered, put to work early and expected to earn their keep? If the land is harsh and the people are just barely eking out a living then maybe children are needed to work. However, if resources are plentiful and fewer laborers are required, then perhaps childhood is extended. Does this create a class of spoiled and entitled youth with an excess of leisure time?

Can you switch up what might be expected? Create a reason that children in a harsh environment are pampered—perhaps fertility is an issue so each child is a blessing and held as cherished. And in a more hospitable environment maybe there are natural predators that hunt the children so they have to grow up fast and learn to protect themselves instead of lounging about idly.

What jobs do people have and what educational opportunities exist? Are there apprenticeships, schools, universities, and teachers? Do they value education and does this society have the available manpower for their daily existence so they can afford to have people devoted exclusively to educational goals?

What sort of government or leadership has arisen from this climate and resource allocation? Do they have a chief, king, senate, or oligarchy? Considering the history, who is allowed membership into the elite and why? Who is discriminated against in this culture and why? How do they treat their elders or the people with disabilities—are they cared for or cast out?

Languages are also a great way to learn about culture. The interest in conlangs—constructed languages such as Elvish, Klingon, or Dothraki—has sharply risen in visibility and popularity. There are many communities both online and in real life dedicated to the craft of creating new languages. Whether or not you take on this task in your own writing, considering your group’s language is key.

What does it sound like? Is it fluid and melodious or harsh and guttural and does this say anything about the land or the people? Do they even have spoken language or do they use hand signals or sign language? Did they develop a system of writing and when? If so, how many can read and who is responsible for passing on the knowledge? How does this affect society, class, and interpersonal relationships? Are there various dialects of the spoken language and are they determined by class, caste, education level, occupation, ethnic background, or something else?

Is there media and how did it develop? Is there a version of a printing press, a messenger or postal system, the internet, or pneumatic tubes that send scrolls across the city?

Technology is also another way to define culture. This, of course, will depend on the time period of the story: past, present, future, or some amalgam of them. For science fiction, perhaps the starting place for thinking about culture isn't so much with geography and climate as with technological developments—who discovered what first? Resources still come into play and can be excellent building blocks for story conflict—fuel, weapons, food, water—all of these are still vital for living creatures across the universe.

Which of course brings us to interpersonal conflict. Power and war. How does the culture view outsiders? Who do they hate and why? Who do they look down on, who is denigrated? What makes these people different? How does the marginalized group react to their societal position? What communities and systems have they created as a result of this treatment?

You can learn a lot about a society by how they view their poorest or most downtrodden members. Don't forget them or forget to walk a mile in their shoes. That is often the germinating seed for entire stories, how the little guy beats back the oppressor to achieve justice or equality.

Creating a brand new culture requires approaching your world with empathy. Writers must put themselves into the mindset of many characters who may be despots or heroes. But building a new culture can help us look at real-life ones differently and the same questions can be asked when writing about existing cultures that you do not belong to.

Consider how this group came to be in the position they occupy. What are the logical and non-logical reasons? How are they viewed by a variety of other groups both now and historically? Explore how different members of that group might respond to the same stimuli and place yourself in their position. Empathize with them. That is always the job of the writer no matter who they’re writing about.

If you’re interested in learning more about fictional worldbuilding, check out my course Imaginary Worldbuilding: Creating Fictional Worlds for Writers.