Making Traditions
Whether you are writing a brand new world full of its own rules and systems or staying in the real world with original characters, you should be considering the values, beliefs, and traditions that shape the people in your story.
In realistic fiction, you have existing ways we celebrate major milestones like birthdays, retirement, and anniversaries. You also have a plethora of existing holidays to use. What you get to consider and make unique in your story is the way your characters internalize these traditions. Are they the type of person who dresses for each occasion, is flawless at finding the perfect gift, or effortlessly sociable even with the family members you only see once a year? Or are they bitter about festivities, harboring some deep-seeded grudge against a certain day or holiday because of strained relationships or an unfortunate incident?
In fantasy, your world is completely new, but its history probably isn’t. Unless you are writing the big bang of your universe and its people, your characters are living in an established society with its own set of rituals and priorities. This is where you get to choose how to design aspects of your society that bring them together. Maybe they have a day of remembrance for certain significant historical events, their own methods for honoring the dead, or a mystical story that encourages a day of offerings to friends and neighbors. How your characters feel about these traditions often determines the extent of inclusion of these events in your writing, but including them can help round out your world and make the reading experience that much more immersive because it will feel real.
Including traditions, holidays, and rituals in your story makes your world feel more real, even if you’re already writing a story that takes place in the real world. Traditions and how we feel about them is relatable and culturally significant. Not only is it an exercise in better understanding your own characters and their motivations, but bringing traditions into your world is a step beyond basic world building that enriches your writing and sets your story apart.
On an extreme, we see aging traditions in a large number of novels, from the Reaping in The Hunger Games to the Choosing Ceremony in Divergent. In these examples, when a person reaches a certain age, they must participate in an annual event. Think of the Reaping like the real-life military draft. Sometimes, you can draw very easy parallels to real-world traditions, such as annual feasts (Thanksgiving) or days for dressing up as creatures (Halloween).
In my fantasy world created for the Touched Apothecary series, there are three aging ceremonies for different life stages. They’re not annual, but rather in lieu of a regular birthday party. There is a day called Soter’s Day that began as a day of remembrance for significant historical figures that got turned into something more akin to Halloween. Different regions have different ways of conducting funerals. The elderly are meant to be housed with their children. Older, significant members of society are to be addressed by their first and last name.
Even small details can be significant. Is there an expectation of respect towards the elderly? Does society clearly value certain professions over others? Is the death of another an inconvenience or a rite? Are celebrations about the individual or history, or are they simply there to serve the powers that be (such as how many holidays today have become nothing more than commercial events to increase consumer spending)?
Consider how real-world holidays and traditions have shaped you and how you view society around you. Then you will understand the significance of them in your written world. How old were you when you learned the truth about Santa and the Easter Bunny? How many times did you try to catch the tooth fairy? What about how you responded to these events reflects who you are as a person?
Traditions, holidays, values, and beliefs, are tools in your writing toolbox that not only help you fully develop your characters, but help build your world at the same time in a way that says more than whether your buildings are made of brick or wood, if your town runs on steam or gas, because it is about the people, about the society, and creates a shared experience that immediately includes any side or minor character you introduce along the way so that they don’t feel random or unimportant. Creating this underlying bond between all of the people in your world opens windows to tension that might otherwise be hard to include in small moments. Or maybe just a simple recognition, like noting the cupcake with the blown out candle sitting on their table, could be enough to add to your story’s take on humanity.
Once you start thinking about how your characters might have celebrated their past birthdays, you will start to see how important these types of traditions impact an individual and the world around them. Were there presents, a party, friends? Someone had to have baked the cake, made the candle, or at least sold them.
Food for thought. I highly recommend indulging.
