For reasons having to do with a project I’m currently working on, I’ve decided that this month I’m going to discuss clothing! Starting with the basics: what we make it out of, and how we make it.

Discuss over there!

One of the earliest funding goals of the New Worlds Patreon was a fifth essay in the months that have five Fridays. (The baseline premise of the Patreon is four posts a month, but the calendar does not always agree.) Rather than having these all continue on with the same kind of culture-focused topics, I decided to devote them to “theory” — by which I mean both discussions of concepts that underlie certain social structures (like liminality), and discussion of how one goes about putting these kinds of things into stories.

This week’s post, on “gratuitous worldbuilding,” is one of the latter. It’s an ode to the details that don’t matter: the little setting touches that are there just because they would be, and because they make the story more flavorful. Comment over there!

And if you enjoy the New World series, remember, this is all brought to you by my Patreon backers. You can join their ranks here!

With the topic du week being taboos, you would be justified in expecting something salacious out of today’s New Worlds Patreon essay. But the danger here is more metaphysical than moral — read and see for yourself!

It’s Friday, which means it’s time for a New Worlds Patreon post! This time we’re discussing superstitions: what they mean, why you don’t see them more often in fiction, and how to go about including them.

I’ll note, by the way, that if you’re not a patron then you’re missing out on some of the content. Every patron at the $1 level and above receives a photo each week — one that’s themed to that week’s post, if I can manage it, though some topics make that easier than others — along with a brief discussion of it and how it relates to worldbuilding. Today, for example, I sent out a photo of a gargoyle and talked about the architectural and apotropaic roles they play (and why it’s so interesting to find them on the Natural History Museum in London). Patrons at higher levels get free ebooks, the ability to request post topics, bonus essays, and even the chance to get private feedback from me. So if you’ve been enjoying the series, consider becoming a backer! Or recommend it to friends — that also helps!

It’s been twenty years since I read A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe, but it came to mind again when writing this week’s post for the New Worlds Patreon. Numbers have meaning; numbers are magic, for both good and for ill.

Comment over there!

From the very physical realm of combat, we move toward something more spiritual in this month of the New Worlds Patreon, starting with the idea of language as magic. It’s an old idea — but oddly, one I think has been falling out of fashion in fantasy lately . . .

Comment over there!

As a card-carrying black belt, I felt obliged to close out a combat-focused month of essays in the New Worlds Patreon with a discussion of unarmed fighting: what it is and isn’t good for.

Comment over there!

From weapons, the New Worlds Patreon continues on to armor! Which people did not generally wear while running around town, contrary to what my favorite video games would have me believe.

Comment over there!

The New Worlds Patreon discussion of weapons continues on with the social forces that shape what people use to attack each other. What are you allowed to carry? What are you trying to do with it? Do you even know how to use that thing?

Comment over there!

It’s no secret that I have an interest in combat. But it’s taken me until the second year of the New Worlds Patreon to start discussing that corner of worldbuilding, beginning with the materials and application of different kinds of weapons. Comment over there!

Also, we keep dancing along the threshold of the next funding goal. So if you’ve been thinking of becoming a patron, now is a great time to start!

If the word “library” makes you envision a spacious, airy, well-lit room overseen by stern ladies who will guide you to the right books and hush you when you talk too loud, your mental image is very modern. This week the New Worlds Patreon discusses how libraries have changed over time!

This week the New Worlds Patreon is talking about books! And also about scrolls and stelae and other methods of organizing the written word.

By the way, we’re also just $1 shy of the next funding goal, which would allow me to make a print edition of the gathered volumes (Year One is out now in ebook, with more to come). So now is a great time to become a patron!

Normally when authors talk about “writing tools,” they mean things like software for word processing or blocking out distractions. But in this case I mean the physical paraphernalia of recording words: paper and clay, pen and brush and stylus, all the different media we’ve put words on and the devices we’ve used to do it. That’s right, folks, it’s Friday, which means it’s time for another installment of the New Worlds Patreon! Comment over at Book View Cafe . . .

(And don’t forget that the book is on sale now!)

In hindsight, writing systems are such an obvious topic for a series on worldbuilding for writers that I’m surprised I didn’t get around to them sooner! But I’m there now, with the latest New Worlds Patreon essay, in which we discuss everything from pictographs to featural scripts, along with some of the practical implications of each approach.

Comment over there!

Since this is a month with five Fridays in it, this is a month with a theory post! The New Worlds Patreon promises four essays a month, but one of the funding goals (which we reached some time ago) is a bonus in such months, discussing more theoretical topics: underpinning concepts in anthropology, or practical advice for how to approach worldbuilding in fiction. This is one of the latter, and it concerns the question of when you should invent a thing for your imaginary world, versus using something real.

Comment over there! And don’t forget, the first volume of New Worlds is available for pre-order now!

Onward to other types of body modification!

This is one of the months with five Fridays, so the next New Worlds Patreon essay will be a “theory piece,” talking about some of the underpinning concepts and ways to approach this subject in fiction, rather than specific cultural content.

From cosmetics (a temporary and easily removable alteration to one’s appearance), we move on to the more lasting or even permanent alterations grouped under the name “body modification.” But there are enough types of modification that I’ve had to separate them out into two posts; this first one discusses things I’ve decided to call “adornment,” i.e. small changes that mostly add on to the body’s appearance in some fashion. The larger changes that reshape the body to a more substantial degree will come next week.

Also, I’m pleased to say that the New Worlds Patreon is fairly close to its next funding goal! So if you’ve been thinking about becoming a patron, or sharing it with people who would enjoy this sort of thing, please do — then we can have a print edition of the collected essays, along with the ebook!

There was a brief period of time in junior high where I went to the effort of putting on makeup every day.

. . . that didn’t last long.

I am a fundamentally lazy creature, and especially now, when I work from home and can go days at a time without seeing any human beings I’m not related to, routine makeup is just a thousand times more trouble than it’s worth. I only bother with it now when I’m appearing in public professionally: going to a con or a reading, doing a video interview, or something in that vein. And even then, I rail a bit at the fact that I’m expected to do such things, whereas John Q. Author is not — but at the same time, I’m aware that we have a deep-seated bias toward pretty people, and I derive a benefit from looking my best. (A benefit John Q. Author can also reap, if he knows how to put on makeup subtly enough that he’ll just look polished rather than obviously made up . . . because unless you’re Johnny Weir or equivalently flamboyant, being a dude with a painted face is seen as strange nowadays.)

All of which is a lengthier than usual introduction to this week’s post from the New Worlds Patreon, which (you guessed it) is about cosmetics. What kinds do we use? What do we use them for? And how come I don’t see more magic or high-tech makeup in fiction?

Also, don’t forget that New Worlds, Year One: A Writer’s Guide to the Art of Worldbuilding is now available for pre-order! You can get it from Amazon US or UK (as well as other countries, but I don’t have direct links for those), Google Play, Kobo, and Indigo, with Barnes & Noble and iTunes to follow as soon as I can work out some technical issues. And, of course, it will be on sale at Book View Cafe (the publisher) on the release date, April 10th.

Can you believe it’s been a year since I started New Worlds?

I both can and can’t. On the one hand, the time has flown by. On the other, I have nearly sixty thousand words’ worth of posts I’ve written in that time, so, yeah, that’s a thing. In fact, it’s a thing that is in the process of becoming an ebook — there are some outlets where you can pre-order it now, and more to come. New Worlds, Year One will be released on April 10th, at which point I’ll be more than a month into Year Two. And in honor of that, I’ve made a new funding goal: if I reach $250/month, I’ll create a print edition of these books to go along with the ebooks.

Anyway, this week’s post is brought to you by Black Panther and all of its amazing visuals, especially as they relate to personal appearance. I’m not going to get through that whole field of topics in a month, but we’re starting off broad, with an overview of standards of beauty. Comment over there!

There’s still so much I could say on the topic of marriage, but since I try not to sit on any one subject for too long, we’re wrapping up this month of the New Worlds Patreon with divorce.

And that concludes the first year of this project! It’s going strong, with enough topics on my hit list that I’m sure I’ll be able to fill a second year — and probably a third — and at the rate I keep coming up with new things to discuss, probably a fourth. Now is a splendid time to become a patron (because it’s always a splendid time to become a patron!). If you are one already, thank you so much for your support.