New Worlds: Religious Practices
From the sites of religion, the New Worlds Patreon continues onward to the practices of religion, from prayer to asceticism to sacrifice to hallucinogens.
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Posts Tagged ‘patreon’
New Worlds: Religious Sites
This week the New Worlds Patreon doesn’t just have an essay for you — though there’s that, too, on religious sites — but some news as well!
As those of you who follow this blog know, I’m working on a collaborative novel with Alyc Helms. Since it’s a secondary-world fantasy and we’re both anthropologists, we are eyeball-deep in worldbuilding and swimming ever deeper . . . and with Alyc’s permission, I’m going to be reporting on that process to my New Worlds patrons. Everyone at the $10 level and above receives a bonus essay each month, and for a while to come those are going to be focused on different aspects of the setting we’re creating for Sekrit Projekt R&R. So if you’d like a front-row seat to how I do this stuff — not after-the-fact musings but a look right down into the guts of how we’re creating the clothing and religion and geography and monetary systems of our world — this is your chance. Become a patron, and get a behind-the-scenes peek at what I’m cryptically alluding to in the progress reports!
New Worlds: Modesty
From ostentation the New Worlds Patreon goes to the opposite (sort of): modesty in clothing. What you’re required to cover, and how, and how the answers to those questions have varied to an absurd degree across time and space.
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New Worlds: Clothing and Status
I never quite understand Tv shows and books that purport to tell stories of aristocratic politics . . . in which nobody ever seems to think about what they’re wearing. In history, showing off one’s wealth and style through clothing has always been a major part of social maneuvering. So this week the New Worlds Patreon delves into how clothing communicates status.
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New Worlds: The Social Economy of Clothing
The closest I’ve come to making an item of clothing from scratch was when I used an inkle loom to weave a very long strip, then cut the strip into shorter strips and sewed them edge-to-edge to make a piece of fabric, then sewed the fabric into a pouch. (It was for a costume. I couldn’t find any fabric in the colors I wanted.) It was very small, and I didn’t spin the thread myself, and it still gave me a strong appreciation for how much work went into making clothing before industrialization. This week’s New Worlds Patreon post is all about the labor involved, and how that affected the way people interacted with their clothing.
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New Worlds: Clothing Basics
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.
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New Worlds: Gratuitous Worldbuilding
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!
New Worlds: Taboos
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!
New Worlds: Superstitions
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!
New Worlds: The Magic of Numbers
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.
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New Worlds: Language as Magic
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 . . .
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New Worlds: Unarmed Combat
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.
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New Worlds: Armor
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.
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New Worlds: The Social World of Weapons
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?
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New Worlds: Sticks, Swords, and Very Sharp Rocks
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!
New Worlds: Libraries
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!
New Worlds: Stelae, Scrolls, and Books
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!
New Worlds: The Tools of Writing
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!)
NEW WORLDS, YEAR ONE is out now!
The Patreon tree has delivered its first crop of fruit!
(All the fruit trees in my backyard are currently in flower. I have agricultural metaphors on the brain.)
The New Worlds Patreon has been trucking along for more than a year now, building up a huge pile of material. I’ve gathered the initial mass of it into New Worlds, Year One: A Writer’s Guide to the Art of Worldbuilding: all the posts from that first year, edited and reorganized for your convenience. That’s on sale now, and other installments will follow in due course! If you are a writer, or an artist, or a game designer, or a GM — anybody with a need to invent worlds, or heck, just anybody who likes thinking about different ways of living in real or imaginary worlds — this book is for you.
New Worlds: Writing Systems
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.
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