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aldersprigFirst, a link: http://www.robinlafevers.com/2016/10/30/managing-a-cast-of-thousands/
I found this quite interesting, and actually useful in working on the cast for my Nano project.
Now, a completely different topic: Rules, laws, and Taboo, or You Can't Do That on Television (for a totally outdated pop-culture reference).
This comes down to some pretty basic questions:
* what are important rules in your society/country/world?
* how are they (are they?) enforced?
* how are they codified?
* how are transgressions punished?
Rules themselves divide up further: social mores, institutional rules, laws, natural laws*.
And, of course, you don't have to figure them all out, but it might help to consider where your characters are going to be and what level of freedom they will have:
* do people of your protagonist's age and gender wander freely? If not, what restrictions are on their movement?
* What about speech? To what level is free expression censured?
* Physical contact? Is it okay for a woman to touch an unmarried man? If not, why not?
These may be simply unwritten rules - good girls or boys just "don't do" certain things, and to do so risks shunning or social disgrace. They may be laws, with commensurate punishments. They could be natural laws*, incapable of being broken.
For instance: In 4th Husband, unmarried men do not speak to women outside of their families. This is a social more, and their sisters and mothers will enforce it, often with "grounding" or spankings.
In Edally/Reiassan, casual touch between strangers is taboo. Again, a social more, one that tends to be self-enforced.
However, in Fae Apoc, if a fae has made a promise, they are bound by it. They cannot break that promise without risking their own mind shattering, and many people are not strong enough to even attempt it.
What about your worlds? What things just Don't Happen? Contrariwise, what things Must Happen?
I found this quite interesting, and actually useful in working on the cast for my Nano project.
Now, a completely different topic: Rules, laws, and Taboo, or You Can't Do That on Television (for a totally outdated pop-culture reference).
This comes down to some pretty basic questions:
* what are important rules in your society/country/world?
* how are they (are they?) enforced?
* how are they codified?
* how are transgressions punished?
Rules themselves divide up further: social mores, institutional rules, laws, natural laws*.
And, of course, you don't have to figure them all out, but it might help to consider where your characters are going to be and what level of freedom they will have:
* do people of your protagonist's age and gender wander freely? If not, what restrictions are on their movement?
* What about speech? To what level is free expression censured?
* Physical contact? Is it okay for a woman to touch an unmarried man? If not, why not?
These may be simply unwritten rules - good girls or boys just "don't do" certain things, and to do so risks shunning or social disgrace. They may be laws, with commensurate punishments. They could be natural laws*, incapable of being broken.
For instance: In 4th Husband, unmarried men do not speak to women outside of their families. This is a social more, and their sisters and mothers will enforce it, often with "grounding" or spankings.
In Edally/Reiassan, casual touch between strangers is taboo. Again, a social more, one that tends to be self-enforced.
However, in Fae Apoc, if a fae has made a promise, they are bound by it. They cannot break that promise without risking their own mind shattering, and many people are not strong enough to even attempt it.
What about your worlds? What things just Don't Happen? Contrariwise, what things Must Happen?
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Date: 2016-10-31 05:53 pm (UTC)I, meanwhile, am on the utter opposite end of the spectrum......
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Date: 2016-10-31 05:55 pm (UTC)I thought it was a very apropos link!
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Date: 2016-10-31 06:05 pm (UTC)edit: (three characters: two MCs and an antagonist >.>)
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Date: 2016-10-31 06:19 pm (UTC)Edally's weird for me, because I have no PLANNING on the cast, they just wander in. Like, Taikie, Enrie, and Saydrie have all their classes with the same 15 other students. no idea who most of them are, except Riensin's team. And the ones mentioned in the piss-off-Pelnyen presentations.
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Date: 2016-10-31 07:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-10-31 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-10-31 08:05 pm (UTC)Short touch between strangers - like tapping someone's shoulder - is OK, but lingering touches are reserved for between friends.
No persistent flirting with random people. If someone is looking for dates/hookups, they'll advertise that they're open to it. (Something involving particular colours of flowers as ornaments, probably.) Trying your luck in absence of such a sign is acceptable, but if you get anything but enthusiastic interest and yet persist, expect being mocked or avoided as a creep.
You don't give someone who asks for directions wrong information. This is a societal taboo that will be really bad for your reputation if you do it, and if they get into trouble due to your wrong directions it gets into legal territory where you may be required to make good the damage you caused.