The #100DaysofWriting prompt today is about superstitions and prophesies in your writing, and yeah, okay, but no. There's a two-fold answer to that, so here it goes.
As a mostly fanfiction writer, superstitions, prophesies and general belief systems are mostly 'baked in' to the world I'm already using. So, when I do include them, I'm not including them because I'm desperately interested in them and their creation (or not just, anyway). I'm including them because it's how these things influence the characters and their behaviour.
Superstitions, particularly, are often indications of other things about a character. Choosing - or rejecting - any kind of belief system is a pretty deep indication of how a character feels about control, their place in the universe, their relationship to other beings. Whether or not they critique or reflect upon why they've taken up these things is another interesting thing to explore. I've written a bit already about the place of politics in my writing - that's just another species of belief. Does a character choose to believe in whatever is the bog-standard system for the world they inhabit? Do they reject or ammeliorate it? Fancy it up with a bunch of side-beliefs (like superstitions)? Or are they unwittingly going along with the 'way the world is'?
Belief can get to be a habit. We pick up a lot of our habits from our upbringing, and after a certain point, a few more from our wider communities. What I really love is showing the habits - of superstition (touching a doorframe as you enter or leave), of religion (bowing quickly toward an altar, doing it in a rush because you're on your way to a different part of the building), or of belief (making a handsign as a ward against evil when something is mentioned). Gestures are obviously a big part of that, and I won't go into that now because I already whittered on about that in a previous post. But I am very interested - more interested, in fact - in the way that our bodies and brains work together on belief systems. Their rituals and gestures become habits.
As a mostly fanfiction writer, superstitions, prophesies and general belief systems are mostly 'baked in' to the world I'm already using. So, when I do include them, I'm not including them because I'm desperately interested in them and their creation (or not just, anyway). I'm including them because it's how these things influence the characters and their behaviour.
Superstitions, particularly, are often indications of other things about a character. Choosing - or rejecting - any kind of belief system is a pretty deep indication of how a character feels about control, their place in the universe, their relationship to other beings. Whether or not they critique or reflect upon why they've taken up these things is another interesting thing to explore. I've written a bit already about the place of politics in my writing - that's just another species of belief. Does a character choose to believe in whatever is the bog-standard system for the world they inhabit? Do they reject or ammeliorate it? Fancy it up with a bunch of side-beliefs (like superstitions)? Or are they unwittingly going along with the 'way the world is'?
Belief can get to be a habit. We pick up a lot of our habits from our upbringing, and after a certain point, a few more from our wider communities. What I really love is showing the habits - of superstition (touching a doorframe as you enter or leave), of religion (bowing quickly toward an altar, doing it in a rush because you're on your way to a different part of the building), or of belief (making a handsign as a ward against evil when something is mentioned). Gestures are obviously a big part of that, and I won't go into that now because I already whittered on about that in a previous post. But I am very interested - more interested, in fact - in the way that our bodies and brains work together on belief systems. Their rituals and gestures become habits.