When I Dream

(a worldbuilding roast. with love.)

So. You’re building a fantasy world, and you’ve just invented: → Three types of ceremonial jewelry → A spice that tastes like cinnamon if it were bitter and cursed → A holiday where everyone wears gold and screams at dawn

Cute. But that’s not culture. That’s aesthetics.

And if your worldbuilding is all outfits, dances, and spice blends with vaguely mystical names, your story’s probably going to feel like a cosplay convention held inside a Pinterest board.

Here’s how to fix that—aka: how to build a real, functioning culture that shapes your story, not just its vibes.

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🔗 Culture Is Built on Power, Not Just Style

Ask yourself: → Who’s in charge, and why? → Who has land? Who doesn’t? → What’s considered taboo, sacred, or punishable by death?

Culture is shaped by who gets to make the rules and who gets crushed by them. That’s where things like religion, family structure, class divisions, gender roles, and social expectations actually come from.

Start there. Not at the embroidery.

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2.🪓 Culture Comes From Conflict

Did this society evolve peacefully? Was it colonized? Did it colonize? Was it rebuilt after a war? Is it still in one?

→ What was destroyed and mythologized? → What do the survivors still whisper about? → What do children get taught in school that’s… suspiciously sanitized?

No culture is neutral. Every tradition has a history, and that history should taste like blood, loss, or propaganda.

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3.🧠 Belief Systems > Customs Lists

Sure, rituals and holidays are cool. But what do people believe about: → Death? → Love? → Time? → The natural world? → Justice?

Example: A society that believes time is cyclical vs. one that sees time as linear will approach everything—from prison sentences to grief—completely differently.

You don’t need to invent 80 gods. You need to know what those gods mean to the people who pray to them.

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4.🫀 Culture Controls Behavior (Quietly)

Culture shows up in: → What people apologize for → What insults cut deepest → What people are embarrassed about → What’s praised publicly vs. what’s hidden privately

For instance: → A culture obsessed with stoicism won’t say “I love you.” They’ll say “Have you eaten?” → A culture built on legacy might prioritize ancestor veneration, archival writing, name inheritance.

This stuff? Way more immersive than giving everyone matching earrings.

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5. 🏠 Culture = Daily Life, Not Just Festivals

Sure, your MC might attend a funeral where people paint their faces blue. But what about: → Breakfast routines? → How people greet each other on the street? → Who cooks, and who eats first? → What’s considered “clean” or “proper”? → How is parenting handled? Divorce?

Culture is what happens between plot points. It should shape your character’s assumptions, language, fears, and habits—whether or not a festival is going on.

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6. 💬 Let Your Characters Disagree With Their Own Culture

A culture isn’t a monolith.

Even in deeply traditional societies, people: → Rebel → Question → Break rules → Misinterpret laws → Mock sacred things → Act hypocritically → Weaponize or resist what’s expected

Let your characters wrestle with the culture around them. That’s where realism (and tension) lives.

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7.🧼 Beware the “Pretty = Good” Trap

Worldbuilding gets boring fast when: → The protagonist’s homeland is beautiful and pure → The enemy’s culture is dark and “barbaric” → Every detail just reinforces who the reader should like

You can—and should—challenge the aesthetic hierarchy. → Let ugly things be beloved. → Let beautiful things be corrupt. → Let your MC romanticize their culture and then get disillusioned by it later.

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📍 TL;DR (but like, spicy): → Culture is not food and jewelry. → Culture is power, fear, memory, contradiction. → Stop inventing spices until you know who starved last winter. → Let your world feel lived in, not curated.

The best cultural worldbuilding doesn’t look like a list. It feels like a system. A pressure. A presence your characters can’t escape—even if they try.

Now go. Build something real. (You can add spices later.)

—rin t. // writing advice for worldbuilders with rage and range // thewriteadviceforwriters

Sometimes the problem isn’t your plot. It’s your first 5 pages. Fix it here → 🖤 Free eBook: 5 Opening Pages Mistakes to Stop Making:

🕯️ download the pack & write something cursed:

Paul Magrs (via yourfluffiestnightmare)

I AM TX

Every once in a while a project comes along you’re compelled to work on regardless of budget, time, resources, or any other constraint. You simply have to be a part of it, and any barrier to you doing so becomes a secondary concern—mere background noise.

’I AM TX’, a new film by Austin-based writer and director Ryan Darbonne, happens to be one of those. The short follows a trio of black punk musicians as they explore what it means to be immersed in a progressive, yet predominantly white, music scene while still having to navigate the world as a person of color. Ryan’s description of the project, and what it means, lays it out it better than I possibly could:

“Growing up alternative in Austin, I was always (with very few exceptions) the only person of color in my social circles. I was a kid with an affinity for Slipknot and Blackstreet; I was Afro-punk before I knew the word existed. As I got older, I began to feel increasingly alienated because I could never be just one of the cool kids. I always had to be the cool ‘black kid’. And there could be only one. Telling this story is important to me because I want to give a glimpse into what it’s like living two lives; to straddle both sides of the track and never truly feel accepted by either one.”

This resonated with me on basically every level. I grew up a punk- and hardcore-loving kid in Puerto Rico at a time when the dominant culture was largely insular and wary of outsiderism, then later spent my formative years in Boston hanging out at basement shows as usually (with very few exceptions) the only Latino in the room. I’ve experienced firsthand what it’s like straddling the line between two worlds and never quite feeling like you belong in either. Needless to say, I was onboard from the moment Ryan approached me about creating key and promo art for his film.

The image we collaborated on, loosely based on the historic ’A Great Day in Harlem’ portrait and adapted to fit the tone and setting of the film, has quickly become a favorite. I’m really looking forward to seeing it out in the wild as the film’s production and marketing kick into high gear.

To learn more about I AM TX and support independent filmmaking, click here.