The first step in creating a simulated culture is to pick at least four key elements to incorporate into the creation. (For a novel, starting with at least eight elements would be best.) At this point, identifying basic key elements of cultures created by other writers should be second nature, so the real challenge comes in trying to piece together unique characteristics to form a cohesive artificial culture.
There are several ways to begin picking out the four elements used to build the new culture:
- Model the artificial culture after a real world culture.
- Pick four cultural traits at random.
- Pick one main element and three that revolve around the main one.
- Start with an interesting trait inspired by another writer and develop three unique elements that diverges from the original inspiration.
- Pick two seemingly contradictory traits and create a bridge with two other elements.
The recommended way to start for new writers is to model the virtual culture after a real world culture. For example, a cursory Google search on Irish culture brings up the jig, the harp, the shamrock, and the legend of the Claddagh ring. The Irish jig involves much toe work and hopping, indicating that it requires much energy and coordination to perform. Armed with this information, the virtual culture now has its national (or racial) dance that involves energetic jumping and toe tapping. Advance culture creators can go as far as writing out the steps of the new culture's national dance. Next, the new culture has a traditional instrument designed to mimic the harp, or another option is to simply use the harp as the virtual culture's instrument of historical importance. Again, an advanced designer could expound on the history of the instrument and create a virtual history around it. The next step is to create a rare plant or flower that exists in or near the culture's homeland that represents luck and prosperity. The last step involves creating a piece of jewelry that can be worn to present friendship or love depending on how it is worn. The details of creating this item as well as its history will do much to flesh out the virtual culture.
Once the four elements have been chosen the next step will be to bring it all together in a brief description of the culture's history.
To read more about creating cultures, please continue on in this series.