ajkorvidian

[ajkorvidian]

hyperfixation please stay with me long enough to complete the project. hyperfixation do not fade. hyperfixation finish what you started for the love of god

[ajkorvidian]

"How do you write such realistic dialogue-" I TALK TO MYSELF. I TALK TO MYSELF AND I PRETEND I AM THE ONE SAYING THE LINE. LIKE SANITY IS SLOWLY SLIPPING FROM BETWEEN MY FINGERS WITH EVERY MEASLY WORD THEY TYPE OUT. THAT IS HOW.

[ajkorvidian]

“My entire life can be described in one sentence: It didn’t go as planned, and that’s okay.”

— Rachel Wolchin

[ajkorvidian]

🍖 How to Build a Culture Without Just Inventing Spices and Necklaces

(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:

[ajkorvidian]

[ajkorvidian]

Amazing architecture from Darbargadh Palace in Morbi, Gujarat, INDIA

[ajkorvidian]

Laxmi Vilas Palace, Vadodara, Gujarat, India

[ajkorvidian]

▪︎ Ewer and Tray.

Date: 4th quarter of the 16th century; 1st quarter of the 17th century (around 1585 - 1615)

Place of origin: Gujarat, India

Medium: Mother-of-pearl, shell.

[ajkorvidian]

“How’s your WIP going?”

"Have you made any progress?”

“How close are you to being done?”

[ajkorvidian]

a book is just chapters. chapters are just paragraphs. paragraphs are just sentences. sentences are just words. it’s all words, that’s all you need. don’t say you can’t write that book, because you can.

[ajkorvidian]

sorry, I already have plans (staring at my screen for hours, dissociating with the music on full blast, wanting to write but ending up with a total of 0 words added to my draft)

[ajkorvidian]

Snippet Sunday

“You realize that this looks really suspicious, right?” he calls out as he approaches, tense even though he’s hiding it because he’s acutely aware of how quickly a conversation can turn into a foot chase. “I question you and your girlfriend about a murder, and then you show up a few hours later at the scene of the crime?” “Wife,” Alex Drake corrects as he stands up from whatever he’d been poking at in the bushes. “Maya is my wife.” “I can’t tell if you’re actually missing the point or if you’re just avoiding the subject,” Shayne remarks, crossing his arms. “Neither,” Alex says easily. “Just stating a simple fact. To answer your question,” he goes on, “yes, I do realize that my presence here must look bad. But I promise, I had nothing to do with that girl’s death. Or any of the other murders,” he adds. “I’m just here looking for answers, the same as you.” “Not the same as me,” Shayne corrects, resting one hand lightly on the badge clipped on his belt. “I’m a police detective trying to solve a series of gruesome murders. You’re here as, what? A gawker? Amateur sleuth? True crime aficionado?” “None of the above,” Alex replies. “I’m investigating.” “Investigating,” Shayne echoes skeptically. Alex rolls his eyes. “Yes, investigating. Why do you think our business is called Arcane Investigations?” Shayne blinks, tries to fit that in with what he already knows and comes up short. “So you and your wife are, what? Private snoops in addition to being back-alley fortune tellers?” “Call my wife a back-alley fortune teller to her face, I dare you,” Alex says with a smirk.

Arise, Chapter 2 (AJ Korvidian)

[ajkorvidian]

Snippet Sunday

Maya pops her head up from behind the orange juice machine she’s using as cover and then immediately regrets it when she takes a head of red leaf lettuce to the face. A chorus of hysterical giggles erupts from the other side of the supermarket’s produce department, underscored by a triumphant feline yowl. “Okay,” she says, exasperated. “Right. That’s about enough of that, I think.” She sketches a sigil in the air and summons a small shield bubble right as a napa cabbage comes sailing towards her; the cabbage crashes into the magical forcefield with a sad sound that’s somewhere between a crunch and a squish, and flops to the floor. “Haruna,” she says now, “I’m going to count to ten. If you are still flinging vegetables around when I get to the end of my count, I am going to spell you into the air, dangle you upside down, and tie your tails into bowline knots. Understand?” “Don’t listen to her, Runa, she’s just bluffing,” one of Haruna’s friends hisses.  “I’m really not,” Maya assures them, and uses a spark of magic to levitate a trio of cantaloupes and set them dancing midair as if juggled by a phantom performer. “So, what’ll it be, kids?” 

Arise,  Chapter 10 (AJ Korvidian)

[ajkorvidian]

this is going to be difficult -> i am capable of doing difficult things -> i have done everything prior to this moment -> this difficulty will soon be proof of capability

[ajkorvidian]

(source)

[ajkorvidian]

Writing really goes one of two ways:

1. Write 3k words in 30 minutes

2. Takes 3 hours to write 3 sentences

There is no in between

[ajkorvidian]

It's frustrating that you can come up with the plot of an entire fic in just a few seconds, but writing it all down can take anywhere from never to forever.