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So, uh… if you’re looking back on your writing and you’re cringing at how bad it is…

You know that’s a good thing, right? That you’ve grown?

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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.

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FEAST, GLADLY / MOON STEALER / WARM BLOODED

i hold werewolves as both a symbol of transformation and of self-actualization; they are the other, and the beast, and they are us. this art was created for october’s print club; it was also created for me (and for you).

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Daily Mirror, England, October 21, 1920 Image © The British Library Board. All Rights Reserved.

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🍖 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:

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THE MUSKETEERS (2014 - 2016) S1E06 - The Exiles

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I've had a lot of conversations lately about what's lacking in cosy fantasy and romantasy, and the general consensus is that it boils down to being written like fanfiction.

Fanfiction is an entirely different beast than published fiction. Your reader is already invested in the characters, and you don't need to sell them on anything to get them to read it. And that's great! That's the beauty of fanfiction! You should write that if it is your true passion!

Cosy fantasy and romantasy that has no fucking plot whatsoever argh often skips the step of getting you invested in the characters. You're already supposed to be into the "hot mysterious baddie" trope, therefore there's no effort being made to make you interested in this particular hot dude. Female leads are interchangeable. What were they like growing up? What are their morals? Who cares, let them fuck.

Don't get me started on DnD-lite books that rely on you being familiar with DnD to do the world-building for you. First of all, this is boring as all hell. If you're not willing to world-build, you're not going to give us a good story. Second of all, DnD can be a great world-builder, and everyone not taking advantage of that is just being lazy. If you have orcs in your damn book, I want you to tell me what that means. I shouldn't have to flip through a source book to understand the conflict you're setting up goddamnit!

And listen, you can say queer cosy fantasy/romantasy fixes this problem, and I can promise you it doesn't. Some of it is better, but the vast majority is still written for tropes and nothing more. Please, I am begging you, you need more than tropes to write a good book. You need to actually convince us, the reader, to care about these characters as much as you do. That means letting them make mistakes. That means they have to have real problems that aren't solved by the power of love, but by confronting their own flaws. You cannot do this if your characters don't actually have flaws.

I cannot wait for this trend to die.

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medieval knight raising the visor on his helm just so you can see him rolling his eyes

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Fallen deer

(for "The Crooked Moon")

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i have two personalities when im writing. one is "omg this is the easiest thing in the world. i just pumped out 3k words without any trouble" and my other one is "if i write another goddamn word im gonna throw my computer out the window and jump after omg why are they still talking"

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When you’re a writer, but you also have a side hobby, and your characters are screaming at you from the other room because you’re not giving them your full attention

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“He would not fucking say that” except its the badly written source material so he did, in fact, say that

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cover illustration for FIYAH Literary Magazine Issue 35 - black isekai.

named after the Japanese genre of fiction that transports its character(s) to a different fantastical world.

what new realities we help build! traditional ideas clashing with new perspectives and philosophies. new joy fostered with old hands and foreign tools.

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The knight and the prince.

Characters from Strange Bedfellows.

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Oz

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When your horse breaks down and you gotta take the subway to fight that dragon. 🐉