So, in this novel that I’m writing, I have this quasi-primitive tribal medieval culture that develops on an isolated planet. An important part of the story is actually creating this culture, figuring it out, how it works and how it doesn’t, etc. And one of the most important parts of this particular culture is the religion. The idea that I have is that this culture was basically anarchic and unstable until a religion developed that established some norms, a basic system of justice and morality, an hierarchy, and a value for knowledge. The problem is: how do you invent a fictional religion?
I was kind of worried about this a week or so ago. I was getting to the part in the book where the religion starts to influence the characters and the plot, and I still hadn’t figured out some of the basic beliefs of these people. When I did start to write this religion, it ended up sounding way too…Arab. And even though this story is influenced by a lot of the stuff that I’m studying in Political Science and MESA (Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic), I DON’T want this novel to be about a bunch of Arabs on another planet. These people are unique. Plus, as I’m learning now, the problems in the Middle East are completely different than anything that could possibly develop on this planet. However, there are some similarities, and some of the conflicts are going to be similar to the ones that we face today.
So, when I saw that I was patterning things too much off of my own ideas of Arab culture and religion, and not enough off of original ideas, I thought that I had to go back and completely draw out the religion in my head–that I needed to come up with all the specific details of it, and that these details had to be sufficiently unique and different from anything else that they would be truly “original.” The result was that I started toying around with some crazy ideas that sounded pretty weird, and since they didn’t tie in directly with where I’m going with the story, I started feeling a little bit embarrassed when I thought of putting them on paper.
So, I wasn’t sure what to do. Then, the other day I had this gchat with Aneeka, and she let me bounce off some of these ideas off of her. It was actually very helpful! She offered some ideas of her own, which got me thinking about directions I could take things. More than that, it got me excited about the whole subject again. I think one of the basic reasons you write stories is because of a sense of wonder about the world, or an idea of it. Without that, it just doesn’t have the same life to it.
But, more important, the more I got to talking with her, the more I realized that it WASN’T important to answer every question–or make the religion completely unique. Instead, it would actually be BETTER to focus on the basic concepts, like morality, justice, and good vs. evil, that can be found in EVERY religion. That way, instead of being this strange, weird thing that no-one can relate to, it can be sufficiently unique, and yet have something that people from ANY religion can relate to. I don’t need to know every detail of this religion, just the basic cosmology, history, and the moral code. I need to touch on things like the afterlife, accountability, the nature of God, etc, but only lightly. In fact, it’s better not to try and control it. The important thing, when you come down to it, is how does this religion affect the way that people see themselves, their world, and the way they live their lives.
Other than that, the writing is generally going well–when I have the time to do it. Speaking of which, I have two minutes to dash from the HBLL to my Philosophy class. See ya!
