The AmWritingFantasy Podcast: Episode 52 – Holiday Special! How to create a holiday for your fantasy world

We are in the thick of the holiday season, so what better time to talk about adding holidays to your fantasy story?

Jesper and Autumn discuss the steps to make a holiday relevant to your world and story in this slightly more light-hearted episode.

Expect laughter as well as some useful tips to add holidays and lots of holiday-induced tension to your WIP!

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Read the full transcript below.

(Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion).

Narrator (2s): You're listening to the amwritingfantasy podcast in today's publishing landscape, you can reach fans all over the world. Query letters are a thing of the past. You don't even need a literary agent. There is nothing standing in the way of making a living from writing join to best selling authors who have self published more than 20 books between them. Now onto the show with your hosts, Autumn Birt and YeJJsper Schmidt.

Jesper (30s): Hello, I'm Jesper and I'm autumn. This is episode 52 of the amwritingfantasy podcast and since it's the 23rd of December as this episode releases, we decided to do something a little difference. It's sort of a Christmas special where we going to share how to create holidays for your fantasy setting. So I guess we could start out by saying Merry Christmas to everyone. But I have to say that feels a bit weird saying that now that we're recording this in the beginning of December, but I guess technically it is Christmas now, isn't it?

Autumn (1m 5s): It is for everyone who's listening or at least very quick close. And I mean heck it after you'll, um, so after the solstice and Kwanza and Hanukkah and all of those holidays. So we're just in the thick of it now. At least when you're listening to this for us it's like unstressful early December as we're recording. So that's kind of funny. Yeah. I'm not quite into the Christmas mood yet. I don't know about you. Well you have to remember I just had a two foot snow storm today so I that's pretty Christmas.

Yeah, I'd start beginning to at least look a lot like Christmas here. All the decorations are going up for everyone cause we're post post the Thanksgiving holiday in the U S and now here in the Northeast. We just got dumped with a huge store of that's lasted over 24 hours and it's still snowing and I think we're still expecting another foot tonight. So my poor dog is like, you see his ears and the tip of his tail of this? No, it's, it's really kind of sad cause he liked the snow was like he wants to avoid it.

He's a November puppy and where he was, where we got him from a, she was a very small breed or a local place in Maine, and, uh, she had something going on in their yard, so she never let the puppies out. So the first time when we brought him home in January is this, like this little ball of fur that was like, you know, he fit into a shoe. He was so small. Uh, the first thing he experienced was Maine snow winter. He loved it. He acted, he has this Arctic Fox thing going on where you actually rears up and pounces like you see foxes and polar bears do.

Yes. That is an instinct since he was a puppy. So he, he often, he'll hear something and there the snow, he's a current terrier, so he's sort of like these Toto and the wizard of Oz, except he's a little bit bigger and he's a redhead. He's gold. And so if you can imagine this little fuzzy mud like dog who, uh, they're bred, they're not toys, they're not, you know, or ornamental dogs. They're actually a working dog. One of the oldest breeds in existence where they're from Scotland older than Scotties and they were bred to get vermin, badgers and foxes out of Karnes, hence the cult carne terriers.

So yes, he has his amazing hunting instinct and you let him out and he hears things under the snow and he does his little Fox pounds and tries to grab it and kill it cause that's what they do. But he, so he, uh, he loves snow. He will go and roll in it, uh, during our travels as we've been traveling and we were trying so hard to find him snow every month of the year. And we did pretty good. I think August we managed to find some, cause we're up in Alaska and there was some stuff in the passes.

Uh, it's, it was kind of a challenge, but we tried to make sure he found snow and got a role in it and play in it and he was thrilled. Hmm. Nice. So how was your week? I mean, you're not getting two feet of snow, right?

Jesper (4m 12s): No, no. Notice there was no snow here. There was a bit of rain today way. It was like a slight, slight, slight snowy is snow flakes coming down today, but it was more like half rain. So it does count. And w well we are down to like two degrees Celsius, so it's uh, it's getting cold and it's getting wintery. So, uh, but speaking of a puppy's am, we spent this past weekend at my brother's and his fiance's place and they actually have a puppy as well.

So, uh, my, my boys, they, all our boys, they really, really liked it. I think it's the, the puppy is am is not used to people staying over. I think this was the first time that somebody stayed over for a weekend, uh, in his lifetime. So, uh, actually the Saturday morning, the puppy was kind of, it was so stressed out that it got sick. So we were growing up Saturday morning and stuff like that from all the attention.

And you know, the puppy doesn't have any filters to, to stop playing. Right. So if somebody wants to play, just keeps playing, but it's still quite small, so it needs to rest. But it can't figure out how to rest. So it just falls over and sleeps. Yeah, well no, they had to carry it upstairs and put it into, into a room up there so we could sleep because as long as it was downstairs with the rest of it, it just wanted to play all the time. So, uh, yeah, so we've got a bit sick, but then, uh, yeah, it slept for half, half well parts of of Saturday and then they felt better again and then the boys got to play some more with the puppy dare.

So they really enjoyed that. It was, it was a nice weekend. We, we enjoy going there and uh, my brother and his fiance that they're such hosts, you know, they go out of their way to make sure that you feel welcome every time you're there. So it's really nice. That sounds wonderful. That definitely sounds like a nice family visit. And hopefully your employees are satisfied with just visiting the puppy and not going to be bothering you for your own little canine companion. Yeah, they were already telling my wife when we were there. So I think maybe you should start considering getting a puppy or actually the oldest one of our dogs are boys actually started out differently.

He was, he was trying to be sneaky, so he was asking my wife's stuff like, uh, don't you think it's cute? Don't you really like, it wouldn't be nice if you could pet it every day. Yeah. Good owes to him. He is pretty good. Yeah. He was trying to get her to say that she really liked it because of course you did, but, uh, we're not going to get a dark, but, uh, he was trying to ease, ease her into a saying that you wanted the dog too, but he didn't succeed.

How are you guys am you know what he's coming from, huh? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, uh, but that's, I mean it was a very nice weekend. Um, but uh, Oh also, even though it's nice and relaxing and, and all that, you know, when you are out from your own house, and especially me, the older I get, if I don't sleep in my own bed at night, I get really tired. I F I have a trouble sleeping if I'm not in my own bed. So this morning, Monday morning here we are recording this Monday evening, but this morning I was very, very tired when I got up.

But uh, but I still managed to get all the final stages of the character creation process done for our next fantasy series. So I'm pretty, I'm pretty psyched about that. Yes, I saw that shelf in my inbox. I was like, darn it. You know, I've got to get to looking at that. I even haven't opened it up yet today, but I will. Oh well maybe tonight after I make dinner and put everything away I'll take a peek and see what you created and I can't wait to give you feedback and start working on this a bit more. Yeah. I also cannot wait to get into the fiction writing again, although I guess we have to say we have quite a lot of bits and pieces to finish up with causes and nonfiction books before we get that far.

But, but it's good to just make some progress in the background on, on the fiction stuff as well. Absolutely. I think sometimes the plotting is at least keeps it going, which is exciting and makes it still feel connected. Oh, we go on the internet with the amwritingfantasy podcast. Uh, so I posted a pretty interesting article on, on patron about writing in a noisy or a silent environment and, uh, I'm not gonna go into all the details so of that article there, but, uh, those on patron could of course read it, but among other things, um, except set that most people reach peak performance under moderate nice conditions like 70 dash a bills.

Um, and that just happens to be roughly the equivalent to the chatter in a typical coffee shop or restaurant on a relatively busy day. So that was a bit interesting. But Sates come and really made me laugh because he said, well, uh, he cannot write during silence or while listening to music instead, he said the sound of politicians is usually perfect as meaningless back proud chatter.

Autumn (9m 24s): That is really great. Yes. I guess, I don't know, streaming, um, you know, the U S government would really inspire me, but I guess it makes a good background babble.

Jesper (9m 36s): Yeah. Meaningless chatter. That was, what do you call it? I thought it was real great.

Autumn (9m 41s): Okay. And it's funny cause I enjoy the UK parliament compared to the U S they slam each other and shouting and all kinds of stuff. It's intense. It's, it's, I did not understand politics until actually I spent a year in England and it all made sense cause you know, it's the size of the a U S state, but it's a country and suddenly it's like, Oh this is how it all works. The U S is just too big and there don't get riled up or passionate, but Oh yeah, UK.

Awesome. So I think I'd get end up getting caught up in the accents and everything else going on. If I was listening to that as my, my background noise, unfortunately. Yeah, I think I'll pass on that one. But I told him very funny. I thought it's very funny. I was really excited actually in the Facebook group that Arthur had posted a question on wanting to find a font that looked like a computer speaking because you know me and fonts. Yeah. I was just about to say Fonz, that's your thing.

That is, I was like, Oh topographies. So I we there was some good suggestions but Oh, thank you Arthur for posting about fonts. It made my day. So I enjoyed that and I enjoyed the suggestions and that, you know, some people actually linked to a whole bunch of free fonts such, I'm

Jesper (10m 59s): not going to go look at right this second. But it's very tempting. Yeah. But I guess with font you have to be really careful right in, in making sure that they are actually free to use also. Because one thing I think, unless I'm mistaken, you're, you're, you're an expert. He has a, correct me autumn if I'm wrong, but I think sometimes you can actually find funds that are free, but they're not free for commercial use. Right. So I think you need to be careful here, right? That, that even though you find it for you, you need to check that is a commercial free font before you start using it for a book.

Autumn (11m 32s): Sometimes it's free for personal use or free for, you know, commercial use. You definitely, most of them come with a license and you just need to read that really quickly and make sure it is actually free to use like on a book cover and go with go with that. Or if it's free to use on, uh, on your book cover, but not free to use if you were making book covers to other people. Lots of layers and most people will answer them for you. And you know, you can always go to actually my favorite font resources called what the font. So there is a fabulous Sapporo to itch.

It is WTF. So, uh, there's a fabulous forum on what the font am and people are fun experts in the us. It'll answer questions and they'll help you track down fonts, which I won't admit how many times I have done that. Um, they will help you figure out all that stuff. So if anyone has a question am I highly recommend what the thought as a very good resource. And plus it's fun to get to say that to other people. Although I,

Jesper (12m 32s): I really don't know how they would police if you're using, uh, you know, a font that isn't allowed for commercial use. If you, let's say just you accidentally used it on your cover, I will don't know how they would police it. I, I don't, I don't imagine anybody sitting in going through all the covers on, on Amazon just to make sure. But, uh, of course anyway, we need to make sure we always complained with w with licenses and whatnot, but I'm just wondering how they would actually figure it out.

Autumn (13m 0s): I think it would be the random chance of someone finding it and questioning it and then asking to see your license. Um, and cause obviously you could possibly be using it legally because you paid for the license, which is usually what happens. So I can't imagine the challenge. I don't make fonts. Um, I'd love to make a couple of fonts, but I can see the challenge for licensing that I think I just do it for myself or I just let it free for use and yeah, I wouldn't want to go there.

Jesper (13m 29s): No. And I mean, how many times has it happened at anybody approached you to ask if you had the license for any of the funds are you currently using? Right. Never. Never. So, yeah, so I'm just wondering how that would all work. But yeah, who knows. Um, I should also mention that as we recording this episode, we just had the monthly Q and a, uh, we our patron supporters at the $5 here can get their questions answered, but there's a low, small rewards for those who support the amwritingfantasy podcast on patron.

So head on over and check that one out if you please. And uh, there is a link in the show notes. I was about to say, I guess that's right, this time. Last time I called it the description field, but the, yeah, so check that one out. Uh, there was lots of good stuff or one patron. Yeah. So we thought it was very much on point to talk about holidays now that we are just the day before Christmas.

That's right. So holiday is this, I don't know, may maybe, maybe some people find it a bit complicated or they make it a bit complicated. But to be honest, I think that the, the process we use autumn it's, it's simple.

Autumn (14m 52s): I think so too. I mean, obviously I think there's some people who just immediately assume you're going to have all the same holidays that we have in this world, in your fantasy world, if you're not writing on earth or about earth or earthlings, I think you're pretty much free to come up with something new. And that to me is so much more fun. But yes. We we've developed or we've each done it on our own and then we've adopted the process together. That I think makes sense. It makes it easy and it's always, to me, it's fun.

It's so much, it's a fun aspect of world building to be able to create a holiday. Okay.

Jesper (15m 30s): Yeah. And, uh, the, the process that we've, we've developed together here for, for how to do it, it's actually going to form part of the am, uh, oil pulling course. Yeah. That we're going to, I was hesitating there because I was trying to think when I could say that that's going to be done, but I don't want to do that. Maybe sometimes in 2020 goal we've talked about a goal and we would love to have it out this summer, so the summer of 2020. So fingers crossed and kick us in the butt and that's still my goal.

So we'll see if we can

Autumn (16m 4s): that happened. Yeah.

Jesper (16m 6s): Can't wait to get that course out. I truly think it's gonna help a lot of authors, uh, we with the, with the world building. Um, and it's, you're of course going to be a full step-by-step costs, but that it's going to take you through everything you need from, from basically building a fantasy world from scratch. But we are going to talk much more about that once we have something concrete. But for now, at least, we just sort of plucked out one topic from that course and that was, uh, about the holiday. So we could just talk you through how we do it and it is actually rather simple.

Um, and I think where we start is by looking at the history of your world. So just like in the real world, he has autumn said, you know, usually our holidays are linked to something that happened in the past. Um, whether you believe in that happening or not is not, not really the point, but, uh, but if you look at your, the history for your fantasy world and then try to find some past event that people would be celebrating, then, uh, that's, that's the starting point.

And you just have a bit of siren there. Yes. Maybe that was a, maybe that's inspiration for holiday or something. Oh, it could definitely be, it'd

Autumn (17m 23s): be a inspiration for a very dramatic event. I know I've read some really good holidays in short stories, especially science fiction that were actually from huge like not necessarily terrorism events cause I don't wanna think about September 11th but a big event. I think if we had celebrated the Hindenburg exploding in the aftermath of that and you know there's things that Mark, you know, big dramatic and tragic events. Then of course there's ones that Mark maybe the birth of a mythical character or of course I like astronomy.

So if you happen to have several moons and they come into conjunction with the sun and suddenly you have this amazing eclipse or you know like the changing of the times, like with the solstice that just happened on the 21st I definitely, I've always liked, I've always preferred the solstice and the Equinox is as big holidays because I am very scientific in, they're very visual and that works for me. I know when something happened and that we're at that point of the year where we just went through the longest day or the longest night, the shortest day, the darkest part of the year, and now every day is going to get lighter and brighter.

That's so exciting for me. I can celebrate that when wholeheartedly, uh, no religion necessary. So that's one of the fun things I think that we're trying to say here about holidays is they don't have to be religious. Obviously if you do have gods are gods and you want to have some mythical events around their life and death or birth or something like that, you can have that sort of holiday but it can just be the birth of a great hero. It can. And it can also be like a past military

Jesper (19m 3s): when you know, maybe it's celebrating the end of a war or at some point of famous battle happened and that's what people are celebrating. Or it could also be like purely scientific, like discovery items, you know? Or maybe maybe they found a new land on a at that date and that's what they're celebrating. Or somebody figured out how to muse use magic on that date. That's also pretty important, I guess, or discovery of an ancient race or artifact or something like that.

I think that you can make basically pick anything. But I think that the important thing when you're picking something is that it's some, it's somehow re relevant maybe as a backstory to the story that you're telling so that it's, it's, it's within the confines of or within the frame of the story or that you're telling that it's relevant in one way or another. I think that's, that's the trick to try to pick something like that rather than something completely out on left field that doesn't really have any difference whatsoever.

Autumn (20m 4s): So what do you mean? Like it fits the content of the story? Just about the people. Like do you mean it's because the character is an event, like the festivity and something happens or that the event itself, like the historic battle that actually ended in cause this event, um, is also related to something hidden in some kind of subplot that's bubbling up under the surface. And that people are actually discontent or this is actually taking place in the suppressed nation that lost and they want to, they're kind of celebrating with their teeth, gritted saying he, yay, we lost.

Yeah. I mean it doesn't have to, it can of course be showed at the, the, the event is

Jesper (20m 48s): actually something in the story is going to take place at that. And when they can of course be that. But what I actually meant by it was more like that it shows off parts of the world that is relevant for the story. So maybe as an example, um, so in our upcoming fantasy series, we have, the majors have actually trapped a, a doc God in like a prison cell. Uh, and the problem is that the cell needs to be charged because otherwise if it's a losing, it's am.

If it's losing his power, then the dark God can escape. So the batteries run out. Yeah, exactly. Batteries running out basically. Molly's, yeah. So, so what we then have is that we have once a year they need to recharge these batteries. Uh, and there is like an event around doing that. So it's, it's like a holiday event where there's some soldiers are doing different activities in order to reach out to those batteries. So, so it's not really directly related to what the protectionists is experienced in the story, but it adds to explaining that, okay, there was a doc got imprisoned here and the need to chat the cells and it apparently is dangerous if the dark art gets out and all that.

So it, it's sort of, it's, it's a nice way to build in frame or of world building elements without you having to go into actually, you know, explaining what this is about. And by the way, within that tower, there's a dock, God and blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, so by having an SSL vibration, you can make it pop off. What is it? It's part of action almost that you actually explaining parts of the background or, or for example also with the famous battles if that's what you want to do, you know, it could be in order to set up and explain to the reader that activities two nations where maybe the protectionists belongs to one of them.

These two nation hate easier each other and potentially there was some wire it's going to break out or something because there was worse in the past. You know, so it could be something like that where where you're sort of layering in world building that supports the story but it doesn't have to be because it's directly related to the plot, but more it's, it's more like background information that you get an excuse to deliver background information. In other words, it's like a fantastic way of showing the reader something about the world instead of telling the reader about some backstory and pass.

It's a fantastic way of, yeah, avoiding the info dump, which we've talked about in a different podcast. And instead dynamic right into showing an action in, you know, the reader or the is actually living through the event, which is much more exciting than hearing about some piece of archaic history. Exactly. Right. Yet. So I think, so once you've decided on an event, uh, then you need to ask yourself how important this holiday is. So, uh, we've, we've sort of specked it out on three different levels.

So either you can say that it's a, it's a major event that if basically affects everyone in society. And if that's the case, you need to ask yourself, how long does this, uh, holiday last? Is it like days or weeks of celebration? Or what is am? And also does it require any special form of preparation? Or you could say that it's a minor event that owned, that affects a considerable number of people in this society, but it does not require much preparation. And it isn't like a notable investment for people to, to basically celebrate.

Or thirdly, the holiday could merely be something trivial that maybe only last a few hours and most people don't even bother to participate. So, so that's sort of the next step to define how important is this, uh, to, to society.

Autumn (24m 40s): I'm currently going for the Viking Yule log that has to burn for 12 days. So you cut down an entire tree. That is why the holiday I'm going for right now, but I didn't know what to celebrate that 12 days off of work because it is my holiday. Yeah, go arguing a good excuse. I could take my laptop and sneak it in the corner. It will be good. But, and I agree. I mean the other options. Yeah, you're right. So you can have something that maybe you just need to cook a special meal and go to the temple and leave it in front of your ancestors or you know, is it something where you basically need to sit down for five minutes and say a prayer?

You mumble through it really quickly, know when you're done, Hey, let's get back to work.

Jesper (25m 19s): Yeah. And basically the level of significance of the holiday is important because it allows you to determine, of course, both how widespread and common the holiday is, but also how time consuming it is. Because if it is an important holiday that that requires a lot of am preparation. Well, well now it's the 23rd of December, right? So you probably just been through all of it is it can be quite stressful to prepare for holidays and uh, you can, uh, you can put your character through the same, right?

It's a good story trigger to maybe have some conflict between characters who was, and while they, they're arguing about some preparation work for the holiday or what to wear or what it may be. Right. So it, it's, it can be a good trigger for a bit of conflict.

Autumn (26m 4s): Yeah. For some reason I'm visualizing the conflict between the one character who hasn't started their preparation yet and I'm the one who is going, what are you going to get it done by now? That might be because I'm the slacker in my family. So hopefully by the 23rd and we're recording this, I'll be ready for the upcoming holidays. Yeah, you'll never know. Dear reader, dear listener, uh, please check in and ask how I did.

Jesper (26m 36s): Yeah. So, uh, so once you get that far, um, then you decide on one element that will

Autumn (26m 44s): make this holiday stand out. So this could of course be like the type of clothing people wear. Maybe, well we just talked about like a special contest that, that that's sort of what we did with, with our upcoming fantasy world here. Um, or it could be, I don't know, ritual sayings, prayers. Maybe they eat something. Special that's what I was about to say. Cause you know, I'm a foodie, so yes, especially initially you had to prepare or you know, is there a procession that's always an interesting one that could be even play into not just a one day, but a multiple day.

You have to go on a Trek to reach this temple and it takes three days and you have to do this as you pass this thing and this as you passed, you don't want to get too cumbersome and detailed, but you know, the more chance if this is really a huge aspect and an important part of your story, there's a lot of issues here that you can pull out and make some tension and drama. Especially if someone bumps over the, you know, one temple they're supposed to be, you know, worshiping at. That'd be me too. Yeah. I think that the key here is, and maybe this is the trip wire basically, because the key is to try to find something that isn't boring, right?

I mean, yeah, I eman I mentioned clothing people wear, but if, if that's what you do, you know, may get something very unique and awesome clothing. There's not like, yeah, then they put on a blue apron over. It needs to be something. What you're going for is something that both, um, fits within the context of the culture that the character belongs to. But also at the same time, something that is remarkable and baby may, we'll just make the reader go, wow, this is awesome.

Right. So you need to try harder bit here to, to come up with something that is special in one way or another. I mean a ritual saying a prayer. Yeah. That you could do that as well. But then try to figure out how can I make it something like where the, where the reader will say, okay, that's not a type of prayer I've seen before. You know, um, because otherwise it's just boring. Yeah. We'll sing around the Christmas tree. It's just boring. Yeah. You need something new, something more, much more exciting. And I mean, if you need inspiration, you Google some archaic, uh, you know, some different celebrations from around the world.

Mayan Inca, go look at some of the native Americans and Polynesian islands and see what some of the costumes or the foods or what's going on there. Because it's really inspiring to see how other native cultures have celebrated over the years. Because it's really a lot of fun. And it may give you some ideas because this, if you're going to spend the time to show this to readers, you really want to bring out something that kind of is stands out that makes you go, Oh, this is important. Even if it's just, I mean, if it's a tiny little, you know, five minute ceremony and you just mentioned it in passing, again, it should have an importance in the story, but make sure that there's something else going on there as well.

Jesper (29m 46s): Hmm. Yeah. So once you get to that stage, all those left to do is to give the holiday a really cool name. And uh, of course, if you create a name that for well, for example, it could be maybe a name of a person or place that the reader hasn't yet her off, that that could be a good way to add a bit of mystery to it and make the reader wonder what that might be about. But I think it's good to have a name that it's that some in some one way or another, I guess raises a question in the reader's mind that, that that's, that's a good name

Autumn (30m 21s): that makes sense. Or at least makes them think that this is such an interesting, you know, holiday I've always liked a, the candle. Most the holiday in Celtic is envelope and I hear that one. I'm like, why is that exactly? It's like, wow, I don't know what it is, but I want to go celebrate it. Or of course, one of my favorite actual holidays, and that's coming up tomorrow as you're listening to this is you'll book a flood, which is the Icelandic tradition of reading a story on Christmas Eve. So yeah, you can easily find some amazing holidays, but it's the ones that are fun to say and kind of go, what is that?

That that's kinda cool. You don't want to just make it something difficult to pronounce.

Jesper (31m 2s): No. Yeah, that was exactly what I was about to say. I mean, it's not fine with cool names and because the same thing applies for when you're naming characters. Absolutely fine with cool names, but it has to be something that you need. Try to read it out loud yourself. And if you're stumbling over the words, then there's no good. It has to sort of flow quite quite well.

Autumn (31m 22s): Yes. There's nothing wrong with naming something like the black candle miss or something. If it works in fits, whatever you're trying to evoke, that's fine. English isn't acceptable language and writing.

Jesper (31m 36s): Yeah, but, but, but, but the thing is just to sometimes worse looks cool written, but then they are very difficult to pronounce or you might, the reader might be endowed on how you're supposed to pronounce it and, and there's nothing worse than the Rita actually stopping reading to start wondering how am I going to pronounce this word right. I mean then they've just, you just pulled them out of the story so that you don't want that to happen.

Autumn (32m 1s): No, no. It should all flow pretty smoothly and you don't want them wondering, you want them maybe wondering a little bit of a peak history, you know, they wouldn't be curious about what's going on, not curious about how do you pronounce this and why the heck are you delving into this holiday and showing it to me at better half an important aspect to the story. So those are the key points.

Jesper (32m 24s): Yeah, I agree. And then then of course, would holidays also think a bit wider in the sense that holiday is, are often shared across borders. So for example, if you have, you know, maybe two nations, uh, who are at war with each other than maybe the holidays one time a year where they actually have a momentary peace between them for that week that the holiday takes place or something. But, but just be mindful, at least that neighboring countries and even maybe even further widespread within your world, they holiday is to cross borders.

So, um, so that's, that's important to think about, at least. Of course. That's what I've always loved. The stories of the Christmas Eve piece,

Autumn (33m 11s): treaties that were made between front lines in the world war one and world war II. I think that's always a spectacular example of something that crosses boundaries and actually pauses a war. But of course you can also have opposing holidays where if someone thinks another country that there's already a lot of friction, maybe they don't quite celebrate it on the same day or the same way. And so if you're trying to build some tension, you can actually create tension through the use of holidays in your story as well. So that you know, two people from opposing cultures are either arguing about the day or that no, you can't use that spice or no, that's not how you prepare that.

So you can always have some fun am if you need to add some arguments in there as well because goodness knows if anyone was celebrating Thanksgiving and you know his family traditions don't necessarily work all that well. When you're blending your family together,

Jesper (34m 4s): it's always troubled,

Autumn (34m 5s): right? In my world there always seems to be trouble. I don't know why that is. I should start focusing on peaceful times, but, uh, there's no one's gonna read that. Right?

Jesper (34m 16s): Yeah. But, but I, I guess, I mean that's more or less so. I, I hope and I guess that you can see that it does not have to be complicated or time consuming to create a holiday for your fantasy setting. I think that the main thing is that you, that you find that hook that makes sense for the story you're telling and, and, and that fits with the world and the culture of the character. Um, and that might take a bit to figure out what is best. But as I said, up at the top, your world's history is a good starting point.

So, uh, looking into that should probably give you inspiration of what to build. But, uh, but it does not have to be complicated and time consuming.

Autumn (34m 59s): No, and I will go back to that. If you don't want to do the history and you have God's and do have religions and obviously with those you will probably be coming up with some sort of holiday and that does give you a lot more leniency. Like I said, it could be a God's birth and other things like that, but don't forget, you can foreshadow, you could have a holiday that they think in some future date, something big is going to happen on this date. So everyone gathers together and kind of insulation of this big event. So there's so many ways that you can bring a richness to your world and your characters of events that are going to happen and kind of tease out the nuances.

Maybe it'll fit

Jesper (35m 38s): with your world and how you're building things. And definitely though should somehow fit with your plot and something, something big is going to happen there. Yeah. So this was a bit of a lighthearted like world building, a episode for you here just before Christmas. So hopefully you got a bit of a inputs for your world building and how to create holidays for your own setting here. Uh, and next Monday I will be interviewing one of the biggest and most successful indie authors in the world.

And that is Adam Croft. I'm so excited about this one. Yes, it's going to be awesome. And, uh, Adam will join the amwritingfantasy podcast and talk about read through and how it can revolt, revolutionize your book sales. So that's a holiday treat waiting for you next Monday.

Narrator (36m 29s): If you like what you just heard, there's a few things you can do to support the amwritingfantasy podcast. Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review. You can also join autumn and Yesper on patrion.com/amwritingfantasy for as little as a dollar a month. You'll get awesome rewards and keep the amwritingfantasy podcast going. Stay safe out there and see you next Monday.