Day Four: Basic Profile Template And Building Gods Exercise
October 16th 2009 22:05
This post is divided into two sections. THe first is the template for a basic profile which works for any important character, and the second is an exercise to build a God/Goddess more completely for your world, which can be repeated with a number of Gods if you like.
Basic Profile-Template
You should be doing this on a lined piece of paper, double-spacing between different sections. This sheet is meant to be a reference for when you are writing.
BASIC PROFILE-Character's Name
Name:
Height:
Weight:
Eyes: (colour/any unusual traits)
Hair: (length, cut, colour)
Basic Description: (what someone who saw them on the street would describe this character's appearance)
Personality: (3-4 dominant traits in this person)
Basic Bio: (1-3 paragraph summary of their past)
Pre-Nano: Building Gods 1
This isn't going to work for everyone, but this is the process I've used to build several Gods and Goddesses for Jihad and quite similar to the process I use to build ordinary characters. It has worked for me time and time again in my world and character building process.
This process has two parts to it, one of which is just gathering ideas and the other of which is writing things down and making decisions.
Part One-Ideas
You already know a little bit about the God or Gods you are working with from the Building Religions 1&2. Today you are going to come up with some ideas to add depth to your Gods and in turn the religious practices of your world and culture.
1. List two or three well-known Gods and/or Goddesses with similar traits to yours from real-world religions. Either pick from ones that you know of or look into some mythologies and look for Gods similar to yours.
2. Think about how these Gods are treated in myths. What is their usual role in myth? How does it evolve over the time period during which this culture was at its most powerful?
3. How do they get along with other Gods/Goddesses? How do they treat humans in myth?
4. How do you want your Gods to differ from the three Gods you just researched? Is what you want them to act like realistic with the things you want them to represent? (Ex. A God of lies and trickery can't be truthful at all times both inside of myth and outside of it)
5. Brainstorm ways that these Gods could appear in mythology.
6. Brainstorm ways that myths about your Gods could change over time and why.
7. How do real-world people worship Gods similar to yours? Offerings, rituals, small prayers, a combination of the three, other practices?
8. How might people worship your Gods differently than the real-world versions?
Tomorrow we'll also be starting in on the prompts of this workshop.These start small and then grow into pretty much the word count you'll want to achieve daily to win Nanowrimo.
Basic Profile-Template
You should be doing this on a lined piece of paper, double-spacing between different sections. This sheet is meant to be a reference for when you are writing.
BASIC PROFILE-Character's Name
Name:
Height:
Weight:
Eyes: (colour/any unusual traits)
Hair: (length, cut, colour)
Basic Description: (what someone who saw them on the street would describe this character's appearance)
Personality: (3-4 dominant traits in this person)
Basic Bio: (1-3 paragraph summary of their past)
Pre-Nano: Building Gods 1
This isn't going to work for everyone, but this is the process I've used to build several Gods and Goddesses for Jihad and quite similar to the process I use to build ordinary characters. It has worked for me time and time again in my world and character building process.
This process has two parts to it, one of which is just gathering ideas and the other of which is writing things down and making decisions.
Part One-Ideas
You already know a little bit about the God or Gods you are working with from the Building Religions 1&2. Today you are going to come up with some ideas to add depth to your Gods and in turn the religious practices of your world and culture.
1. List two or three well-known Gods and/or Goddesses with similar traits to yours from real-world religions. Either pick from ones that you know of or look into some mythologies and look for Gods similar to yours.
2. Think about how these Gods are treated in myths. What is their usual role in myth? How does it evolve over the time period during which this culture was at its most powerful?
3. How do they get along with other Gods/Goddesses? How do they treat humans in myth?
4. How do you want your Gods to differ from the three Gods you just researched? Is what you want them to act like realistic with the things you want them to represent? (Ex. A God of lies and trickery can't be truthful at all times both inside of myth and outside of it)
5. Brainstorm ways that these Gods could appear in mythology.
6. Brainstorm ways that myths about your Gods could change over time and why.
7. How do real-world people worship Gods similar to yours? Offerings, rituals, small prayers, a combination of the three, other practices?
8. How might people worship your Gods differently than the real-world versions?
Tomorrow we'll also be starting in on the prompts of this workshop.These start small and then grow into pretty much the word count you'll want to achieve daily to win Nanowrimo.
| 29 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
Comment by Glas
Comment by Dianna G
I Wish This Was 42
Fictional Worlds
What you're talking about is something that I actually use in my Jihad series. Because the Gods take active roles in the overall world, there are only two separate sects. The Fidolians, who worship Elric/The Demon and The Shadow, and everyone else, who worships 'The Council'.
Thanks for your thoughts,
~Dianna