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nanowrimo · 9 months

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How to Use Meal Scenes to Develop Characters, Relationships, and Your World

Worldbuilding can sound complicated, but why not make it a little more simple by focusing on food? It may be the domestic touch you need! NaNo Participant Lacey Pfalz talks about using meal scenes to develop your world and your characters.

There’s one thing that remains a universal human truth: we love food! While our perspectives on food might differ, people all across the globe gather together during mealtimes — and thus, mealtimes are made memorable.

Meal scenes can also help your story in a few key ways, especially if it’s fantasy, science fiction or historical fiction.

Meal Scenes for Worldbuilding

If we’re using food for worldbuilding purposes, does that mean we can say we’re worldcooking?

Just kidding! Worldbuilding, especially in historical fiction, science fiction, and fantasy, is an integral part of what you must do as a writer (In truth, it’s also important for writers from other genres, but we’re specializing in these three today).

Meal scenes can be an important part of the worldbuilding process. Food is intrinsically tied to a culture or a country, or even a small region. That’s why it’s important, when building your own world, to take time to figure out the bare minimum of what your characters will be eating.

Let’s do an example. Your world is fantasy, your kingdom set beside a wide river. Perhaps your capital city, where much of the action is located, is surrounded by wetland.

If this is the case, what types of food would likely grow there? Seafood, fished from the large river, might be your characters’ staple proteins, while rice might grow better than another grain because of your kingdom’s wetlands. Fruit, perhaps even coconuts, might be the sweet stuff your main character loves to devour.

Remember that your world directly affects what types of food your characters will be having: is there coffee in space? What about in Byzantine Turkey or your new riverside kingdom?

Shannon Chakraborty does a phenomenal job with this in her fantasy series The Daevabad Trilogy, which is set in the eighteenth century across the Middle East. Her first book, The City of Brass, is especially good at showcasing the often-fragrant dishes of the various cultures across this region of the world (some copies of the book even have a short list of recipes from the book that foodies can try whipping up for themselves).

While her book is set within the fantastical world of the Djinn, her food is based upon recipes that have been preserved for centuries.

There’s one small reminder with all of this: it’s important not to get too caught up in describing each dish so much that you end up taking the focus away from the characters in a meal scene. Meal scenes can be breaks from fast action, but they should also continue the plot.

Meal Scenes for Developing Characters & Relationships

Character development can be hard, especially if you have a handful of characters that you love! But in order to make your readers love them too, you have to show them interacting with the world around them.

That guy we love to hate? Maybe he’s a loner who has grown up eating by himself. Having him forced to sit and eat with a group of people who have known each other for years might be an awkward moment for him, but it helps readers to learn more about his own worldview — and it might just help get him out of his shell, or at least off the love-to-hate list.

Besides helping you develop a single character, writing meal scenes with some of your characters can also help readers learn more about the relationship between your characters.

Let’s say you have your main character, MC. MC leans over and steals a French fry from her best friend. There’s no issue, right? That’s because they like each other, and the best friend has likely eaten with MC before, and knows she enjoys stealing food from other people’s plates.

But when MC tries it again, this time with the guy sitting next to her, he whacks her hand to stop her from stealing. This sparks an argument that seems, at least to everyone else watching it, pointless, but readers will know from the rest of the story that they’re the enemies-to-lovers trope. This argument is just one of many before they finally acknowledge their feelings towards one another.

See how that worked? A meal scene wasn’t useless; it pulled the story along by giving readers another taste of the enemies-to-lovers trope that so many enjoy reading.

If you need a more visible example of how this can play out, try watching a movie like Pride & Prejudice, (the book is amazing, but I’m suggesting the movie as a visual aid). The movie does a great job showcasing just how different the members of the Bennet family are individually, how they act around each other, and how they act around company.

There’s often little action in meal scenes, so they’re not meant to be overused. The plot should also still be there — take the cringey proposal scene between Mr. Collins and Elizabeth in Pride & Prejudice, for example, which follows directly after a meal when the rest of her family abandons her. In this case, the plot (and Mr. Collins’ advances) ruin her meal.

Perhaps your meal scene is the much-needed respite in between battling fierce aliens for planet Earth, or the first time your main character’s enemy-to-lover has entered her home. Either way, meal scenes are an important way to immerse your readers in what kind of world they’re imagining as well as showcasing how your characters act and — more importantly — how they act around each other.

Lacey Pfalz is a travel journalist by day, hopeful author by night. She belongs to the class of graduates she dubs the Class of COVID-19, having graduated with a double major in history and writing at Wisconsin Lutheran College in 2020. Her writing passions include fantasy, science fiction and historical fiction (with a little bit of romance, of course!). As someone with a physical disability, it’s her dream to write a fantasy series featuring a main character like her. Header Image by Jack Sparrow

#nanowrimo #writing #writing tips #worldbuilding #characters #character relationships #by nano guest #lacey pfalz

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wordsnstuff · 3 months

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This might sound strange... writing a romance I started to see romantic potential between my lead and a side character, rather than strictly between the two leads... I'm starting to swerve. How can I suit my writing/mindset to keep the relationship with the side character platonic?

When characters develop minds of their own...

Writing is one of those mediums where people tend to overlook the importance of experimentation. It's seen as a fairly linear process: brainstorm, map the plot, write the draft, edit the draft, publish. If any other type of creation was done this way, most would see the process as incomplete, because experimentation is imperative to creativity. Curiosity is the key to finding satisfaction, and no matter how brilliant you think an idea is at its conception, the best way to do it justice is to question it.

If you find yourself in a situation where your story begins to develop outside your control, don't strangle it back into the shape you imagined for it at first. See where it goes. Let it bleed outside the lines and see what you prefer. You can always return to the original plan. The beauty in fiction is that it has infinite possibility, and if you have the talent to write characters and worlds that determine their own trajectory, enjoy the reward.

In your case, you've designed a romance between two characters but the chemistry of a different pairing has become more compelling, so see what happens. There is a good chance you've simply written a secondary character that serves the story better in a leading role, and there's no harm in experimenting to see if that's correct. If it doesn't work and you're convinced the relationship is more suitable in the platonic category, you will find the reason along the way and that reason will speak for itself as you return to writing the original pairing. If anything, this might become an organic way for you to misdirect the reader in order to make the payoff of your original idea more substantial.

Writing should be an intuitive process. If you're swerving in another direction, satiate your curiosity and then make decisions with all of the information. Just like any other artistic medium, you will only know what's right once you've established what isn't.

Best of luck,

x Kate

#writing #writeblr #writespo #writing advice #authorblr #qna #romance #plot development #editing #character development #character relationships

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koiwynn · 7 months

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i think i’m onto something

#˖ ࣪⭑ mine #let kitay go apeshit (as a treat <3)#fang runin #yin nezha #chen kitay #rinezha #rinkitay #character dynamics #character relationships #the poppy war #the dragon republic #the burning god #meme #tpw trilogy #tpw core #tpw #tpw ‧₊˚✩彡

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interact-if · 6 months

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Is there a IF where friendship is as important as romance?

Not just friend, like can be a soulmate(platonically) or a bff.

Hi Anon,

We are certain there must be more, but we could only find applying to the following titles:

Completed:

Breach: The Archangel Job by @breachverse

Known Unknowns by @brendanpatrickhennessy

New Witch in Town by Grace Card

Our Life: Beginnings and Always (VN) by @gb-patch

Superstition by @13leaguestories

The Golden Rose: Book 1 by @anathemafiction

The Sword of Rhivenia: Book 1 by @theswordofrhivenia

Demos:

A Tale of Crowns by @ataleofcrowns

Checkmate in 3 Moves by @checkmatein3moves

Diaspora by @diasporatheblog

Fellow Traveler by @robotvampire

Our Life: Now and Forever (VN) by @gb-patch

Shepherds of Haven by @shepherds-of-haven

The Exile by @exilethegame

Wayfarer by @idrellegames

Zorlok by @zorlok-if

#if: rec list #friendship #interactive fiction #interact if asks #character relationships

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lewiscarrolatemybrain · 5 months

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Complicated toxic weird romantic relationships are great but y’know what I like better? Complicated toxic weird mentor and student relationships. I raised you to be a tool but you got too independent and I got too attached and I can’t bring myself to kill you but I’m still going to use you. You taught me everything I know and then I struck out on my own and realized you’re actually not a very good person but you have always been good to me and now I’m torn between my love for you and my desire to do the right thing. You’re some underdog upstart who keeps getting in my way and I trying to kill your a few weeks ago but then we were forced to work together to overcome something that could have destroyed both of us and I got emotionally attached, however I reject your offer of a redemption arc and I’m still gonna be evil. I very nearly killed you the last time we met because we were fighting over the same plot macguffin, now we’ve bumped into each other by pure coincidence in a different town and you’re still recovering from the wounds I gave you so these two-bit villains are trying to take the chance to kill you, how dare they touch my kid, I’m gonna kill them and then you for being out and about already I stuck an entire sword through your chest a couple weeks ago why the fuck aren’t you resting—

#writing #writeblr #fiction #character dynamics #character relationships

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thestellargoblin · 5 months

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"I don't wanna lose anyone more" person + "I don't wanna leave anyone more" person + "bitches, you would literally have to sell your soul to satan to get rid of me" person. They are all dating

#trouple #based on my ocs #lmao #not really cuz one of them is dead #but if he didn't die they so would be a polycule #polycule #polyamory #character dynamic #ship dynamics #character relationships #ocs #feel free to tag characters to fit this #free to use

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tsl-otherartblog · 5 months

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Okay I actually been wanting to do a relationship chart thing for awhile now. Now it isn’t perfect and I’ll probably make a better version of it later on but I do really like how it turned out, even if I struggled with it. Anyways enjoy!

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celaenaeiln · 2 years

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Bruce cannot piss off Dick anymore. It’s not possible for the continuation of the batfamily.

The First time Bruce pissed off Dick, he left him for another partner

The Second time Bruce pissed off Dick, he left him for another city

The Third time, he left him for another country

If this happens again for the fourth time, Dick’s gonna leave him for another planet (and probably get married to alien royalty cause alien royalties have a thing for him)

And then there’s no batfamily bc the one thing every batfamily & robin story has in common - regardless of who it’s about or which world it’s on - is Dick.

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develop-your-villain · 13 days

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Does your OC have any loved ones?

#oc #character development #oc tag #original character #tag your oc #villain oc #villain #relationships #oc relationships #character relationships

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thepedanticbohemian · 9 months

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There are two types of love. Practice and learn how to write both or either into your #WIP manuscript.

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pnkrathian · 1 year

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Hey, I made a really short and simple character analysis meme (that’s transparent too!!) but for characters who are frenemies cause I hadn't seen one like this yet! I'd love to see what people do with it so it's free to use for anyone, have fun!

#character meme #character relationships #frenemies #fillable meme #blorbo meme #free to use #character sheet #character analysis #mine

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livi-the-writer · 2 years

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Relationship dynamics for your story (romantic or platonic)

Hero + ex-villain

Social reject + villain

mischievous and impulsive + concerned for their safety

villain + other villain who makes the first person look good in comparison

villain + hero who has a corruption arc and becomes even worse than the previous villain

One who acts like a child because they never got to have a proper childhood + the one that had to mature too quickly and acts much older than they are

Always talking about their interest + listens to them talk about their interest

Has no self control + has to make sure they don’t commit a crime

“But that’s illegal” + “Don’t worry we won’t get caught”

Notices even the smallest details + will walk onto a road if they’re not paying enough attention

Always states the obvious + “no shit Sherlock”

Sunshine + sunshine protector

Book smart + street smart

Share one braincell between them

Individually they’re intelligent, but when they’re together they lose all their common sense and do the most reckless things ever

Mum energy + edgy teen energy + grandpa energy

Only child + best friend who’s almost like a sibling to them

Gay + also gay

“I hate everyone” + that one person that they don’t hate

Miserable wet cat + golden retriever

Married couple energy

One that’s always left out + the only one that pays them any attention

Reunited former friends

Writer + artist

Goes to sleep at 10pm + Having a party in their room at 3am

Character who “hates children” + the child they accidentally adopted

Social outcast who tries to fit in as best as they can + social outcast who has given up on trying to fit in

The protector + the nurturer

Mutual understanding

#relationship dynamics #romance dynamics #friendship dynamics #writerblr #otp prompts #character relationships #writing prompts #writing

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attheendoftheline · 1 year

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You might say that the boy was touched…

I adore the fact that we get to see Orpheus’s not only be “blessed” by the gods with his voice, but also have a real connection with them. Now often times being blessed or favored by the Gods never goes well— usually it’s a few years of good stuff happening then a gnarly end or string of bad luck (no different here). What I like is that here Orpheus has a tangible relationship with at least two of the gods. Being Hermes Ward and Persephone? Well she just likes him.

His relationship with Hermes was expanded in a sort of unseen backstory, in Working on a song Anïas goes into detail on how he came to be under his wing. He was partly raised by his mother but she’d be gone for impossible lengths of time on her own, so she left him with Hermes. The idea of a minor goddess showing up on the doorstep to a train station with a wiggling magical toddler and going ‘here’ is wildly entertaining to me— even more so for Hermes just to “alright” and keep him around. No better city for a musically inclined kid either.

I love how some of this is seen throughout the show, most of the time and especially in the beginning Hermes watches him sing with the proudest look on his face. Yet he’s not entirely easy going, there’s several times through the show as both a narrator and a father figure he tries to snap him out of things or explain what has to happen and how. That amusement can very easily turn into frustration one of my favorite lines is in Chant where Hermes tries to pull Orpheus back into the story and realize what’s happening with Eurydice - he’s yelling at this point “talk about oblivious”. He’s stern, he’s annoyed but the same man who’s told a million bedtime stories to the same kid.

Hermes wants to interfere so badly. Do you know how easy it would be for him to tell Eurydice to not take the deal or to get Orpheus away from his table? But he can’t on two front. Being a God and being a Narrator. In stories like this there’s just nothing you can do and that must kill him… he has some stake in this game! He raised that boy! How many times has he seen this happen wanting things to go right and how many times has he has to sing it again? It’s the fates that keep messing with things— the world of mortals goes the way they want and they’ll be damned if they change it any time soon.

Now persephone? She’s fun, honestly she gives “Wine aunt” energy. Popping in sometimes completely unannounced and slipping candy and drinks across the counter to her favorites. She would have seen Orpheus since he was a child as she always comes through the same station (hell it’s Hermes line. This man does everything it’s mentioned in the book he’s also conductor). She adores Orpheus, he’s a sweet guy and a generous server. He takes her coat and always makes sure everybody has a full glass and is happy. I can imagine it being a late spring night and he’s still at the bar listening to her stories— complaining or just talking to talk— not out of obligation but out of a genuine hope for friendship.

And Eurydice? The girl is brand new to town, no one’s seen her before but Persephone instantly offers her a drink and to dance and enjoy herself. She then sees the look the two have in their eyes and all but pushes them together like Barbie’s. Once again I morn her cut Chant II line talking about how they reminded her what true love was. She also takes a different route then Hermes by trying to interfere directly. She speaks up! She yells! She makes Hades listen, I think she actually realizes— unlike Orpheus and Eurydice — that she’s just as trapped by the narrative. So she steps in…she tries, it does little difference though.

Unlerelated note but if the gifs are getting annoying tell me

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koiwynn · 7 months

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all for cute ships but there’s something about those unhealthy ships where they’re clearly in no position to love each other; yet would choose each other over the world every second of the day. they love each other, but there’s just some invisible force—internal or external—preventing them from ever being together.

#this was written with a lot of different ships in mind #ships like this usually inflict a lot of emotional damage onto me #despite that my brain just can’t help but get unhealthily attached #the angst the unconditional love the tragedy… what more could you want in a ship?#they permanently alter my brain chemistry #doomed by the narrative #character relationships #ship tropes #writing tropes #writing #reading #media #ships #fandom #˖ ࣪⭑ mine

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just-1other-nerd · 8 months

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One trope that I have mad respect for you if you can pull it off is this:

Haha, they're bad at communicating

*later* Oh no, they're bad at communicating

I'm talking about Good Omens of course

#good omens #crowley #anthony j crowley #aziraphale #ineffable husbands #GOS2Spoilers #writing #tropes #relationship dynamics #character relationships #character dynamics #dynamics #writers on tumblr #neil gaiman #he is a genius for doing this and the execution is pefect but man does it hurt

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the-ellia-west · 4 months

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The Best Mentor/Student Dynamics

Stole the idea from @clever-naming-convention (This one's for you)

The classic Father/son - This one is a gem no matter the circumstance, a mentor character who is a parent or found family parent to their student, classic, fantastic.

The slightly less-known Mother/son - This one is where a traumatized little child has a nice mentor character who acts as a comforter and just generally a wonderful person who takes care of them and helps them. Like Father/son but more therapist-y

The One Brain cell - The mentor is no smarter than their student and they're both dumbasses. (Cue Anakin Skywalker and Ashoka Tano)

The I'm too tired for this shit - The mentor is the general, normal sophisticated coffee/tea drinker who is successful and all business, and then there's their apprentice who they love like their child but they also kind of hate them. The student is a living ball of energy and they incite several I need coffee moments in their mentor

The literally any student and a Drunk - This one is just kind of funny to me, because usually in this dynamic the student is the responsible one. Eventually the Mentor actually does something useful, but they're more on the emotional side of the plot instead of the actual fighting conflict side. Personally I like it better when they just stay a rat bastard.

#creative writing #fiction writing #writing community #writer things #writerscommunity #writers on tumblr #writeblr #writing #funny dynamics #character dynamics #relationship #character relationships #fun

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