Coyote Con: Creating a Religion
May. 9th, 2010 04:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
abracanabraEntire transcripts of CoyoteCon panels so far: http://coyotecon.com/transcripts/
One of the panelist's presentation written out in report form: http://wardancingpixie.blogspot.com/2010/05/coyotecon-presentation-rough-draft.html
Summary
You need to think about what you want religion to do to your world and your characters. Then you need to do a lot of research. Then you need to decide how much of that research should show.
Highlights
Religion in stories
[Rachael de Vienne] 1:10 pm: religion should further your story.
[Rachael de Vienne] 1:10 pm: not burden it
[MeredithHolmes] 1:10 pm: exactly
[Rachael de Vienne] 1:10 pm: There is no type of god or theological
system that you can imagine that hasn’t already existed. The models
of greed, fanaticism, selflessness and righteousness are best found in
religious history. A touch of historical realism will help you tell a more
convincing tale.
[MeredithHolmes] 1:11 pm: it shouldn't become a massive info dump but,
like was said yesterday in the writing non-christian characters panel, it should
be second nature to the author so that it doesn't seem so awkward in the
story
[Rachael de Vienne] 1:25 pm: the key is to be selective. it should further
the story or leave it out
[MeredithHolmes] 1:25 pm: exactly
[frasersherman] 1:26 pm: Absolutely!
[MeredithHolmes] 1:26 pm: while it may be fascinating, is it helping the
story?
[MeredithHolmes] 1:26 pm: or does it just make the reader skip ahead?
[I understand what they're saying here, but at the same time I do think that religion is an important aspect of worldbuilding. The "default to atheism" setting is in many ways an aspect of "white room syndrome" and can rob a world of richness. So can defaulting to one faith only.]
Variety in believers
[frasersherman] 1:29 pm: And there should be a variety of religious people--tr
ue believers, cynics, the wryly amused and the dour. It's not as if all believers
are stamped out of the same cloth.
Alien religion
[K.T. Hanna] 1:36 pm: If writing a scifi novel set completely off earth with
varied alien species, would you recommend still basing the religion on old
earth religions?
[Rachael de Vienne] 1:37 pm: for instance....in the mid 19th century
many thought of aboriginies as less than human in some way, less
developed and in need of rescue, oppression, and sympathy in turns
[...][Rachael de Vienne] 1:38 pm: that is essentially an alien reponse to
another culture
Resources
[Rachael de Vienne] 1:47 pm: oh ... good resource: lewis: encyclopedia of
the occult, 1924. there are more recent editions
Dead religion
[FrancesP] 1:50 pm: even when the religion is defunct, it can still be a huge
part of your worldbuilding. Andre Norton did fabulous things with ruins and
ancient, forgotten faith
[MeredithHolmes] 1:51 pm: That's an excellent point--not all religious
influence in fiction will be from thriving faiths. The older, defunct paths often
have a huge impact on the living ones.
[This reminded me a lot of the advice to remember, when worldbuilding, that you are not creating a new world. You are creating a world that has been around a while. There are ruins, and dead civilizations, and history, and lingering bits of folk wisdom...and dead religions.]
One of the panelist's presentation written out in report form: http://wardancingpixie.blogspot.com/2010/05/coyotecon-presentation-rough-draft.html
Summary
You need to think about what you want religion to do to your world and your characters. Then you need to do a lot of research. Then you need to decide how much of that research should show.
Highlights
Religion in stories
[Rachael de Vienne] 1:10 pm: religion should further your story.
[Rachael de Vienne] 1:10 pm: not burden it
[MeredithHolmes] 1:10 pm: exactly
[Rachael de Vienne] 1:10 pm: There is no type of god or theological
system that you can imagine that hasn’t already existed. The models
of greed, fanaticism, selflessness and righteousness are best found in
religious history. A touch of historical realism will help you tell a more
convincing tale.
[MeredithHolmes] 1:11 pm: it shouldn't become a massive info dump but,
like was said yesterday in the writing non-christian characters panel, it should
be second nature to the author so that it doesn't seem so awkward in the
story
[Rachael de Vienne] 1:25 pm: the key is to be selective. it should further
the story or leave it out
[MeredithHolmes] 1:25 pm: exactly
[frasersherman] 1:26 pm: Absolutely!
[MeredithHolmes] 1:26 pm: while it may be fascinating, is it helping the
story?
[MeredithHolmes] 1:26 pm: or does it just make the reader skip ahead?
[I understand what they're saying here, but at the same time I do think that religion is an important aspect of worldbuilding. The "default to atheism" setting is in many ways an aspect of "white room syndrome" and can rob a world of richness. So can defaulting to one faith only.]
Variety in believers
[frasersherman] 1:29 pm: And there should be a variety of religious people--tr
ue believers, cynics, the wryly amused and the dour. It's not as if all believers
are stamped out of the same cloth.
Alien religion
[K.T. Hanna] 1:36 pm: If writing a scifi novel set completely off earth with
varied alien species, would you recommend still basing the religion on old
earth religions?
[Rachael de Vienne] 1:37 pm: for instance....in the mid 19th century
many thought of aboriginies as less than human in some way, less
developed and in need of rescue, oppression, and sympathy in turns
[...][Rachael de Vienne] 1:38 pm: that is essentially an alien reponse to
another culture
Resources
[Rachael de Vienne] 1:47 pm: oh ... good resource: lewis: encyclopedia of
the occult, 1924. there are more recent editions
Dead religion
[FrancesP] 1:50 pm: even when the religion is defunct, it can still be a huge
part of your worldbuilding. Andre Norton did fabulous things with ruins and
ancient, forgotten faith
[MeredithHolmes] 1:51 pm: That's an excellent point--not all religious
influence in fiction will be from thriving faiths. The older, defunct paths often
have a huge impact on the living ones.
[This reminded me a lot of the advice to remember, when worldbuilding, that you are not creating a new world. You are creating a world that has been around a while. There are ruins, and dead civilizations, and history, and lingering bits of folk wisdom...and dead religions.]