You know, when I see fictional characters who repress all their emotions, they're usually aloof and very blunt about keeping people at a distance, sometimes to an edgy degree—but what I don't see nearly enough are the emotionally repressed characters who are just…mellow.

Think about it. In real life, the person that's bottling up all their emotions is not the one that's brooding in the corner and snaps at you for trying to befriend them. More often than not, it's that friendly person in your circle who makes easy conversation with you, laughs with you, and listens and gives advice whenever you're upset. But you never see them upset, in fact they seem to have endless patience for you and everything around them—and so you call them their friend, you trust them. And only after months of telling them all your secrets do you realize…

…they've never actually told you anything about themselves.

From the US but i spell grey with an e because e just feels like a much greyer letter than a

I love 'hero living long enough to become the villain', but oughhhh, 'villain living long enough to become the hero' is life altering. Also not just ending in some goddamn sacrifice. They've gotta legit LIVE with those actions. And holy fuck, if they end up caring for someone they previously traumatized and now have to bear being the thing that haunts their nightmares for years? OH, THE ANGST, TAKE ME NOW!!!

Hey, don’t cry. Free online database of Japanese folk lore

It is so annoying when authors try to make their characters seem tough by making them sleep deprived and then just having them "power through it" with no side effects besides feeling REALLY tired. Your characters had five hours of sleep over three days, they're not just "tired". They're forgetting shit. They're passing out at random moments. They're probably hallucinating. And they are certainly not going to win a fight when their reaction time is somewhere between "next Tuesday" and "never".

🍖 How to Build a Culture Without Just Inventing Spices and Necklaces

(a worldbuilding roast. with love.)

So. You’re building a fantasy world, and you’ve just invented:
→ Three types of ceremonial jewelry
→ A spice that tastes like cinnamon if it were bitter and cursed
→ A holiday where everyone wears gold and screams at dawn

Cute. But that’s not culture. That’s aesthetics.

And if your worldbuilding is all outfits, dances, and spice blends with vaguely mystical names, your story’s probably going to feel like a cosplay convention held inside a Pinterest board.

Here’s how to fix that—aka: how to build a real, functioning culture that shapes your story, not just its vibes.

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1. 🔗 Culture Is Built on Power, Not Just Style

Ask yourself:
→ Who’s in charge, and why?
→ Who has land? Who doesn’t?
→ What’s considered taboo, sacred, or punishable by death?

Culture is shaped by who gets to make the rules and who gets crushed by them. That’s where things like religion, family structure, class divisions, gender roles, and social expectations actually come from.

Start there. Not at the embroidery.

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2.🪓 Culture Comes From Conflict

Did this society evolve peacefully? Was it colonized? Did it colonize? Was it rebuilt after a war? Is it still in one?

→ What was destroyed and mythologized?
→ What do the survivors still whisper about?
→ What do children get taught in school that’s… suspiciously sanitized?

No culture is neutral. Every tradition has a history, and that history should taste like blood, loss, or propaganda.

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3.🧠 Belief Systems > Customs Lists

Sure, rituals and holidays are cool. But what do people believe about:
→ Death?
→ Love?
→ Time?
→ The natural world?
→ Justice?

Example: A society that believes time is cyclical vs. one that sees time as linear will approach everything—from prison sentences to grief—completely differently.

You don’t need to invent 80 gods. You need to know what those gods mean to the people who pray to them.

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4.🫀 Culture Controls Behavior (Quietly)

Culture shows up in:
→ What people apologize for
→ What insults cut deepest
→ What people are embarrassed about
→ What’s praised publicly vs. what’s hidden privately

For instance:
→ A culture obsessed with stoicism won’t say “I love you.” They’ll say “Have you eaten?”
→ A culture built on legacy might prioritize ancestor veneration, archival writing, name inheritance.

This stuff? Way more immersive than giving everyone matching earrings.

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5. 🏠 Culture = Daily Life, Not Just Festivals

Sure, your MC might attend a funeral where people paint their faces blue. But what about:
→ Breakfast routines?
→ How people greet each other on the street?
→ Who cooks, and who eats first?
→ What’s considered “clean” or “proper”?
→ How is parenting handled? Divorce?

Culture is what happens between plot points. It should shape your character’s assumptions, language, fears, and habits—whether or not a festival is going on.

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6. 💬 Let Your Characters Disagree With Their Own Culture

A culture isn’t a monolith.

Even in deeply traditional societies, people:
→ Rebel
→ Question
→ Break rules
→ Misinterpret laws
→ Mock sacred things
→ Act hypocritically
→ Weaponize or resist what’s expected

Let your characters wrestle with the culture around them. That’s where realism (and tension) lives.

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7.🧼 Beware the “Pretty = Good” Trap

Worldbuilding gets boring fast when:
→ The protagonist’s homeland is beautiful and pure
→ The enemy’s culture is dark and “barbaric”
→ Every detail just reinforces who the reader should like

You can—and should—challenge the aesthetic hierarchy.
→ Let ugly things be beloved.
→ Let beautiful things be corrupt.
→ Let your MC romanticize their culture and then get disillusioned by it later.

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📍 TL;DR (but like, spicy):
→ Culture is not food and jewelry.
→ Culture is power, fear, memory, contradiction.
→ Stop inventing spices until you know who starved last winter.
→ Let your world feel lived in, not curated.

The best cultural worldbuilding doesn’t look like a list.
It feels like a system. A pressure. A presence your characters can’t escape—even if they try.

Now go. Build something real. (You can add spices later.)

—rin t.
// writing advice for worldbuilders with rage and range
// thewriteadviceforwriters

Sometimes the problem isn’t your plot. It’s your first 5 pages. Fix it here → 🖤 Free eBook: 5 Opening Pages Mistakes to Stop Making:

🕯️ download the pack & write something cursed:

On Writing People Who Self-Sabotage

✧ burning down bridges, then complaining about isolation.

✧ procrastination, but make it existential.

✧ turning every opportunity into a test you’re doomed to fail.

✧ knowing exactly what would fix things and refusing to do it.

✧ saying “I don’t deserve this” until it becomes prophecy.

✧ mistaking chaos for control.

✧ pushing people away, then grieving the silence.

✧ calling it “honesty” when it’s just fear in disguise.

✧ needing to be right about your own brokenness.

✧ craving love but ducking every time it gets close.

✧ sabotaging good things before they can leave you first.

✧ perfectionism as slow self-destruction.

✧ the guilt hangover after every impulsive decision.

✧ healing, finally, and realizing how exhausting it was to fight yourself.

If I See ‘Eyes Like the Ocean’ Again, I’m Walking Into It 🌊

Eye descriptions should feel like they belong to the character, not like the author is reaching for a paint swatch. 

1. Anchor to the world around them.
◈ Instead of “her eyes were green like emeralds” (basic as hell), tie the color to something tactile, lived-in, or familiar.
◈ “Her eyes held the green of river moss, slick and stubborn, clinging to stone.”
◈ “His irises were the pale gray of storm clouds rolling in over the bay.”

2. Let mood dictate the shade.
◈ Don’t just say the color—show what the color feels like in context.
◈ “Brown, but not warm—the flat brown of soil long starved of rain.”
◈ “Blue, sharp as cracked ice under a boot.”

3. Avoid jewel comparisons unless they actually matter.
◈ Gems read cliché and are over used unless you want a comparison for a character that literally deals in wealth, nobility, or shine.
◈ Other wise, try and twist it: “Her eyes caught the light like cut glass, sharp enough to draw blood.”

4. Play with movement, not just color.
◈ Eyes aren’t static. They shift, reflect, hold. Describe the way the color behaves.
◈ “In the sun, his eyes seemed almost amber, restless as honey stirred with a spoon.”
◈ “Her gaze darkened until the blue looked like ink bleeding through paper.”

5. Use negative space.
◈ Sometimes it’s more striking to describe what the eyes do to others than the literal shade.
◈ “Whatever color they were, they left him unsettled. His gaze was too steady, too knowing.”
◈ “Her stare hollowed him out, color irrelevant beside the weight it carried.”