Worldbuilding Wednesday: Prompt 4

Almost to the end of Nanowrimo!

Nanowrimo ends tomorrow! For those of you participating — how are you doing? How are you feeling? Me, I’ll be ending the month well short of 50k — but I’ll be over 30k, and I feel pretty good about that. If I can get back to a life where I average 1k a day, that means I can get something book-shaped in just a few months. So I’ll be calling it a win, even if the numbers don’t back me up! ;)

If you need some help getting across the finish line, here’s one last Worldbuilding Wednesday prompt to help you.

As always, these prompts aren’t necessarily meant to get you to scenes that will be included in a final manuscript. They’re explorations: ways to build out your world a little more, give your characters some challenges or opportunities, and perhaps find some new plot hooks along the way. What you discover through this writing might lead you to just the thing you needed to get your story to its next stage!

A public figure dies.
What are the death rituals? How much does your character have to be involved? Does anything else change because of this figure’s death?

Pick whatever sort of public figure you like — a politician, a member of a royal family, a celebrity, a sports star, a famous scholar. Just deciding what kinds of people are public figures in your world will say a lot about the type of society you’re building!

And then, what happens when one dies? Is there a period of public mourning, either officially or unofficially? What are the funeral traditions like? Honestly, just exploring what a culture believes about death and, if applicable, the afterlife will open up so much for your characters. And, of course, not everyone in your world needs to believe the same things.

What if the deceased is related to your character? How does that change your character’s role in observing their death?

What if they’re a head of state? Is there a plan for their death, or does it throw a nation into turmoil?

As always, if you end up using this prompt in your writing — whether for Nano or anything else — I’d love to hear about it! Leave me a comment and tell me what you discovered.