Personal Variations

Often there are festivals that are different than how we expect them. It could be a different set up, different theme or even just a change of location that adjusts the entire festival. Something happens and now the rules, the format, or the expectations aren’t what they were. For example think about the Autumn Ball with the same name but different rules. I have bent the Autumn Ball a couple of times once I added magic, and once I spun it across the galaxy. These are both variations on the theme of the Autumn Ball, and each one builds off of the base in different ways. These variations may end up being insignificant as a new group leads the festival, minor as things shift to fit new cultures, ideas, or customs, major as the festival begins to change what it means and how it expresses that meaning, eventually the variations will fork a festival into a new one with the old left in the history books. Each one of these can come from various sources ranging from traveling distance, or the passage of time to new leaders and cultures taking the helm of the festival itself. No matter where the pressure comes from they change how the festival uses its weight, the ecosystem within it and possibly what the festival means. Each point we apply pressure to will change how the characters, and plot interact with the festival.

To start building up these variations one must have an understanding of where the pressure that will cause the variation to come from. I see that there are five categories of forces that will apply pressure onto a festival: distance, time, cultural changes, environmental changes, and leadership changes. Distance and time work in very similar ways for similar reasons. As the origin of the festival gets farther away, either in distance or into the past. What prompted the celebration will grow weaker, and often new things will come in to fill the space the entropy creates. Changes to culture and environment also operate similar, as this isn’t the same place, or same people meaning connections disconnect. New ones will need to be made to replace them, often to different things again putting pressure on the existing festival. Lastly there is the changing of leadership can have various effects as each leader will do different things, generally they will attempt to put their own emphasis or fingerprint on the festival.

With the sources of the variation outlined the next option is to go over the different magnitudes, I label them instances, minor, major, and forks. Instances is when things change, but nothing so deep that anything core to the festival changes meaningfully. Think of the differences in location to a wedding. The wedding is still the wedding no matter where it takes place. Instances technically don’t count as variants, as nothing substantive has changed. These are only really impactful to informal, or light weight festivals. The first real variation are the minor variations, perhaps to be called localizations, or editions, this is where the minor facets of the festival will change. Perhaps the ecosystem adjusts or the way it uses its weight will change. The next step up is the major variations the core of the festival starts to change. The core questions aren’t at risk, but the ecosystem and weight are starting to shift dramatically. Not enough that one will question ‘is this the same festival’ but enough that people will comment, often and loudly. Then there’s the final layer of variation, the fork. This is when it has gone far enough that people will ask ‘is this the same festival’ and have a point. The core questions we outlined in the first week are now changing, if the festival keeps the name it shouldn’t be the same thing, otherwise it should have the previous festival in its history.

With the outline sketched it’s time to step through the details. Distance from the center of the festival will weaken it, see the outline in Interstellar Festivals, now how exactly this works will vary from festival to festival. The closer to where it began, the stronger the roots will be. The heavier the festival the less distance will affect it, however it will still be affected. Generally this leads to minor variations, as the festival gets localized to its new area. Yet it can go so far as to fork the entire festival if enough distance is involved. Time can implement a lot of changes from the fact things change as time goes on. Perhaps an obvious statement, yet one worth taking as documents get updated, doctrine gets translated, and new technologies make old traditions not as important. Each and every one may be a connection broken or a variation induced. Much like with distance from the festivals center this too will generally cause minor changes until enough build up and a whole new festival is born. Cultural changes may follow the same scale as time itself, however they are much more predictable, and often more powerful. Does the culture now see something new in the festival, or does it now want to cut something from the festival? Both will adjust in minor ways, yet with a strong enough cultural change the entire festival can be rewritten overnight. Environmental changes are often the most overlooked. As worldbuilders tend to create festivals for the areas that they are working in, in that area. Meaning a festival will never end up outside of its ‘home environment’ yet when coupled with distance or time we the festival will end up outside of where it started. This may also be worth thinking about the man made environments as well. A spring planting festival now aboard a star ship, with no fields, and no crops. How that gets resolved will cause minor or major variations, usually without forking the festival however anything is possible. Lastly leadership which falls into the most extreme of our levers. As leadership will either create an instance of the festival where just enough changes to fit the leader’s desires or they will bend the festival so far it breaks forking a new festival off with their decisions.

Each one of these likewise affects the way the story can use the festival. One displaced in time or space may have undercurrents of things not being the way they were, or they way they should be. With different characters having varied opinions on what is the correct way of doing things. Cultural changes often come with a clash between the festival before the festival changes itself. This delayed reaction by the festival can lead to many touch points across the culture and those within the culture. Giving a story teller functionally two versions of the festival layered over top one another to work with. Environmental changes often lead to vestigial pieces of the festival. Which can lead to characters either expecting or not expecting things as different parts of the community ignore these left over portions of the festival. Each decision around these vestigial parts will impact the characters and the stories they are involved in. A large enough environmental change may lead some characters to question “Why do we still do this festival?”. Lastly leadership can have the most story tied to it, characters can now be in charge of the festival, have problems with the leader of the festival, want to become the leader of the festival, planning their own instance of a festival; the permutations on that theme are endless. Regardless of how the characters interact with the leadership changing in or around a festival it will be one of the things that stories are made of and will continue to be made of. Each and every one of the decisions made by characters and the leaders of the festivals will impact the entire thing. Characters may inadvertently make changes they won’t realize the impact of until it is far too late. With drama and tension growing the longer it takes them to realize what it is that has happened.

I would advise most worldbuilders to create the ‘template’ festival, and then when they go to tell stories create either an instance, or a minor variant of the template. The template of the festival will give everything that is needed to ensure that the history, expectations, structures and the likes will be found, maintained and managed as time goes on. Thinking about the differences between the example and the reality will be what drives the story. What characters expect and what happens will challenge the character, and build tension and plot will feel more connected to the world, and the story is grounded in the world. With each of these will continue the cycle of reinforcing the world, which then backs up the story. This adds the verisimilitude which in turn builds a better story.

To build off of our month long example. The Autumn Ball, lets say our love birds go through the festival the first time, get their feet under them, then in the second round though there’s new leaders and as such things are a little different, maybe the big twist is these two are now part of the leadership, meaning they are making changes and these changes cause friction between them and other characters in the story. The third run though they are now in charge of the whole thing, and they now have to deal with not only the most important role in the Ball’s ecosystem but the weight of the festival acting directly on them with each of their roles forcing the two to make decisions they may not want to make. Perhaps with the two in charge they move the ball from a minor variation or instance into something else, evolving it with a major variation.

Each of these variations will change the way our characters work their way though the festival and will provide new challenges. This works to both give the characters new challenges and to give the reader new insights into the characters. Likewise keeping but changing the festival each time we see it is how we can keep the same landmarks for a year without it feeling stale. Now the use case for this may be limited, yet it’s useful for anyone looking to reuse a festival. More practically this is something more useful for someone looking to use a festival from reality. This will make festivals feel like real events rather than a rehashing of someone’s memory.

Now the line between a major, minor, and when to use one over the other is an exercise best left for the individual story. As I have said before and will continue to say there is a science to this art, everyone needs to ensure that they have the best use of the worlds they create this often ends up. To that end I find it easier to add variation to the festival then to bring it back in line as I am writing. This lets me show off the standard rather than worrying about how do I show how different this is from the base when this is the first time I’ve shown the festival.

Thus we conclude this month’s theme of festivals, we’ve outlined them, populated their ecosystems, measured their weights and power, and now started to build variations within them. Variations driven by the pressures that work on the festivals from the weathering of time to the leadership of bridezilla, each one will bend the festival away from standard, possibly creating a new festival along the way. Understanding these pressure points allows festivals to feel like festivals and become way-stones in our fictional worlds, anchoring space and time as each academic year we revisit the Autumn Ball it’s never the same event nor the same plot points. These changes allow for the audience to get excited for the festival, while not knowing what exactly to expect each time through it. With all of my thoughts and tools on the topic of festivals, complete I will be putting the magnifying glass on our two love birds for February.

See you next week.

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