Hobbies and leisure activities aren't just neat ways to give your characters something to do in-between plot beats -- they can also communicate a lot to the reader about the world you're building! Developing hobbies and entertainment in a world also touches on what that culture thinks about work, income, community, and many other components of society. Guest Matt Wallace joins us to discuss the opportunities presented by giving your characters the chance to play, craft, and just muck about with things!
How much of a hobby is devoted to pure pleasure? What changes when it's a side hustle that you monetize, or when it becomes competitive in some fashion? What does it mean when your characters have the money to spend on a hobby -- and who's providing them the goods and services they need for it? We explore these considerations and more as we pull apart what it means to kick back and relax in a fictional world.
[Transcript TK]
Our Guest: Matt Wallace is a Hugo Award winner and the author of the Sin du Jour series, the Savage Rebellion Trilogy, and the middle grade novels BUMP, THE SUPERVILLAIN’S GUIDE TO BEING A FAT KID, and NOWHERE SPECIAL. He’s also penned over one hundred short stories in addition to writing for film, television, and video games. In his youth he traveled the world as a professional wrestler and an unarmed combat and self-defense instructor before retiring to write full-time. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Nikki.
Episode 127: Expanding Worlds
Episode 126: When Worldbuilding Gets Wild, ft PREMEE MOHAMED
Episode 125: Monstrous Worldbuilding, ft. JOHN WISWELL
Episode 124: Worldbuilding in Review, ft. PAUL WEIMER
Episode 123: Worldbuilding in Your Underpants, ft. JOHN HARTNESS
Episode 122: Now Kiss: Building Romance into Your Worlds, ft. GWENDA BOND
Episode 121: Brave New Worlds, ft. FONDA LEE and MELISSA CARUSO
Episode 120: World Bibles and the Gospel According to Tolkien
Episode 119: Worldbuilding Philosophy and Practices
Episode 118: Passing the Torch
Episode 117: More Queries and Quandaries
Episode 116: Choosing, Presuming, and Decision Fatigue
Episode 115: When Not Writing Is Writing, ft. MUR LAFFERTY
Episode 114: The St Crispin’s Day Special, ft. ANNA SMITH SPARK
Episode 113: Trust Your Instincts, ft. SEANAN MCGUIRE
Episode 112: Whirlwind Worldbuilding ft. JAMES L. SUTTER
Episode 111: Let’s Pick a Fight: Balancing Realism and the Fantastical in Martial Matters, ft. S.L. HUANG
Episode 109: Seer-iously: Religion, Prophecy, Politics and Tradition, ft. APARNA VERMA
Episode 108: The Myth, The Legend, The Cultural Impacts, ft. EHIGBOR OKOSUN
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