How can anthropology — the study of human cultures — teach us to build richer and more convincing worlds for our stories? What questions do we need to ask of our characters and settings to bring them alive? Michael Kilman talks about how anthropology can help with world-building in this episode.
In the intro, the late Sue Grafton's books licensed for film and TV even though she stated otherwise before she died [
BookRiot]; Tina Turner sells IP rights [
The Guardian];
Estate planning for authors;
NaNoWriMo Storybundle; Pics from my St Cuthbert's Way walk on
Instagram and
Facebook; Relaxed Author interviews –
6 Figure Author and
becoming-a-relaxed-author.html">The Indy Author; Focus on your strengths [
Ask ALLi]
Today's show is sponsored by IngramSpark, which I use to print and distribute my print-on-demand books to 39,000+ retailers including independent bookstores, schools and universities, libraries and more. It's your content – do more with it through
IngramSpark.com.
Michael Kilman is an anthropologist, filmmaker, artist, science fiction author, and musician. Today we're talking about
Build Better Worlds: An Introduction to Anthropology for Game Designers, Fiction Writers, and Filmmakers, co-written with Kyra Wellstrom.
You can listen above or on
your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below.
Show Notes
* How knowing even a little bit about anthropology can support fictional world-building* How artifacts reflect what matters to a society* Important features of urban anthropology* Cautions about info-dumping when describing a world you’ve built* Thinking of cultures in terms of how the pieces work together to form a cohesive whole* Writing about different cultures without straying into cultural appropriation
You can find Michael Kilman at
LoridiansLaboratory.com and on Twitter @LoridiansLab
Transcript of the Interview with Michael Kilman
Joanna: Michael Kilman is an anthropologist, filmmaker, artist,