March 10, 2025

March 2025

Well, it’s been a bit. I mean, the world is on fire, but I’m trying, for the sake of my mental health, not to dwell on things I don’t have control over. Hopefully you are all calling or writing your senators and reps if you can, marching when you can, doing whatever there is to support the people around you who need it.

This morning I posted a thread on Bluesky that many of you have probably seen, but I’ll copy it here anyway. It’s a topic that is on my mind generally, and for Writing Reasons has been on my mind even more lately.

As a SFF writer who is very interested in religion, in fiction and in real life: Any attempt to lay out rules or laws or even guidelines for "how to depict religion in fiction" has not thought the matter through, IMO. I took a basic drawing class and most of it was "look at the thing. No LOOK."

— Ann Leckie (@annleckie.com) 2025-03-10T14:21:06.006Z

"You've drawn it like you assume it looks but it doesn't. Look at where the lines actually go." There's a reason artists study anatomy. Not to learn rules, but so that they understand the thing they're depicting -where the lines and shadows really are--before they try to depict it.‬‬

Start by asking an anthropologist to define "religion." Then ask another one. Be prepared for a long discussion. Then look at the religious people and practices around you--closely. With as much sympathy and compassion as you can, but LOOK. How do THEY see their experience?

Beware of sweeping statements. "Well all Catholics..." "Well you see in this culture everyone..." Like building any character, you want to think about what THAT PERSON would do if they held to whatever practices and/or beliefs. Also beware of any declaration about what's "really" religion.

The closer you look, and the more you think about actual, individual people interacting with their world, the more likely your invented religion will seem realistic to readers. Any general framework you come up with to describe "Religion" let alone "rules" for building one, will fail.

***

That was the end of the thread, but I’d like to add—for Mithras’ sake, if you’re going to put a nun or a priest in your story, please try to maybe sit down and have a conversation with a few real-life nuns or priests. Like, not about religion as such (though that could be a fascinating conversation) but just to, like, have coffee and talk about stuff. The number of cardboard cutout nuns I’ve run across in stories make me grind my teeth.

It’s also important to remember that what we in the US assume is “religion” isn’t actually applicable to every other tradition in the world, let alone in history. Just reading up on actual practices in any part of the ancient world, or living traditions that are unfamiliar to you, will help you look at things more closely.

Incidentally, all of this applies even if you think religion is nothing but poison and you want your work to show how horrible it is. You’re going to get much farther talking about it as it is instead of a cliche cartoon.

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What I’ve been reading lately:

Friday the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry Kemelman

This is the first of a series of detective novels, written in the sixties. I read this when I was in high school and enjoyed it. I enjoyed it again! I read some of the sequels this time, too, which were also fun, though (mostly minor) aspects of them have…not aged well. But for the most part, these are nice enjoyable reads.

Point of Hopes: A Novel of Astreiant by Melissa Scott and Lisa Barnett

This is the first of a series that, I gather, was published some time ago (the first few volumes, at least) and is being re-issued. I’ve actually read more than just this one, but you should start here. They’re really enjoyable.

Bibliophobia by Sarah Chihaya

This is nonfiction, a sort of memoir. It deals with some upsetting stuff—the author, a former academic, begins by saying “It was the books that did it,” then talking about a breakdown she had, but it becomes clear as she goes on that it wasn’t a question of her loving books too well and unwisely, there were a lot of other things in the mix.

Possession by A.S. Byatt

This is a book that I’ve heard about over and over for years and it never sounded appealing. But it’s one of the books Chihaya talks about, and it was clear that she really, really loved it. This book is really, really good.

Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood

This is a…retelling? Engagement with? The Tempest. It’s pretty short, and quite fun.

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What I’ve been playing:

I had a brief Minecraft binge for a while, playing on a peaceful world my son set up for me on the machine where he keeps his own Minecraft server. (He, of course, plays with the difficulty settings turned all the way up. Both my kids are way better gamers than I am.)

And then No Man’s Sky had a huge update! If you haven’t No Man’s Skyed in a while, you really should give it a shot. They introduced fishing a couple of updates back, and now there are huge planets, and all-water planets with incredibly deep oceans, and what can I say, I’m nearly always here for fishing in a videogame.

Still on the Balatro train, and Farm Together 2 just keeps adding more and more cool details.

I was obsessed with Satisfactory for a while, but it got to the point where it needed way more careful calculation than I was willing to put into a relaxing game, but if it’s the kind of thing you like, I bet you would enjoy the heck out of it! I played nothing else for weeks while I was playing it.

That’s all the news for now. Stay well!

Ann