Wednesday, July 30th: Description and Significance

Today we have the last religious item in our descriptions. August’s theme will be different. I know religion is usually a topic avoided, but it is also a really good way to imbue significance into an item and to begin our world building. Whether that is a fantasy or more factual based world. Ao what are we looking at for our final day?

Today’s Religious Object: Headdress/headcovering

I debated the wording of that for a while. While Headdress can call to mind a very specific image and some of you may well thing that image has nothing to do with anything you would write, take a minute and expand it. Perhaps lean into the head covering. It can be a giant head dress. It could be a beaded scarf. It can be a plain white linen cloth. Think about the religion you are working with in your story (or the one you made up specifically for this exercise). Remember we are not only describing a physical item but we are looking at the significance beyond the physical.

Do the practitioners wear an undyed linen cloth to symbolize piety in church? Or do they remove a head scarf during a ritual as it is only worn outside the church/temple/consecrated space? Do all of them wear the scarf or only a few select few. Could someone who isn’t supposed to be wearing it offend someone by wearing it (or not wearing it if you want to flip it)?

Think not only in the presence of a specific headdress or head covering but in it’s absence. “Those other people wear elaborate golden and gem encrusted things but not use we…” or “Once we had beautiful ritual items like our headdresses but they were confiscated by a king, now we meet in secret and use…”

Play with not only he item itself but what it represents, how it came to be, the meaning now, the history of and how it is viewed. You can also contrast how it is viewed by the faithful of this faith versus those not of this faith. It can even be a visual representation of a schism between different divisions of this faith. From here we will shift into a non-religious based Wednesday writing topic so give this one your all. Dive deep into this religion and see what comes out. As always happy writing.