#InspirationEverywhere - Creating and using holidays

This weekend is Labor Day, a wonderful holiday in the United States that celebrates working people. And the best way to celebrate workers is to let us all have a three day weekend while there is still summer in the air! I’ll be spending this weekend in Madison, Wisconsin, and while I’m looking forward to celebrating with friends, kayaking, and eating a ton of cheese, it’s also a chance to find inspiration.

Not only will swimming and grilling be great chances to take notes on events like that for your book (if you have any) it’s a good time to examine holidays in your story. Is your novel set in the present day? What holidays will fall during the story line? How will different characters celebrate them? Or do you have a moody character who will refuse? Perhaps you’re writing a fantasy story, where all the holidays are ones you have to create. In the Sarah J. Maas series A Court of Thorns and Roses, a spring ceremony is a defining event in the series, kicking off both a steamy romance and key plot points.

Regardless of where or when your story takes place, holidays are events that all cultures and peoples have. If you’re searching for a setting for a defining event, consider creating or utilizing a national or religious holiday. It adds to your world building and can be the perfect backdrop for a dramatic scene.

I plan on creating a national holiday for the second book in my series. This day will commemorate the end of the Great Nuclear War. It moves my plot forward, but will also help readers connect more with my world and the characters! Rather than give a lengthy history lesson on the war, what happened, who won, etc, I’ll use this made up holiday as a colorful and engaging way of filling in my readers.

Are you already using holidays in your story? What ones? And are they real or made up? Let me know here or on Instagram, and have a great holiday weekend!