Are your characters superstitious?

[MintiLime]

Are your characters superstitious? I feel like not a lot of novels have the stupid little human things we do, like wearing lucky socks or eating three mints before a test.

(Unrelated, two mint tictacs and one piece of strong cinnamon gum, when crunched together, will make your mouth go numb- per, my high school self’s intrusive thoughts)

 

[HelloHound]

Sybil isn't superstitious but she does live in a fantasy world and spits out magic cubes so she's at least a little stitious

 

[Rhaps]

Charlotte doesn't believe in culture, not even mentioning superstitions. Then again, she jumps out of the window every oppotunity she get.

 

[RepresentingEnvy]

The reason my novel even started was that my character is superstitious.

 

[MintiLime]

Charlotte doesn't believe in culture, not even mentioning superstitions. Then again, she jumps out of the window every oppotunity she get.

It sounds like she’s the reason others are superstitious. Leave cookies outside and the window ghost won’t get you!

 

[TheMonotonePuppet]

Are your characters superstitious? I feel like not a lot of novels have the stupid little human things we do, like wearing lucky socks or eating three mints before a test.

(Unrelated, two mint tictacs and one piece of strong cinnamon gum, when crunched together, will make your mouth go numb- per, my high school self’s intrusive thoughts)

Aurum, the main character of a story not yet posted, is slightly superstitious. Before a fight, she will polish her suit a certain way, in a specific routine. If she doesn't do it in a specific way correctly, she has to halt whatever she does. If she fails to, she believes that she will lose the fight. She definitely believes incredibly firmly in death flags. And like everyone in both worlds, she knows for certain that Black Cats are terrible luck, however comical the chaos around them is. Her family believes that gold socks are the only possible things to wear for her fights. And Vanus is deathly superstitious of everything.
Thanks for asking this question! I would not have thought to add this bit of characterization until you asked it! This will add more to her; a nice little touch!

 

[MintiLime]

Aurum, the main character of a story not yet posted, is slightly superstitious. Before a fight, she will polish her suit a certain way, in a specific routine. If she doesn't do it in a specific way correctly, she has to halt whatever she does. If she fails to, she believes that she will lose the fight. She definitely believes incredibly firmly in death flags. And like everyone in both worlds, she knows for certain that Black Cats are terrible luck, however comical the chaos around them is.
Thanks for asking this question! I would not have thought to add this bit of characterization until you asked it! This will add more to her; a nice little touch!

Fun fact! Crossing paths with a black cat was originally good luck, as it signifies harm passing you by!!!! Or so I think. But I’m a cat owner

 

[J_Chemist]

Nop, but I'd think they'd find a few things spooky here and there. Having seen Gods and been to the Final Destination already, there's not much else to question.

 

[Alfir]

Crossing paths with a black cat was originally good luck, as it signifies harm passing you by!!!!

I think the same. Just yesterday, I passed by a black cat, and I was anxious. But after I stepped on shit (really big turd, the soft and mushy kind), my anxiety went away. Because the tragedy had already come, no more tragedy would follow. I just knew it.

 

[Saberfang]

Yup. In my world, a bunch weird esoteric things are happening all the time. So, people generally in my world tend to be a bit more superstitious. Since there are not really good or clear explanations to whats going on.

 

[AliceShiki]

I mean... If I am writing a fantasy story, 100% of the characters will be religious without a shred of doubt. They'll believe in some kind of deity and will worship said deity...

But superstitions? Like... Not in the sense of worshiping a deity but in the sense of believing on stuff like lucky socks? Uhn... I think it would need to be directly connected to the religion and/or culture of where they lived. If their religion and/or culture had some specific superstition, they would have it too, but otherwise, I don't think they'd have any superstition in particular.

For a story in a modern setting, I'm much more unsure... I think I'd probably still lean towards religious characters over non-religious characters, but I doubt I'd make them care about any superstition in particular.

 

[Paul_Tromba]

Absolutely. They deal with supernatural creatures and fae on the daily.

 

[SailusGebel]

Absolutely. They deal with supernatural creatures and fae on the daily.

But is it considered to be superstitious if supernatural creatures are real?

 

[Paul_Tromba]

But is it considered to be superstitious if supernatural creatures are real?

Maybe?

 

[SailusGebel]

Maybe?

From Wiki. A superstition is any belief or practice considered by non-practitioners to be irrational or supernatural, attributed to fate or magic, perceived supernatural influence, or fear of that which is unknown

Although there is supernatural in the name of the novel, if your MC know that it's not supernatural but natural, is it a superstition? Take black cat crossing your path for example. A normal person who believes that black cat crossing a path is an omen of bad luck considered superstitious. But if your MC knows that black cat ACTUALLY causes bad luck and so he believes in it, is he superstitious or is he normal?

 

[Major2501]

My characters are witches so. They're superstitious with what happens in their world, not the normal world really.

 

[melchi]

From Wiki. A superstition is any belief or practice considered by non-practitioners to be irrational or supernatural, attributed to fate or magic, perceived supernatural influence, or fear of that which is unknown

Although there is supernatural in the name of the novel, if your MC know that it's not supernatural but natural, is it a superstition? Take black cat crossing your path for example. A normal person who believes that black cat crossing a path is an omen of bad luck considered superstitious. But if your MC knows that black cat ACTUALLY causes bad luck and so he believes in it, is he superstitious or is he normal?

I think the key word is non practitioners. Superstition is entirely subjective.

 

[SailusGebel]

I think the key word is non practitioners. Superstition is entirely subjective.

So basically, Paul's MC won't consider himself superstitious. However, a random character from Paul's novel that doesn't know about supernatural things will call Paul's MC superstitious. Did I understand everything correctly?

 

[melchi]

So basically, Paul's MC won't consider himself superstitious. However, a random character from Paul's novel that doesn't know about supernatural things will call Paul's MC superstitious. Did I understand everything correctly?

I think that is right.

 

[SailusGebel]

I think that is right.

In that case Paul is right to call his characters superstitious. it's fascinating how things change once you look at them from a different perspective.