I want to create a story based on different cultures. Kind of like a fictional Civilization story. How do you create a culture/individuals to feel belong to a certain culture or a certain type of while not really being accurate? A good example I can think of what I mean is Avatar: the Last Airbander where Japan, china, Buddhist civilization and Eskimo/Polynesian where the fire nation, earth kingdom , wind temples and water tribes respectively. Also, the world did feel a bit like it is based on the Far East, but any times, same things could work in any setting going around that time not necessarily in Far Asia. That's exactly how I want to this. The question is How?
I would say just by researching and knowing about the cultures you'll borrow from or base your fictional civilization on. Take aspects of the culture or cultures that are relevant to your story and tweak them to fit your story. I don't think there are steps or guidelines that would be helpful here; you just have to get creative with it.
Take a look at a book called King of Ithaca. It's about greek mythology about Odysseus. definatley not fact but is based of cultures
There's a story told of Mozart, when he was teaching music students to make ends meet. A fifteen-year-old boy came to him and said, "Maestro, how do you compose a symphony? I want desperately to write a symphony - please teach me!" Mozart said, "You're too young to write a symphony." The boy said, "But Herr Mozart, you wrote a symphony when you were only twelve years old!" And Mozart said, "Yes, but I didn't have to ask how!" The point is, you're asking a huge question. It's the kind of question that takes most people an enormous amount of time and effort to find an answer to. The fact that you're asking how to write a story about different cultures/civilizations on this forum indicates to me that you're probably not ready yet to do it. The only answer I have is the same general answer that applies to the creation of all literary work: Educate yourself. Read lots - and I mean LOTS - of the best writing available. Travel - see parts of the world you haven't been to and experience cultures that are not your own. Write. Read. Think. Write.
it's done all the time... in both movies and novels... it's a major facet of 'world-building' when writing a fantasy set in a fictional environment... if you want to be a writer, you'll figure out how to do it, using research and study of similar works as reference, if needed... that's what writers do... ditto this wise mantra from minstrel: Read. Think. Write. Read. Think. Write. Read. Think. Write.
