Sometimes a new story in Berriboo doesn’t begin with a big event.
Sometimes it begins with a little jar.
This time, everything started with blueberry jam.
I had been thinking about adding another tradition to the world of Berriboo. Not something grand or particularly meaningful in the usual sense, but one of those strange little traditions that exists simply because everyone has always followed it.
And so Jam Day was born.
Every year, at the end of summer, everyone in Berriboo has to make jam.
Why?
Nobody remembers anymore.
And that is exactly what I love about it.
Berriboo has many things that don’t really need a logical explanation. There can be rules whose origins have long been forgotten, yet everyone continues to follow them simply because that is how things have always been.
On Jam Day, everyone makes their favorite recipes, photographs their jars, argues about whose jam is the best, and even writes about it in the Berriboo News.
And there is another tradition: everyone gives jars of jam to one another.
That gave me a chance to add a little more personality to each character.
Valentina, for example, loves making jam so much that she has an entire little Jam House.
Yes, a real house.
Inside are rows of jars: strawberry, raspberry, plum, apple, apricot…
And even mushroom jam.
Nobody understands why Valentina makes mushroom jam.
Valentina herself thinks it is wonderful.
Daniel likes experimenting and makes pineapple jam.
And Zina tries very hard every year.
Unfortunately, her jam has a habit of doing approximately the same thing every time.
It escapes.
This year, Zina got distracted for just one minute, and her jam escaped from the pot, leaving a sticky trail all the way to the door.
Zina was upset because she now had nothing to exchange with the other residents of Berriboo.
And this is where another small detail becomes important.
Blueberry jam.
It is Zina’s favorite.
So Valentina gives her a jar.
And Berry helps Zina find the right one inside the enormous Jam House.
For me, this little scene is not really about jam.
It is about how relationships between characters begin to grow inside a fictional world.
Valentina has her love for what she does.
Zina has a small recurring failure that seems to follow her every year.
Berry has her own preferences and personality.
And Berriboo gains another tradition that can be mentioned and developed in future stories.
This is how I like to build Berriboo.
Not by designing the entire world at once, but by allowing it to grow naturally.
First, there is a character.
Then a habit.
Then a small event.
Then a tradition.
And one day I realize that this little world already has a history of its own.
Even its own Jam Day.
And perhaps the most interesting question now is not why Berriboo has a Jam Day.
It is:
Where did Zina’s runaway jam go this year?
There is a sticky trail leading somewhere beyond the town.
Some say it went to the seaside.
In Berriboo, you can never be quite sure about jam.
