One of the biggest problems I find between 'original' myth and stories based on pre-existing myth is that it can be difficult to write totally original stories without them being fantasy or some other type of weird A/U...style...stuff.

Which is why, basically, I don't bother trying to write 'new' creation stories and things -- it's not an effort thing, it's an interest thing.

This forum is entitled "STORIES BASED ON MYTHOLOGY" so I am assuming, rightly or not, that your interest isn't necessarily trying to create your own universe and writing its mythology from scratch.

Take for example Greek mythology, which I wouldn't claim to be an expert in, but my knowledge base is not poorly sized. Like, there are HUNDREDS of different stories these people tell about their gods and the way their world was created, and the thing is that this world that is revealed through their myths has been created over hundreds of years and has been crafted by a geological landscape, the hardships that a collective people have to go through, etc. and I find it unbelievable that anybody -- especially somebody writing for this site, who is more often than not an amateur -- has enough maturity, enough knowledge and enough pathos to create a similar world.

ANYWAY.

One of the best places to start with a story based on mythology is to take the most well-known myth you can think of from a given culture, especially when you know very little about the mythology in the first place. So say we're talking...uhm, Hades and Persephone. The good thing about mythology is that you do have your characters cut out for you, and in a way rewriting a myth is a little like writing fanfiction. The only difference is, you really can do almost anything you want with your characters as long as they follow the story you're trying to tell. I mean, Persephone can be a ditz or she can be a calculative and intelligent woman, or anything else you want to make her, but she still has to eat six pomegranate seeds and end up staying six months in the Underworld.

Does that make sense?

I agree completely. You can never come up with something completely original in fiction because fiction is a representation of society. At best, a work will be a patch-up of mythology or some rendition of it in a preexisting story, and some sort of ordered societal discourse and random ideas from the author.

And this is actually a good thing! Look at all the popular books out there today. Are they not following some preexisting formula?

There, of course, are some exceptions. Logically, there would be some exceptions, but I'm hungry right now and can't think of any.

If you look at the old stories from Greek myth you will find that each originate from different authors over the course of hundreds of years.

I think it is better to expand myth not just turn hades and persephone into a modern angst love-hate story. for example, when Rome was in need of its own cultural identity, Livy took Aeneas, who was mentioned in the Iliad as someone who would become ruler of the Trojans after the war, and expanded him into a heroic founder of Latium and ancestor to Caesar.

Like wise, the early British authors tied a Welsh legend to Aeneas. Brutus was supposedly a grandson of Aeneas who found the kingdom of Britain and is an ancestor to King Arthur and Henry VIII.

When writing Mythological fiction, I think it is best to expand the greater mythos. Tie it into the myths of other cultures and kingdoms.

Totally agree. Part of the reason for that is the fact that in the world of mythology everything is intertwined, and if you're going to write good mythological fiction you've got to mirror that.

Well... there's this myth I made up about a dirt road that the the Spanish found on Puerto Rico, but do not know how it got there. Not even the Taino indians knew either... so I thought this up:

One day, there was a battle between the mountain god, Yukiyu, and the hurricane god, Juracan. Their battle was taking place, as always, in the jungles of El Yunque rainforest. However, Yukiyu could not reach Juracan, for he was up in the sky, and he floated around until he settled down somewhere deep in the jungle, where not even Yukiyu could see or trace him again.

So, in order to find him more easily, Yukiyu cleared away a great straight path that led from the deepest part of the forest to the very edge of it. Then, he took a great, sharp rock, flintered it with wood, and started to peel away at the grass that was underneath the trees. Then, once the road was done, he created ditches and little dikes that ran off the road, and rode out Juracan's rain and his power, and soon, Yukiyu flushed him out, forcing him to once again leave the island.

Well, whatcha think of that?

um, this is just to explain how a raod was made? Kind of over the top isn't it?

Well, sure, I mean if it's a road that nobody knows how it came about.

The trick, in my opinion, is really not to start with a completely original myth. In my story, I have a language, religion, set of myths and gods that completely came out of my own head, but they didn't start there.

I actually started with a little help from J.R.R. Tolkien. I know he didn't write mythology, but it was really close to it. In a way, it's easier to take an idea from someone else, then let it fester. And I mean that in a good way. A myth is like aged wine: it takes a long time to get good.

I have been working on my mythology for three, maybe four years now, and I didn't start completely from scratch. I just realized that I needed these things for my story to be complete and have one of the characters make a whole lot more sense.

You could also take an obscure myth and make it yours. Tweak it a bit and change things around.

That's just my advice. You don't have to follow it, but it just might make it a bit easier to deal with and take on.

Good luck,

~Ayaerhis

I velieve that you can make a myth and have a really good, believable story fro it. I made a myth and shared it with my class and they believed the place and the myth was real the way I told it.

I believe in order to make a myth, you should have a story to it, ahve soconsequences for if someone were to amke tit come ral.. it's a bit hard to do but once done, it could be veyr good.

i usually find this to be untrue. i am constantly creating my own and origional work not based on greek or roman mythology. but i also go throught and make sure not to. besides not all mythology is greek and roman. in fact i really dont like greek or roman myths. i find them to be boring and in some case pointless. all mmy writing about myths are purely origional and have no greek influances. and in this way i am differnt. so please dont go assuming that it is impossible todo because i do it just about every day.

I totally agree with you racato... you said basically what I think!

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Topic: Fiction VS FanFiction

It would be much easier if you consider making a FanFic. You could rotate the character, like for some instance, Venus/ Aphrodite is not a laughter-loving Goddess of Love and Beauty, but a sorrowful mistress or that Hades is some sort of a ** . . . you know, those things. Like parody. But it's FictionPress and you can also produce a myth that is purely your own. But generally, I opt for FanFiction better.

Okay, it's me again. A little bit older, a little bit wiser.

Having read further posts, I find that there are many who come up with their own mythology and work a world around it. Another post stated that many myths tie into one another and form a sort of intercultural web. One cannot form a myth in the existing world without some extensive research into the existing material. In the last year or so, I've done a great deal of this. My own have a sort of mirror image in sections of them, but they also manage to tie into others in subtle ways. They'll be posted soon for viewing, so check them out.

~Ciao, Ayaerhis

Mythologies are cool and they make you think. It can get mysterious and deep. I don't know if I'm older and bit wiser though :)

Yes, you would have to do research and everything else to get your facts right without 1/2 the population flaming you that it's a great story with twisted facts.

I think Bloodflower has a great point in saying that "Persephony can be a ditz or intellecutal, but she still has to eat six sees and spend six months in the underworld." If you're writing based on old mythology then you need to keep some "common knowledge" things accurate. I wouldn't do anything that would make anyone say "that's not how the story goes." But you could have the whole deal with Hades/Persephone happen, and then turn the aftermath in to a potentially hilarious and twisted love story.

If you create your own mythology I think that you're just writing fantasy, or childrens novels... and if you're not approaching it as such, it can end up being really campy - like Lady in the Water campy (shudder). If you're going to come up with a mythology for the creation of a "mysterious, inexplainable road" or the like, I think it would be better for characters in the story (like the indians you discussed, or some crazy old person) speak of it. That way the reader as well as the characters can choose to take heed from the statement. I think when you attempt to introduce a myth that's your own as the book concept, you make it harder to suspend disbelief.

I dunno about that. In the Inheritance Trilogy (i.e. Eragon and Eldest), by Christopher Paolini, he actually bases a lot of his fictitious languages on Celtic languages, etc. For example (and I wish this keypad would keep up with my typing), he establishes "argetlam" as meaning Silver Hand. Well, guess what it means in Celtic. There's a couple of heroes named Argetlam in Celtic mythology. Just read that today in a book on Celtic mythology at a historical library.

Actually, on second thought I think I should have said that I agree with the idea that you can't create a new world *and* suspend complete disbelief. Although Edgar Rice Burroughs and Isaac Asimov and Andre Norton make a darned good attempt.