Dude, I know you’ve had a lot of information enter through your eyes and ears over the last three days. But I hope you have a tiny sliver left! Because we have Aprilynne Pike–NYT bestselling author–here to give you some tips about creating new mythologies. Your way.

Creating Mythos: I’m Doing It MY Way!

I love my faerie mythos. I do. Perhaps that’s tooting my own horn, or blowing my own piccolo, or whatever, but I love that you will not find faeries quite like mine anywhere else. I call it twisting mythos; I’ve heard it called “a fresh take,” or “a new look,” but whatever you call it, there’s no doubt that—especially as fantasy gets more and more popular—readers and publishers are looking for it.

I admit, it’s not as easy as it looks. It seems simple. Faeries as sentient plants? Well, you could have thought of that. Vampires that sparkle in the sun? A lot of people think she shouldn’t have thought of that. Wolves that change with temperature rather than the phases of the moon? Once you read the reason why, that one makes sense too. But still, simple, fairly straightforward ideas. It seems easy enough, right?

Like any good aspect of writing, the easier it looks, the harder it probably was. Still, as I’ve created the mythos for the Wings series, my upcoming ghost book, and my simmering new series, I’ve come up with some guidelines for creating new mythos that will help your “new take” be effective, but not over the top.

1.) Give the reader something familiar to hold on to.

Wait! I thought we were doing something new and different!

Let me illustrate. I have a new creature. They are half fish, half human. Their legs turn into tails in the water. I’m calling them Werewolves.

Um, right.

No one’s going to buy that! As you are creating your new and unique mythology, ground it in tradition. I’ll use my series as an example. I have ethereal-looking beings, who live among nature, and grow wing-like appendages from their backs. You can see the basic definition of a faerie there. A reader likes to have something familiar to hold onto. Consider it like a safety bar on the mythos rollercoaster you are about to throw at them.

2.) Don’t Get Hokey.

Don’t accidently turn your creature into a farce. If you have goblins who grow flowers out of their toes and have sweet-smelling . . . um . . . gas . . . don’t worry about the plot! We’re all laughing our heads off too much to care!

I’m using Twilight as an example here, because the sparkleyness is something I often hear mocked. But it didn’t used to be. Back before Edward Cullen became a household name, people would talk about Twilight in a reasonable tone of voice. I often heard people comment about how they thought it was fascinating how she could make her vampires sparkle and have a perfectly reasonable explanation for it. Their skin is a rock-like substance. It has facets and reflects the sun. Of course!

Now if he sparkled and wore pink tights and a tutu, there would be no arguing that she had taken it too far. But in the beginning, people loved how much sense (and sexiness!!) the sparkles made!

She took an aspect of vampire lore that was grounded in tradition (vampires are often portrayed as nearly invincible—what better explanation for their rock-hard abs as that their skin is actually made of . . . well . . . rocks!) and gave it a spin that wasn’t too hard to swallow, or too laugh-producing.

If you ever get as popular as Stephenie Meyer, everyone will mock your mythos too, but till then, don’t make it easy on them.

3.) Be Boldly Logical.

This is the most important “rule,” in my opinion. When you are creating a new mythos, you have to be bold! You really have to change something! And not something small. Lots of people know how to change something small. That won’t make you stand out in a slushpile. Do something drastic. Take Shiver for example. Werewolves are nearly always associated with the phases of the moon.

So she throws that completely out.

Now it is all about the changing of the seasons. However, despite that great departure from tradition, we still recognized them as werewolves because they are humans who turn into wolves. And associating their change with the seasons instead of the moon is certainly not so mockable as to open herself up to giggles and guffaws. But most importantly, she gives a reason for it. A virus—much like the cold virus—that lays dormant in warm weather and activates when the air turns cold. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

Especially when you consider that having werewolves be the victims of viruses has been done before. And not just werewolves. And associating supernaturals with seasons has been done before. But rolling them all up into one package and calling it a werewolf, well, that’s Maggie’s creation.

Beyond those simple guidlines, the possibilities are endless! They say that there is nothing new under the sun, but there are always new combinations, fresh ways to tell the same story, different aspects to twist within supernatural mythos.

What we do know, though, is that the “same old, same old” isn’t cutting it for readers, agents, or editors anymore. And having an entirely new mythos is a great way to make your story command the attention it deserves!

Aprilynne Pike has been spinning faerie stories since she was a child with a hyper-active imagination. At the age of twenty she received her BA in Creative Writing from Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho. When not writing, Aprilynne can usually be found at the gym; she also enjoys singing, acting, reading, and working with pregnant moms as a childbirth educator and doula. Aprilynne recently returned to Arizona with her husband and three kids; she is enjoying the sunshine.