On my last post on page twenty I asked if anyone knew what separates a regular Fantasy story from a Mythopoeia Fantasy story?
But I wanted to ask more specifically what role does Mythology play in the Mythopeioc genre?
Do you copy the actual Myth, characters and all and just write it into your story, or do you make up characters to represent the characters and events in that specific myth story?
I'm sure not if I'm wording this right.

This is how Wikipedia describes Mythopoeia:Mythopoeia is also the act of making (creating) mythologies. Notable mythopoeic authors include Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, William Blake, H. P. Lovecraft, Lord Dunsany, Mervyn Peake and George MacDonald. While many literary works carry mythic themes, only a few approach the dense self-referentiality and purpose of mythopoeia. It is invented mythology that, rather than arising out of centuries of oral tradition, are penned over a short period of time by a single author or small group of collaborators.
As distinguished from fantasy worlds or fictional universes aimed at the evocation of detailed worlds with well-ordered histories, geographies, and laws of nature, mythopoeia aims at imitating and including real-world mythology, specifically created to bring mythology to modern readers, and/or to add credibility and literary depth to fictional worlds in fantasy or science fiction books and movies.
Mythopoeia are almost invariably created entirely by an individual, like the world of Middle-earth.

Also Thank you FencerforJesus and Silver the Wanderer for telling us about OneNote! I’ll have to figure out how it works, but it seems like a really good program! I didn’t even know I had it on my computer.
I currently have the program called Newnovelist2, which I really enjoy using as well.

Thanks for the advice and kind words, everyone. You've inspired me to make myself write some today!
I'll tell you how it goes, soon.

wow, today my writer's block suddenly lifted and I began to write the story I explained on the last page! it's coming out really well!

Your story sounds interesting Libby, I'd love to read it when you finish writing it
Writer's block is one of the most annoying things for me. I get it all the time. When I started my story I wrote the first four chapters really quickly and then came to a standstill for almost a year, I had the end of the story all planned out, but I was blank about the middle. Now I am suffering from lack of insperation. My poor heroine can't turn twenty and it's been the night before her twentieth birthday for almost a month.

^^ thanks!

yeah I hate getting stuck on parts that I think I have got down and then I blank or don't know how to write it!

I've got an idea for a poem about a warrior lady knocking around in my head, as well as an idea for a short story about two boys messing around with their great-great-grandfather's Civil War rifle and shooting a hole in the ceiling. I'm considering submitting the later one to the college magazine.

BOOK UPDATE!!!!!

I just heard from Lighthouse Christian Publishing. They have a light editing process taking place right now, which pretty much entails sentence structure, final spelling, and typos. I should get that back for approval in about three weeks. (They said about three weeks a week ago, so due to the length of my book, this is totally reasonable.) At that point, I will have whatever say I want for book cover, but since I am not artistic, I may not put in much to the design, just comment on what is given. But here is the best part.

They expect the book to be released for Amazon in two months, or sooner. That's before Christmas and well before I initially expected. My mom is ecstatic as she now has Christmas totally taken care of. I won't know more specifically until three more weeks have passed and I can confirm the editing done. I don't forsee any major issues, but there are some specific parts I am going to check where editing could change the desired tone. But I have few worries about that. So my book is coming and I can't wait to see what God does with it.

7chronicles, if I'm interpreting the information you posted correctly, I believe a Mythopoeia refers to myth that is entirely made up by one person. You're not borrowing from any pre-existing mythology, you're inventing it entirely on your own. For instance, the legends like the White Witch and the Pevensies and the four thrones are mythopoeia, because it is C.S. Lewis coming up with his own mythology for Narnia. Appearances and references to Pomona and Bacchus and the Maenads are not mythopoesis, because they are borrowed from Greek mythology and are not Lewis's own creation.

I hope I've worded that correctly, and it answers your question. I really don't know what you call a story if it has pieces of pre-existing mythologies woven into it, such as Lewis did with CoN. Would like to know if there's a word for that, actually.

Congratulations, FencerforJesus! That's so exciting! I can't believe they will have it ready for purchase so soon after accepting the contract. Keep us posted!!

@The Rose-Tree Dryad: Thank You! I couldn’t wrap my head around the overall Idea. You worded it perfectly, Thank You, it helps me out a lot!

@FencerforJesus: That was really quick!
I can’t wait to be able to go to Amazon and see it listed there!
I’m so exited for you!
If its not to much trouble, do you think maybe you could post the cover for your book here when you get it? I Love Book cover art!

I’ve been doing more thinking about my story then actually writing it, I’ve been trying to get the foundation of my world in order, but once I get a few things thought out about it I’m going back to writing.

Oh, I intend to post the book cover. I intend to do it before it is released, both on this thread and the books thread. I have to approve the cover, which at this point will likely be the biggest delay for the release if any.

As for laying the foundation, that is actually how I pretty much did it for a medieval novel I wrote before this one (it's not near consideration for publishing at this point, but I do plan to get back to it at some point. What I did was just start making a list of people, places, and the surrounding territories. I had no plot whatsoever, just a setting, a few characters, a few cities, and the like. I let the plot arise from that. It ended up being pretty impressive, especially for a first novel attempt. It does need a massive amount of editing, especially in my battle scenes, which ended being too technical. But that is a great idea for how to get started, especially if you are using a fantasy/fictional world.

Last night, when I should have been going to bed, I started a short story. And after I'd written a page, I thought I'd sleep on it, and try to figure out the plot.
I haven't gotten to far, but I'll try to finish it today.

Wow Fencer, that's fantastic news! That was really quick! I thought these things take years sometimes.

7chronicles, I LOVE world-building. Have you drawn a map? I made mine a long time ago, and it's been really helpful! I reference it whenever I forget the name of a city, to measure how far away one place is from another, etc. I also add information to it from time to time. Though, I have to go back to my map and change the landscape a bit to correspond to my book...some places have to be closer together in order for certain events to make sense.

Haha Elanor, I've been caught writing well after I've supposed to have gone to bed. But that's the thing about writing. Sometimes, when you really get inspired, it's so hard to stop! Why can't I get that kind of inspiration more often? Did you get any farther on your short story today?

7chronicles, I LOVE world-building. Have you drawn a map?

Yes! I have drawn my world map, the first time was in pencil, the second one I started at the beginning of this year. I was going to frame it and hang it up in my room when I was finished but unfortunately the more Ideas I think of for my story the more locations I add and things change, which means I have to start over again.
When I started my story two years ago I had a very clear idea where everything was and where my characters were from. I LOVE drawing maps!

I actually draw more for my story then write. I'll get a very strong picture in my head of a scene and I just have to draw it.
I’ve drawn portraits for all of my main characters, and I have been working on (for two years) a book full of all the creatures that inhabit my world.
Drawing something out really helps me describe something when writing.

Silver wrote
Haha Elanor, I've been caught writing well after I've supposed to have gone to bed. But that's the thing about writing. Sometimes, when you really get inspired, it's so hard to stop! Why can't I get that kind of inspiration more often? Did you get any farther on your short story today?

Yes, when you get that inspiration - you really can't stop!!! And if you do . . . sometimes it disappears. lol
Yes, I think I'm going to finish it today, this morning I lay cozy in bed and wrote quite a bit. I'm really excited about it!!

Silver the Wanderer, it often does take a long time. I've been working on this book for 3 1/2 years and it has paid off. Most publishers from what I understand usually take 6-9 months from the signing of a contract to the release of the book. But a lot of that is due to editing. Lighthouse doesn't take the time to do that and strongly suggests that you get the work to be 95-98% as close to publication standards as possible. The only editing that is needed to be done is final sentence structure and stuff like that. And I should get results from that back in 2 weeks or so. Then it is just a matter of cover design and a few other details before it is ready to go to Amazon. So Lighthouse has a much faster process time than many other publishers because they want the book ready before it comes to them.

I am going to start working on my sequel during my Winter Break because if this becomes a hit, there may be a strong request for a sequel soon. I'm not going to touch it now due to my homework load and due to getting this book ready to launch. I'm so excited about what God is going to do.

I finished my short story, and I'm recording it to the computer. I'm really excited about it, it's thrilling to write!! I was breathless as I scribbled it down as fast as I could.