Write Your Own Myth

Write Your Own Myths showcases 20 myths, legends, and folktales from many different periods and cultures, and uses them as springboards and prompts to help you write your own versions--or point you in directions you never thought you'd go. You'll learn about all the important aspects of creative writing: * Learn about beginnings from The Sword in the Stone. * Baba Yaga's chicken house will help you get those settings believable. * Odysseus will teach you about dialogue and Loki will help you with plot. Supported with beautiful illustrations that will get your imagination flowing, there are also glossaries, tips and tricks, extra prompts, and more information about each myth or legend. The final section is packed with even more ideas for further reading and discovery. So what are you waiting for? Pick up a pen, and get creative!

An introduction to the craft of myth-writing.

Riting Myth, Mythic Writing: Plotting Your Personal Story is a both a theoretical as well as interactive book on the nature of personal myth. Its intention is to offer participants who wish to explore further the terms and structure of their personal myth over 80 writing meditations that are spread throughout 9 chapters in order to guide the readers-writers on a pilgrimage into the deepest layers of their personal myth.

Designed for students who are interested in mythology or legends, this book provides tips and guidance on creative writing.

Myth and Creative Writing is a unique and practical guide to the arts of creative writing. It: Gives a historical perspective on the storyteller's art Takes a wide view of myth, to include: legends, folklore, biblical myth, classical myth, belief myths, balladry and song. Considers all aspects of the creative process, from conception to completion Provides tips on seeking inspiration from classical and mythic sources Shows how myths can be linked to contemporary concerns Enables beginning writers to tap into the deeper resonances of myth Guides students to further critical and creative resources A secret that all writers know is that they are part of a long tradition of storytelling - whether they call it mythic, intertextual, interactive or original. And in the pantheon of storytelling, myths (those stories that tell us, in often magical terms, how the world and the creatures in it came to be) are the bedrock, a source of unending inspiration. One can dress the study of literature in the finest critical clothing - or intellectualise it until the cows come home - but at its heart it is nothing more - and nothing less - than the study of the human instinct to tell stories, to order the world into patterns we can more readily understand. Exploring the mythic nature of writing (by considering where the connections between instinct and art are made, and where the writer is also seen as a mythic adventurer) is a way of finding close links to what it is we demand from literature, which is - again - something to do with the essences of human nature. Further, in the course of examining the nature of myth, Adrian May provides a very practical guide to the aspiring writer - whether in a formal course or working alone - on how to write stories (myths) of their own, from how to begin, how to develop and how to close.

Carrying baggage you don't need? When I was in college, I figured my life would come together around graduation. I’d meet a guy, have a beautiful wedding, and we'd buy a nice little house—not necessarily with a picket fence, but with whatever kind of fence we wanted. Whatever we decided, I would be happy. When I got out of college and my life didn’t look like that, I floundered, trying to get the life I had always dreamed of through career, travel, and relationships. But none of them satisfied me as I hoped. Like many twentysomethings, I tried to discover the life of my dreams, but instead I just kept accumulating baggage—school loans, electronics I couldn’t afford, hurt from broken relationships, and unmet expectations for what life was “supposed to be” like. Just when I had given up all hope of finding the “life I’d always dreamed about,” I decided to take a trip to all fifty states . . . because when you go on a trip, you can’t take your baggage. What I found was that “packing light” wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. This is the story of my trip and learning to live life with less baggage.

In this comprehensive study, Enrique Florescano traces the spread of the worship of the Plumed Serpent, and the multiplicity of interpretations that surround him, by comparing the Palenque inscriptions (ca. A.D. 690), the Vienna Codex (pre-Hispanic Conquest), the Historia de los Mexicanos (1531), the Popul Vuh (ca. 1554), and numerous other texts. He also consults and reproduces archeological evidence from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, demonstrating how the myth of Quetzalcoatl extends throughout Mesoamerica.

Donegal, 1976 When a dolphin takes up residence in Carrig Cove, Emer and her best friend, Fee, feel like they have an instant connection with it. Then Dog Cullen and his sidekick, Kit, turn up, and the four friends begin to sneak out at midnight to go down to the beach, daring each other to swim closer and closer to the creature . . . But the fame and fortune the dolphin brings to their small village builds resentment amongst their neighbours across the bay, and the summer days get longer and hotter . . . There is something wild and intense in the air. Love feels fierce, old hatreds fester, and suddenly everything feels worth fighting for. In this beautiful, epic coming-of-age novel, an old tale is rewoven as a stunning YA story by well-known Irish author/illustrator Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick.