Writing Mythological
Stories for Children

chillibreeze writer — Gayathri Krishnan

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It is quite hard to define the word ‘myth’. But they are most commonly understood to be traditional stories passed around by word of mouth about how the world and humankind came to be. They might feature Gods and superhuman characters and talk of lofty tales, but they can also be about everyday matters such as how things came to be the way they are. They might be categorized into true stories or ‘myths’ and fictional stories or ‘fables’.

Legends and folk stories are closely related to myths but legends have kings or knights as characters and are related to later events, while folktales can be set against any backdrop in terms of time and any place. They are also not considered ‘sacred’ by the people that pass them on.

Myths interest everyone. Discourses replete with mythological stories charm the young and old alike. If you are interested in writing mythological stories for children, here are a few tips you can follow:

Read a lot
All ancient religions of our world have their own myths. Read as many as you can. For example ‘comparative mythology’ or the collections of worldwide myths will give you a suitable opening into world flavors.

Plan ahead of your writing
Are you going to write on a myth that already exists or are you planning on a story of your own? If you are going to be a myth writer and not an adapter, there are certain trends that are expected from you.

Include the essential elements
Remember to incorporate all the essential elements of a myth. There should be characters, plot, setting, conflict and a resolution. First of all, plan a hero character that could be a superhuman figure. S/he could be a goddess, a priest, a king or a queen or a brave bandit. These are just a few. There are many other ancient characters you can choose from.

Fix a key setting, where most of the important events take place, or where the hero dwells. It could be an enchanted lake, a deep mysterious cavern under the sea or the peak of a mountain.

There is always an object that the hero goes in search for or loses to the villain. This could be a magic ring or something equally precious, even the lady love he has seen just once. The myth will naturally dwell on the hero’s saga of recovery of the coveted object and of his adventures wherein he will accost monsters and fire spitting dragons or very arduous misadventures.

Moral of the story
Conflicts are important to myths. The story moves from one plot to another in the framework of conflicts. Myths always have a moral. Plan on a moral theme ahead and as you write your plot you might notice little bits of moral themes creeping in like ‘Justice will prevail’, ‘True love always wins’ or ‘Friendship never dies.’ Choose a theme that will be target oriented.

Include human emotions
Make sure your plot appeals to human emotions - something that the reader will be able to experience. For example, is the mythological story of how Lord Subramania left in a huff to the top of a hillock when he was deprived of the fruit of knowledge which was given to his elder brother Ganesha.

If you don’t want a typical mythological story with a heavy character, choose milder themes of creation. There are many plots to choose from, like

• How the sea turned salty
• How the cat got his tail or why the Tortoise lost his
• How the Mongoose became the Snake’s enemy

For creation myths, plan on a setting and a creative problem. Choose characters that will be able to solve these problems leading to changes in creation. For instance there is a myth in England about how a thief steals a salt making grinder from a king and rows away across the sea with it. He remembers the magical would that can make the grinder run but not the word that can make it stop. So the grinder grinds on and on till the boat sinks with the thief in it and the salt spills into the sea making it salty.

Choose a creation that you’re familiar with and observe everyday. The ancient storytellers were very familiar with nature and were able to concoct stories of their own. Find out as much as you can about the creation that you want to write a story about.

Make a draft and a myth map of your story
Run through the whole plot and check to see if there are gaps in between. A creation story must be myth-fantastic but must make sense within your framework.

Remember you are writing for children. Make the story as simple as possible and avoid words or themes that are coarse or gross for young consumption.

Pretend that you are not writing a tale but sitting in front of a warm fire, telling a tale. It suits the savor of mythology to a T.

 

Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in April, 2010. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.

 

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