How To Create Your Own Modern Myth

These last few decades, money and agendas have corrupted our modern mythology.

Eventually, these stories will die and more must take their place. A sad reality but it is what it is. As a creative writer, you have a rare opportunity to help create the next modern mythology.

I’m not talking about an expansive living world like Runeterra, but I will get to that, I’m talking about stories that inspire others.

Worlds that can be adapted multiple times, that have a deep and lasting impact on culture and fiction.

TMNT, folktales, and the 3 we’re focusing on today; Lord of The Rings, DC/Marvel, and the Cthulhu Mythos.

Here’s how to create your own modern mythology, using these 3 as inspiration.

The Lord of The Rings Way

The Lord of The Rings was made to be a mythology and it took elements from folklore and revolutionized them.

Elves, dwarves, orcs, etc all came from older myths and folktales.

Lord of The Rings didn’t become modern mythology through that alone. It took creativity, excellent writing, and more to get to that spot.

But having these timeless elements helped it become timeless itself. People took inspiration from Tolkien’s elves and dwarves without infringing on copyright.

This spreads the old mythology and the new one to modern audiences. New stories are born and then grow from this, a symbiotic relationship.

Even Disney did something similar with films like Little Mermaid(animated) and Snow White.

So you can do the same.

Take timeless fairy tales or mythologies and revolutionize them in your unique story.

The Lord of The Rings way is to use what’s already timeless to enhance your world.

Next, we have DC and Marvel.

The Marvel/DC Way

The way Marvel/DC did it is like Runaterra and other living worlds.

They start out with something simple, refine the foundations and expand the lore. Many writers add on to the base which builds into something unique and expansive.

A living and constantly growing world that offers a lot to readers and writers alike.

The biggest problem with this is the inevitable decay. Money might tempt you to keep this universe running as is forever but that will lead to disaster.

Characters lose who they are, events become meaningless & the world grows bloated. Eventually, wonderful stories turn stale and disrespectful to the foundation.

The 2 best ways to avoid this are:

• Plan an End Point: Have an endpoint in mind for your mythology, something like a Ragnarok. After that, it can focus on inspiring others instead continuing itself.

• Keep it Simple and Keep Track: Don’t let your mythology get so complex that it needs a crisis event. Keep track of who your characters are and the important events. Be consistent and make it required reading for future writers.

You should do this regardless but if you plan to run your story for a long time, you need to do this.

The Marvel/DC way is to create a large living world for readers to get lost in and writers to add to. One day, I plan to try this with a series of fan fics. Combining many stories into one consistent and believable world.

Let’s end it with the Cthulhu Mythos, the natural endpoint of all mythologies.

The Lovecraft Way

Like Lord of The Rings, these stories build a mythology but the difference is the amazing creativity and public domain.

I don’t think there was anything like Lovecraft’s work before he did it. He made his own genre of horror and unique creatures. You need a great(or troubled) imagination to do what he did.

But that’s not what makes this the natural endpoint for mythologies. Every story will eventually go into the public domain, despite Disney’s best efforts.

When it does, that is when it can truly inspire and help create new works of “fiction”.

There are so many games, movies, visual novels, and more that take from the Cthulhu Mythos.

Just a few include:

• Extinction

• Void

• Demonbane

• Broken Reality RPG

• Call of Cthulhu

• Many Creepypasta

The Lovecraft way is to create a unique expansive world and give it to your loving audience to expand further.

Your original work will always be the OG canon, but now there are more stories to share in the fun.

Conclusion

No matter what method you choose you'll need time, discipline, and creativity to make it work.

This is a task worthy of dedicating your life to but the rewards are immense.

Not every story needs to be mythology, some shouldn’t be. But if you want to help the next generation of modern mythologies, then I hope this helps.

Tell me what you think below and if you’ve decided to create your own mythology. Feel free to comment and share your unique works of “fiction”.

With that, I’m done.