What’s mythic fiction, and the way can we write it?

Earlier this month, I shared a submit about methods to write mythic fiction, by which I mentioned the distinction between adapting inherited myths (i.e., simply retelling the previous symbolic tales again and again in “new” methods) versus creating our personal myths. My suggestion was that actually mythic fiction shouldn’t be merely a means of imitating epic buildings (such because the Hero’s Journey) and populating them with an inventory of character archetypes (i.e., Hero, Dragon, King, Mentor).

Relatively, mythic fiction is a generative inventive course of that arises from our deepest and most intimate journeys into the unknown wilds of creativeness and instinct—from the identical energetic authenticity and integrity that birthed the previous myths, fairy tales, and folks tales, which proceed to matter a lot to our tradition. Mythic fiction is one thing authors should uncover for themselves by means of the integrity of their very own inventive processes.

However how can we really entry that very same deep imaginative creativity? How can we write mythic fiction?

What Is Mythic Fiction?

Mythic fiction shouldn’t be fable itself, however it shares resonance with the previous myths in that each comprise truths that transcend factualness. Each talk within the language of creativeness—the imaginal language; the language of picture; the language of image, archetype, and form.

Not least as a result of the medium of story is itself mythic and archetypal, I imagine this mythic vitality is the true magic of story—it doesn’t matter what style you’re writing in. Though we could most simply consider “mythic fiction” as fantasy and magical realism, all style tales (resembling romance and thriller) are inherently archetypal and symbolic.

What Mythic Fiction Is Not

Mythic fiction captures a high quality that bypasses the viewers’s aware thoughts to talk on a deeper stage. Though archetypal symbols and story construction are actually a part of this, this mythic high quality shouldn’t be a method. It’s one thing we expertise as fact by means of our personal distinctive imaginal wanderings. It can’t be taught—though it may possibly, in a way, be discovered.

Mythic fiction can typically have a dreamy or otherworldly high quality about it; however it can be extraordinarily fashionable and plot-based. It isn’t outlined by voice, tone, or aesthetic. A narrative might be “mythcore” with out being mythic. Placing a dragon or a sorcerer in your story doesn’t make it mythic. Though speculative fiction typically lends itself to fable, each speculative story shouldn’t be mythic.

Though some mythic tales could also be very right-brained or clearly mythic of their motifs (resembling James Joyce’s Ulysses), this isn’t a requirement. The requirement is that the writer shouldn’t be telling the story a lot as the story is telling itself.

This doesn’t imply authors don’t make necessary technical decisions as a way to talk the story to their audiences. The profound talent of writing is that of one way or the other wrangling the wild genius of storytelling right into a format accessible sufficient to interact the consciousness of the left mind. That is no imply feat.

What Mythic Fiction Is

Mythic tales communicate truths even their authors could not have recognized they knew. They’re tales with the depth and capability to information—not by means of “morals” or agenda-driven plots, however by means of the inspiration of the deep visible creativeness.

To the diploma any story is resonant, it’s mythic.

Though many tales comprise mythic qualities and parts, examples would possibly embody all the pieces from Beloved to As soon as Upon within the West to The Highway. After all, we would come with Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, however we are able to additionally add in all the pieces from It’s a Fantastic Life to The Godfather to Secondhand Lions to Satisfaction & Prejudice. Erin Morgenstern’s The Evening Circus. Studio Ghibli. Early Pixar. Youngsters of Males. True Grit. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Groundhog Day. Depraved. 

If it strikes you—if it transcends one thing inside you—then it has touched that mythic high quality that lives in all of us.

The Misplaced Artwork of Mythmaking

All of storytelling is, to a point, an try at mythmaking. Though some tales are extra clearly profitable at reaching their mythic capability, all tales come up from that dreamplace of what if?—from the nook of the creativeness’s eye the place we catch sight of parallel realities and strangers who typically appear extra recognized to us than ourselves.

In a world that’s each more and more left-brained and an artwork type that’s more and more topic to conflation with the pressures of content material creation, it’s price trying again to our ancestors—to the shamans round their campfires and the medieval bards singing their tales—and each remembering and rediscovering how we could greatest keep the readability of our connection to the archetypal creativeness that’s our birthright.

We don’t want the previous tales retold yet another time. We want tales which have a residing, generative connection to deep mythic, lived, dreamed creativity. To that finish, listed here are seven practices you should utilize to maneuver your tales out of the formulation of “write what sells” and into the territory of mythmaking.

1. Observe Dreamzoning and Enter the Move State

The mythic high quality in fiction arises from the deep creativeness. It’s pure creativity. It’s our imaginations telling us tales.

That is the stream state, from which we are able to encourage pure and unfiltered right-brained creativity. Writers are accustomed to accessing this deep properly in many alternative methods—not least the tried and true daydreaming. Freewriting is one other—which is one cause so many writers choose discovery writing (or “pantsing”), by which the writing itself turns into a instrument for coming into the stream state.

My private favourite instrument for accessing and coming into this stream state is what I name “dreamzoning.” Dreamzoning is the observe of purposeful daydreaming. I’ll placed on some music and, when doable, gentle a fireplace or discover another visible to assist me zone out and float away.

As an outliner and a plotter, I like placing myself in an area the place creativity can occur by itself, with out my needing to put in writing it down but. For me, this feels prefer it creates much less work, since I have a tendency to put in writing cleaner copy that doesn’t require the identical quantity of revision as if I have been freewriting my inspiration (I do extra of my freewriting within the outlining section after I don’t have to fret about my prose making sense to others).

I’ve written extra concerning the particular observe of dreamzoning right here, and I’ve additionally created a sequence of Archetypal Character Guided Meditations for a extra structured method.

However actually, it doesn’t matter how you entry the state of inventive stream, simply that you just discover area by which to work together with the symbols and the characters that come to you, so you may watch them and really feel the resonance of what they’re doing.

There’s a distinction between “simply imagining” (i.e., roughly consciously fascinated with characters doing one thing attention-grabbing) versus accessing symbolism that feels private, with which means and depth behind it. For me, that second at all times comes with a definite bodily response, a surge in my photo voltaic plexus and a tightening in my chest. It’s like all the pieces inside me out of the blue involves consideration.

2. Clear the “Shoulds” That Block Archetypal Storytelling

For many people, and definitely most storytellers, this archetypal dreamspace is a pure habitat for us to hang around in. Typically studying how greatest to entry it’s largely about studying what could block it.

Not all of the voices a author hears are literally the voices of creativity and the muse. Among the loudest voices might be these shouting “shoulds” at us.

Eliminate the shoulds. Filter out the voices that aren’t, in truth, the voices of the story spirits. Clear the muddle of the voices telling you, “that is what it’s a must to do to put in writing a ebook that sells” or “someone else has already executed this concept” or “you’re not adequate.”

Giving an excessive amount of credence to the interior critic is often the heaviest block to the purity of no matter’s making an attempt to return by means of. This doesn’t imply that no matter is making an attempt to return by means of isn’t messy, however it does imply you’ll by no means discover the gold within the stream if you happen to pay attention too intently to the voice telling you “ought to” keep out of the mud.

3. Ask Questions As an alternative of Arriving With Solutions

Writing is such a specialised talent set as of late. Everybody tells us how a narrative is meant to look and the way we’re supposed to put in writing one—which, inevitably, can are likely to form not simply our completed merchandise however our desires themselves. As an alternative of coming into the mythic dreamspace with eyes and hearts extensive open, we are able to arrive with a preset container into which all the pieces is meant to neatly match.

Once I was a toddler, the dreamspace was my pure habitat. I didn’t arrive there with the agenda of acknowledging and harvesting solely what was helpful for my job as a author. It wasn’t even that I arrived there and waited patiently to be proven one thing. As an alternative, I knew myself to be an energetic participant and denizen of this dreamspace. I arrived to play in that area as a result of I was the story.

Nevertheless, it’s additionally price acknowledging that, nonetheless personally vivid and treasured my childhood ramblings within the dreamspace could have been, they weren’t essentially tales that might have communicated their energy to anybody however me.

The good problem and talent of being a mythic author is the flexibility to slide into the right-brain as a dreamer with creativeness extensive open after which come again out with items so lovely and clear they are often formed right into a communication others can acknowledge and take with them again into their very own dreamspaces.

4. Research the Deeper Form Beneath Story Construction

Though I’m making an attempt to not, I’ve inevitably been speaking about mythic fiction as whether it is one thing completely different from simply common previous fiction. Actually, what I imply by “mythic” fiction is “bloody good” fiction.” The surest path to writing deeply mythic fiction is to know the underlying form and construction of story itself—its pure motion, arc, and intent.

Insofar as you may write a narrative that basically, actually works, you’re virtually undoubtedly writing a narrative that faucets the frequency of mythic resonance.

Take a peek beneath all the trimmings that we affiliate with mythicness. Take a look at these previous tales or at any story that significantly strikes you. Pay attention to the form and construction that type these tales, upon which all of the characters dance their epic dance.

We so conflate the concept of story with the act of writing—with language and phrases—however in truth, story preexists language and phrases. We solely use the phrases as a metaphor in our try to elucidate what’s beneath.

Irrespective of how good we’re with phrases, our phrases are at all times a step behind the primal awesomeness of story itself.

5. Research the Tales That Create Mythic Resonance

Finding out the tales that create mythic resonance might be an entry level to your personal connection to that resonance. This isn’t a lot about learning precise myths or folks tales or studying symbolism or archetypal programs. It’s about learning your self. 

It’s about learning something that resonates with you—tales from any time. You’re searching for no matter creates a frisson of recognition. You’re trying past only a easy response of “that was entertaining” or “that was enjoyable” or your logical, mental thoughts’s interpretation of one thing.

You’re searching for tales that create a visceral pull. When that occurs, research it. Research the place and the way you’re feeling it in your physique. Research what’s evoking it. These experiences maintain a portal of inspiration. If you could find the doorway inside another person’s story, it may possibly lead you down the rabbit gap to what’s yours within the expertise as a way to, if you happen to select, deliver it forth and proceed the cycle.

Finding out tales, symbols, and archetypes can be useful in understanding and orienting what comes by means of in your personal inventive wanderings—in order that when one thing wild and sudden exhibits up, you will have a way of what it’s and the place it belongs inside the bigger context of story, dream, and fable.

I at all times consider the well-known line from Ender’s Sport by Orson Scott Card, by which Ender brilliantly wins a zero-gravity coaching train by taking management of his group and orienting them and their goalpost (the “gate”) inside the spacelessness of their surroundings. He instructs them:

The gate is down.

Precisely as a result of our most vivid story desires typically really feel like they’re coming by means of us quite than from us, it may be useful to have some preexisting archetypal catalogue by which to orient. In different phrases, to assist us know “the gate is down.”

Nowhere is that this extra true than when venturing into mythic shadows…

6. Be Fearless Sufficient to Enter the Shadows by Recognizing Mythic Fiction as Transformational and Initiatory

True myth-making is equally able to venturing into the shadows as it’s of rising with the solar. What makes it so highly effective and so therapeutic is its means to entry all the numerous states of being human.

Our forays into mythic territory will solely be as daring and as true as our personal braveness in going through no matter truths we’re proven. Creativity and catharsis go hand in hand.

There’s a sequence within the film King Arthur: Legend of the Sword that I’ve at all times felt superbly illustrates shadow work. In it, Arthur is unable to grasp the depth of repressed childhood recollections that flood again at any time when he grasps the fated sword Excalibur. He’s despatched to the Darklands to attempt to grasp himself, and when he returns, the mage asks him:

Mage: Did you look away? You wish to know why you continue to can’t use [the sword].

Arthur: Why don’t you inform me?

Mage: I believe you understand the reply. You’ll face it when it’s price it to you. Don’t get me flawed, I look away. All of us look away. However that’s the distinction between a person and a king.

Deep reference to one’s personal mythic interiors generally is a fearsome factor. If we embrace it totally, it may possibly take us wherever—however typically to get to the actually great things, now we have to be prepared to let it take us by means of Darklands first.

All people have the capability to entry this stage of storytelling (though the talent of the telling is its personal ceremony of passage). Nevertheless, I believe those that are really in service to it and are in a position to make it their life’s work by accessing it persistently are those that are prepared to observe wherever it takes them.

Archetype is initiation. It adjustments us. It burns us down and raises us again up.

7. Strategy Archetypal Storytelling With Humility and Duty

There must be a sure stage of humility in doing this work, particularly since we don’t at all times acknowledge the profound energy it carries. Though we often enter these realms as a playground—a spot to chill out and have enjoyable and maybe to heal—the imaginal realm is the gateway to probably the most highly effective interfaces of the human expertise. The work of the storyteller is magical work. As a part of that course of, there must be humility and respect for the archetypes themselves.

If nothing else, I don’t assume we are able to ever really perceive what we’re writing or precisely the way it will have an effect on others. It’s at all times doable to put in writing one thing that has the alternative of our supposed impact. To the diploma we’re too egoic or strive too arduous to manage what we’re making an attempt to do, we cannot solely make it much less highly effective and symbolic, but additionally probably extra dangerous.

Mythic fiction issues as a result of it faucets an aliveness that (sarcastically) transcends realism. At its strongest, it’s shared from the writer’s symbolic mind to the viewers’s in a means that feels much less like communication and extra like revelation. The magic in these tales does extra than simply entertain audiences or convey an thought; it touches us on a unconscious stage that will stick with us without end, even when we are able to by no means clarify simply why or how.

The one option to write tales of such dimensionality is to discover ways to “think about higher”—to discover ways to discover the mythic and symbolic pathways inside ourselves and the way greatest to channel them into tales that really feel sturdy and true on each stage—from our rawest inspiration all the best way right down to the best factors of approach.

Need Extra?

One of many causes I care so deeply about mythic fiction is as a result of I don’t imagine highly effective tales emerge simply from remoted craft methods. Really resonant tales really feel unified at each stage. In these tales, plot, character arc, theme, symbolism, setting, and emotional motion all belong to the identical deeper sample as a result of all the pieces connects.

That is why I created my class Alchemizing Plot, Character, and Theme, which I initially taught final yr as a part of the WorldShift Speculative Fiction Writers’ Summit and am now making obtainable independently by means of my Story College.

Though the category ventures into archetypal and philosophical territory, it’s an especially sensible dialogue about craft. We discover how plot, character, and theme operate not as remoted craft classes, however as interconnected expressions of the identical deeper narrative motion. We discuss why some tales really feel fragmented even when they’re structurally sound, how theme naturally emerges from character arc, how exterior plot motion mirrors interior transformation, and the way better cohesion creates better emotional resonance.

In some ways, the category is concerning the deeper structure beneath mythic storytelling—the connective tissue that enables tales to really feel significant, psychologically true, and creatively alive. If at this time’s submit resonated with you and also you need a extra concrete framework for methods to really assemble tales that honor these mythic ideas, this class was designed to assist writers do precisely that.

The category is pre-recorded and can premiere June 24, 2026, at 1PM EDT. I’ll be dwell within the chat through the displaying, with time afterward for freeform Q&A and dialogue. And if you happen to can’t attend dwell, the replay will stay obtainable in your account afterward.

You’ll be able to learn extra and register right here!

Wordplayers, inform me your opinions! What practices have helped you discover ways to write mythic fiction or entry deeper mythic storytelling in your personal work? Inform me within the feedback!

Click on the “Play” button to Hearken to Audio Model (or subscribe to the Serving to Writers Change into Authors podcast in Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, or Spotify).

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