CREATING THE MYTHOLOGY FOR YOUR NOVEL

I see plenty of blogs about writing novels. Most of them deal with story and character. However, what a lot of people who haven't yet written their first screenplay or novel don't realize is there is a certain amount of research involved in creating. Fortunately for me, I have a journalistic background and love doing research.

When I wrote my novel about backward Satanic lyrics in Rock music, I had to do a lot of research about Rock bands who had 'allegedly' put hidden lyrics in their songs. Then from there, I had to come up with the rules of the game, or what I call the mythology, for my story: if you play the record backwards, a demon will be summoned from Hell who will have one night to trick you into killing in his name. If the demon succeeds, your soul goes to hell and he gets to take your place, here on earth, in your body.

Take for example writers who write vampire novels. Each one of these writers has to put their own spin on the mythology of the vampire. In "TWILIGHT," the vampires' skin sparkled when exposed to sunlight (a very different take than traditionally catching on fire and exploding).

When I wrote my novel about psychic spies during the Cold War, I not only had to research the time period, but also how the CIA operated in Europe back then and how remote viewing worked, as well as current events of the era. From there, I created the rules for my novel (i.e. world).

For the Young Adult novel I'm writing now THE MOONBEAM RIDER, I had to research Ufology. Fortunately for me, because of my bizarre fascination with the subject, I already knew a lot about it.

It was very important to me to use CLASSIC UFO folklore. The alien ships are SAUCER SHAPED, although they are huge flying cities. These crafts are called MOTHERSHIPS (once again a term straight out of UFO culture). The aliens are called the GRAYS. There are SMALL GRAYS with large bulbous heads and TALL GRAYS - the shot callers. Once again, this is straight out of common UFO mythology. 

The prologue for my story is based on the well known conspiracy theory that the NAZIS HAD SHOT DOWN A UFO DURING WORLD WAR II AND REVERSE-ENGINEERED THE ALIEN TECHNOLOGY. It is a fact that during WWII, German propulsion systems were more advanced than anything in the world. The Nazi scientists were so good that at the end of the world war, there was a race between America and the Soviet Union to find and acquire Nazi scientists. One Nazi scientist who was recruited by America, helped the U.S. win the space race. 

In my story, The Nazis force a captured African scientist - who has an IQ on par with Einstein's - to decipher the alien tech. The scientist turns the tables on the Nazis and escapes with his research.

In the present day of my novel, the aliens return. They wage war on our world and begin OCCUPYING different countries. They use human traitors known as COLLABORATORS - lured by the gift of shiny new bodies that do not wear out - to do most of the fighting for them. I wanted a modern day setting that had the look and feel of OCCUPIED EUROPE during its takeover by the Nazis. There are even detainment centers on the outskirts of the city, where people are sent and never return.

I also wanted the Grays to be a seldom seen presence, content to remain on their motherships and wreck havoc from above.

The Grays want our world for themselves. If they win, they will exterminate eighty percent of the human race and use the remaining twenty percent as slave labor, ruled over by the human collaborators who will serve as magistrates and sheriffs. 

That's the mythological basis for my upcoming novel. What will the basic be for yours? Will you find something from out of history, or create something entirely new?

Have fun creating your world.  

A Nazi built UFO.

The Fuhrer having a greet and meet with a Gray.