How long and in what style should creation myths be written?

Question

I'm writing a creation myth, and I'm wondering in what style and how long should it be. Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

I would suggest writing the myth in the style of the people/culture you are writing about. Have you studied myths from these people that you could follow using them as an example? Each culture has a distinct way of expressing itself, so look at some before deciding what to write.

The length of the myth varies according to how much detail you want to put into it and the lenght set by your teacher. Some myths are very short, just a part of the bigger story, and some detail the whole thing from the beginning of time, through the making of the landscape, rivers and mountains, to animals and finally to the creation of man.

Some Australian Aboriginal myths just explain how the sand got its colour or how a particular mountain was formed or why a bird flies. Then there are others that tell the entire story, but that would take pages and pages.

Happy story telling!

Answer 2

There needs to be a beginning, middle and end and there needs to be a hero. Creation Myths vary from a few short sentences to whole books. They are usually very flowery in their prose (wordy and descriptive) adding to the mysticism, so have fun- I would aim for about 5 pages after editing, so write enough for 7 pages and then edit out repetition.