Creating a new world in our own.

[logansrogue]

I love writing my own story. There's something very thrilling about carving out an adventure and a world entirely from your own mind - no 'canon' to fall back on. You have to make your own.

Amaryllis is really turning out to be a deeper and more exciting book than I'd imagined. All these underlying currents to the seemingly frivolous chick-lit facade (a mermaid and a human swap souls) that I think pushes it quite firmly into the realm of modern fantasy.

I'm really loving creating the Mermaid People. I am basing them on the worldwide myths and stories of mermaids. It thrilled me that there are even mermaid tales in Aboriginal Dreamtime stories. Isn't that fantastic? I'm making a catalogue of all the different mermaid races from different parts of the world, taking note of their anatomical differences, their local names, a diagram showing their tail and body patterns so one can tell which race they are, and their basic cultural structure (politics, lifestyle, etc).

I've got this book that I'm all sticking this into. There's a map there right now indicating where the Mermaid territories lie. I've researched the hell out of marine biology, so that there aren't any mermaids living in areas where it wouldn't be appropriate. Brightly coloured mermaids in tropical zones, plumper, fatter mermaids in the colder areas, things like that. And I've made subtle alterations to the 'human' half of the Mermaid, like a slightly streamlined skull, smaller nose, nostrils they can close with muscles, ears that they can do the same with. They're beautiful but they're not entirely human. :)

I'm also laying down the backgrounds of all the characters, digging into their pasts and trying to discover who they are, why they are, all that sort of thing.

The beauty of this is that it's *mine*. All of it! Amaryllis is mine. Miri is mine. Felix and Genevieve and Errol and Neryssa and Olga and Hadrian and just - all of them. All of them are mine. I get to choose their fates. And I'll write them out, and then share them (somehow, even if I can't get it properly published) and then, if I'm lucky and I've done my job right, they'll live in other people's minds too.

I just hope I can do my characters proud. :)

Comments

[corglacier7.livejournal.com]

(wavity) If you ever want to use my good ol' Marine Bio degree as a sounding board, just send a message my way and I'll do my best to answer you on it regarding environment, local critters, and likely mer-adaptations for that particular niche.

So far what you mentioned of anatomical features fits pretty well. I do tend to think their eyesight would be weaker and eye size possibly reduced; eyesight doesn't do you much good underwater where it goes pitch black quite shallow relative to actual depth of the bottom. Instead, they'd be sound-oriented critters. Echolocation/sonar is a great possibility.

Pinnae, AKA "external ears" would be reduced greatly, if not entirely absent; if you think about it there's basically no marine organism with actual ears. Water carries sound so much better that they're really not needed to catch sound vibrations and direct them to the inner ear, plus they really screw up the whole streamlining concept.

Inner and middle ear bones would be enhanced and probably the sinuses of the skull would be fluid-filled (like the oil in the head of a sperm whale) to help conduct sound vibrations with greater ease.

By implication as regards mer-culture, gestures and body attitude wouldn't be half so significant in social interaction as they are with humans--it would be a lot of emphasis on tiny differences in intonation and the nuances of speech.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Well, I figure that most mermaids (bar the bathypelagic ones) live close to the shore (in the reefs) and go on land regularly. So they'd need reasonably good eyesite for being on land and hearing and breathing apparatus that can work in both environments. Plus I'm willing to cheat just a tiny weeny bit on the mermaid's appearance (well, some of the races) because, really, who wants to read about an ugly mermaid? :-P

That thing about gestures and body attitude is interesting. It'll make things interesting for Miriam when she's in Amaryllis' body!

[corglacier7.livejournal.com]

Naw, that's just the most extreme case. You're welcome to dink around with it some to fit your storytelling. And yes, save bathypelagic and probably some mesopelagic mermaids (which I think would be pretty cool critters anyhow), they probably are somewhat amphibious in nature and would require better eyes and actual lungs. There is some bit of aesthetics to consider as well, of course!

I still think in any case you're dealing with anatomical adaptations for highly advanced hearing (fluid-filled sinuses, etc.) and it would startle Miriam how acute it would be compared to what she's used to. And of course, yep, the emphasis on hearing rather than sight in interaction as well. :-)

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Mesopelagic - that's the real deep sea ones, right? Cause dude, I have such great ideas for those. They're not in the actual story - they're only briefly mentioned. They *aren't* pretty. But they are incredibly awesome. Pushing the limits of scientific accuracy with them, but I figure, people will think they sound so cool that it won't matter.

I really like you ideas for the sinuses and the hearing-rather-than-sight interactions. I never thought about that and it makes complete sense.

I'm making some drawings to deal with mermaid anatomy. If you ever wanna see them, let me know. I could use some feedback on how I've done naming the fins and stuff. :D

[corglacier7.livejournal.com]

Epipelagic is shallow, the "daylight" band. Mesopelagic is shallow middle ocean, the "twilight" band. Bathypelagic is deep middle, the "midnight" band. Really deep is abyssopelagic, where there's absolutely no light whatsoever. REALLY REALLY (as in marine trenches) deep would be hadopelagic.

You're probably dealing largely with epipelagic and mesopelagic merfolk. Bathypelagic would definitely show some anatomical differences, abyssopelagic would be definitely unusual, and hadopelagic would be probably rather bizarre, if they could in fact exist at those depths, which is a tossup given their size and soft bodies. You could argue that either way since it's fantasy to begin.

Sure, just let me know and I'd be glad to offer an opinion!

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Aah, gotcha. Most marine-biology-for-laymen books that I come across don't really define that in any detail, hence my confusion. :) I actually have sketches of the deep-sea mermaids online, come to think of it. Here:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/0803/nacey/fineart/?action=view¤t=merrowraw.jpg

That's a very vague sketch made a couple of years ago. I need to rethink some things, I think, and of course - that's not a metal dagger. :)

[originalnilson.livejournal.com]

You could publish this when you've finished it. It's good enough.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

I never showed you the new first chapter, did I?

[originalnilson.livejournal.com]

Yeah you did. Well, I do have a crappy memory. Maybe it just feels like I've read it because you told me so much about it lol. Anyway it's a really good idea and I think it would get picked up by a publisher.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

I have a new first chapter, though. The old one was shit. LOL!

Thanks, darl. I think it's a pretty exciting world I've made. And the love story (which is sort of a subplot) is really nice too, I think.

[tha-prez.livejournal.com]

Thats awesome! thats why i enjoyed writing original fiction as compared to fan fiction (besides the fact that i was never accurate enough for fan fiction) plus when you really get into it and do all the little researchings its alot more satisfying at the end. Once i got into writing a story i found that the characters do their own thing anyways.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

They do that, don't they? One must always listen to their characters. (JKR doesn't, and that's a terrible mistake). I kind of enjoy discovering characters, seeing these new people. It's fun!

[tha-prez.livejournal.com]

i sense some bitterness there. Although if she did let her characters do what they wanted then they'd all be either dead, pregnant and voldemort probably would have just said meh at the end and it wouldnt have been satisfying. hehe

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Lots of bitterness. I own my bitterness. Bitterness FTW! :D

Naah, Hermione wouldn't have married Ron, I reckon. LOL!

[tha-prez.livejournal.com]

hermoine would have been the old woman with too many cats.

[cedargrove.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way when I'm working on Use'ara. A whole other world of things to create, understand, populate... culture/politics the whole nine yards. I love it. Okay sometimes it can be a pain in the ass when you realise that the number system is base13 instead of base10. Makes counting interesting. But still... I love being that creative. *hugs*

Eiri

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Nothing could make me create a culture in base13. I'm not that cruel to myself. You mad woman! LOL!