Merfolk Writer's Guild

[Merman Dylan Zalrian]

A creation story as simple as this can be a good place to begin or the classic biblical "And then there was light..."

[Merman Dylan Zalrian]

This might be helpful. What it means to be a girl or guy as far as gender is concerned is a construct decided by society. It isn't actually something that is restricted to any one way. A guy could easily be the weak one in your world, while a girl is the strong one. What it means to be a girl or boy is something decided by society.

The merfolk in my story sometimes wear human looking clothes. It is more common for mermaids to wear human looking outfits than mermen. In merfolk society, clothes are not something they are required to wear. Of course there are exceptions to the rules. Reef Remori in Chapter 4 of my story has constructed an outfit of human clothes because of the time he has spent on land. As you will find out in Chapter 1, Marianous has been destroyed and Dylan has been living in a slumbering fragment of what used to be his home. Reef had to learn to spend time on land to escape danger. He did not have a choice. Because Marianous was overrun with sea monsters, the only place to go was on land or somewhere that wasn't his home. So, even though Reef might not have liked human clothes he had a need to start wearing them. Of course, it's also possible that he adapted a working outfit because of his own interest in something that wasn't typical of most mermen.

[MermanJamie]

One of my friends actually told me that she finds it easier to write as the opposite sex. I'm kinda just struggling to decide whether having a man or a woman, a boy or a girl, would suit my story better. I really don't know. I'll update you when I decide more about my main characters.

[Mermaid_Artemis]

I've been planing on writing a mermaid story if my own! However, I'm not sure if its a good story line or not. Its about this Mermaid who comes on land to try talk these princes into stop polluting the ocean. When the dont listen to her she changes them to merman and forces them into living the life she has to with all their garbage. This is my first mermaid fantasy. I thought it up as a beinger writer and forgot about it till I was looking up my old book ideas. What do you guys think? If its not good I can always come up with a different stories. Your stories sound so unique.

[MermanJamie]

I've been planing on writing a mermaid story if my own! However, I'm not sure if its a good story line or not. Its about this Mermaid who comes on land to try talk these princes into stop polluting the ocean. When the dont listen to her she changes them to merman and forces them into living the life she has to with all their garbage. This is my first mermaid fantasy. I thought it up as a beinger writer and forgot about it till I was looking up my old book ideas. What do you guys think? If its not good I can always come up with a different stories. Your stories sound so unique.

This sounds like such an awesome story!

[MermanJamie]

This might be helpful. What it means to be a girl or guy as far as gender is concerned is a construct decided by society. It isn't actually something that is restricted to any one way. A guy could easily be the weak one in your world, while a girl is the strong one. What it means to be a girl or boy is something decided by society.

The merfolk in my story sometimes wear human looking clothes. It is more common for mermaids to wear human looking outfits than mermen. In merfolk society, clothes are not something they are required to wear. Of course there are exceptions to the rules. Reef Remori in Chapter 4 of my story has constructed an outfit of human clothes because of the time he has spent on land. As you will find out in Chapter 1, Marianous has been destroyed and Dylan has been living in a slumbering fragment of what used to be his home. Reef had to learn to spend time on land to escape danger. He did not have a choice. Because Marianous was overrun with sea monsters, the only place to go was on land or somewhere that wasn't his home. So, even though Reef might not have liked human clothes he had a need to start wearing them. Of course, it's also possible that he adapted a working outfit because of his own interest in something that wasn't typical of most mermen.

This video helped a lot, but I still can't decide. The character that I'm planning could honestly work really well as either male or female. I just can't decide. It doesn't seem like it will make much of a difference at this point, though, because they will have virtually the same personality. I just don't know how to choose! If anyone has any advice on how to choose, let me know!

[Merman Dylan Zalrian]

I've been planing on writing a mermaid story if my own! However, I'm not sure if its a good story line or not. Its about this Mermaid who comes on land to try talk these princes into stop polluting the ocean. When the dont listen to her she changes them to merman and forces them into living the life she has to with all their garbage. This is my first mermaid fantasy. I thought it up as a beinger writer and forgot about it till I was looking up my old book ideas. What do you guys think? If its not good I can always come up with a different stories. Your stories sound so unique.

I say go for it.

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[Merman Dylan Zalrian]

This video helped a lot, but I still can't decide. The character that I'm planning could honestly work really well as either male or female. I just can't decide. It doesn't seem like it will make much of a difference at this point, though, because they will have virtually the same personality. I just don't know how to choose! If anyone has any advice on how to choose, let me know!

The best advice I can give is to go with your gut.

However, if that doesn't work, you can always think about the relationships your character has with other characters.

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[MermanJamie]

The best advice I can give is to go with your gut.

However, if that doesn't work, you can always think about the relationships your character has with other characters.

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Thanks. I'm going to describe my character to family and friends, and see what they think will work better. That way I can get multiple opinions.

[Slim]

I extremely (very much extremely) rarely read books at all but THIS has my attention.

I've been planing on writing a mermaid story if my own! However, I'm not sure if its a good story line or not. Its about this Mermaid who comes on land to try talk these princes into stop polluting the ocean. When the dont listen to her she changes them to merman and forces them into living the life she has to with all their garbage. This is my first mermaid fantasy. I thought it up as a beinger writer and forgot about it till I was looking up my old book ideas. What do you guys think? If its not good I can always come up with a different stories. Your stories sound so unique.

[Merman Dylan Zalrian]

Thanks. I'm going to describe my character to family and friends, and see what they think will work better. That way I can get multiple opinions.

That's a good idea.

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[Merman Dylan Zalrian]

I extremely (very much extremely) rarely read books at all but THIS has my attention.

You should read more often.

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[Merman Dylan Zalrian]

I find that music helps me put myself in my characters fins or whatever they have instead of feet. To that end, I created playlists with music that can give the feel of different parts of my story.

Wayward Merfolk:

https://youtu.be/8Mk2WoupmGM

Wayward Sylph:

https://youtu.be/mKXS64eMgsg

Wayward Sanctuary:

https://youtu.be/OW9u5DT5yq4

Wayward Abyss:

https://youtu.be/kR2Fo3B5r2c

Wayward Dreams:

https://youtu.be/xY2UMsLlfGE

Wayward Humans:

https://youtu.be/pJdPO74R_Uo

Wayward Draken:

https://youtu.be/cy-lOQ32dmY

I hope these videos also inspire everyone here. I draw inspiration from many places, but the strongest inspiration comes from my overwhelmingly strong emotions.

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[LeeAnne]

Hey! To anyone struggling to figure out who their character is but, they have a strong voice and story direction in their minds. This is a piece of advice one of my creative writing profs gave me forever ago - Just start writing. I know it might be weird to not have anything to directly refrence your character with but, this will also help you write in deep pov a little more and give you something to reveal later in the story. When you've got enough written to make the choice of who you've been writing for all along, it can often surprise you and the reader in an awesome way. It is difficult and I suggest looking into deep pov a little more to get a feel of what to avoid. But it really helps me keep from slipping into "This Kelly, she's 13 and clearly a girl" character intros (I get lazy if I know too much lol)

[Merman Dylan Zalrian]

Hey! To anyone struggling to figure out who their character is but, they have a strong voice and story direction in their minds. This is a piece of advice one of my creative writing profs gave me forever ago - Just start writing. I know it might be weird to not have anything to directly refrence your character with but, this will also help you write in deep pov a little more and give you something to reveal later in the story. When you've got enough written to make the choice of who you've been writing for all along, it can often surprise you and the reader in an awesome way. It is difficult and I suggest looking into deep pov a little more to get a feel of what to avoid. But it really helps me keep from slipping into "This Kelly, she's 13 and clearly a girl" character intros (I get lazy if I know too much lol)

That's awesome advice.

To add to it, try creating character profiles while you right. You can always change them later. Character Profiles can be exactly like the profiles of real people.

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[LeeAnne]

^^^ I swear by character profiles, even if I dont have enough of my story laid out to make the main character I'll use them for the side ones. Knowing who your characters are (even the less significant ones) gives them reason for being where they're at in the story and helps you write them with a purpose. It really shows through in the results.

[Merman Dylan Zalrian]

^^^ I swear by character profiles, even if I dont have enough of my story laid out to make the main character I'll use them for the side ones. Knowing who your characters are (even the less significant ones) gives them reason for being where they're at in the story and helps you write them with a purpose. It really shows through in the results.

I have character profiles on my Patreon. I try to reserve my specific outlines for my story for paying patrons. It limits what I can share, but I do agree that solid profiles are helpful when it comes to writing.

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[Merman Dylan Zalrian]

So, I wanted to share something involving the Sylph in my story. You can Google this, but this race in particular had a degree of significance with gender and sex.

If you Google what the Sylph generally are you get some ambiguous results.

Basically, Sylph are:

Like Fairies but more like spirits
Wind Elementals
Typically Female

Now, one of my Male characters by the name of Kai is one of the Sylph in my story.

Something I learned after doing research is that there are Male Sylphs in various games and stories. The reason for this was actually pretty simple. Sylphs are spirits associated with the wind. Generally speaking, Spirits do not have a designated sex or gender. Spirits can be whichever one you want. I did this research because I wanted the term for my Sylph Race to make sense. I didn't want people getting confused by something that is generally female being male.

Anyways, the major point of this was that you are creating and imagining what is in your stories. Your characters are a product of your imagination and can be whatever you want them to be. It is important to do your research though. While a story might be written within the context of its own world it may not be interpreted within that context.

I would not make Kai a Sylph if I could not confirm that Sylphs could be male with a sufficient explanation for that.

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[MermanJamie]

Ok, so I've decided on making my main character a guy. I guess maybe I could just relate a little more that way. But I definitely want to have a couple pretty important girl characters as well, and the video definitely helped me get prepared for that. I still am deciding on my character's names, but I definitely have a few good choices!

[MermanJamie]

I was actually considering using Dylan or Dillon as a name for a character when I started thinking about writing the book, as it's one of the best names relating to the ocean out there. Now that I've read some of your book, it feels like I'm copying. Kind of like if I decided to name a vampire in my book Isabella or Bella before I found out about Twilight. My main question is: should all my characters have names related to the sea? There is a very limited group of names related to the sea, and I'd kinda like to broaden my selection pool, but it seems like everyone online seems to use these names when writing about merfolk.