Legends in Stories.

As a reader, I love legends in young adult novels. They add a sense of history and mystery--and often magic--to the overall story. A lot of the time, legends provide a heroic figure of inspiration to the protagonist and that's what I love: that they're not so utterly great alone that they're above having people to look up to, to remember when accomplishing greatness.

As a writer, I incorporate my love of legends into my own stories. In Imperial Infiltration, there's a legend about a "snow girl" called Rowen, who survived a desert for three months because she found a sort of dreamscape place where she discovered her survival powers. When writing, I use legends to foreshadow future events. (Book Two of II spoiler here) For instance, Rowen's legend isn't just a legend. It's a story that happened years ago, long enough to become something of a myth but is actually the pathway for Aritha Zenii to discover something deep inside of her soul. I have other legends of a desert princess which is foreshadowing the talent of the Emperor's daughter and the story behind Con's eyepatch. A theme is that most take place in the desert and that's because that area is forbidden in the story so it holds most of the secrets that has made it so off-limits. But legends surround it because I think deserts are unending and mysterious and anything can literally happen in them. With fantasy, anything really can.

I hadn't found an incredible author who incorporated legends into their books until I read Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton. She has no shortage of legends winding into that desert setting for Amani to listen to, and I adored it. Honestly, this series is my reader salvation for a quality in the stories I love to read. These legends inspire different characters in the story and give them a level of what they want to achieve. It's not just one legend that becomes an obsession but lots of legends, all affecting the present events, years after they supposedly happened. After reading both Rebel and Traitor to the Throne, I became heavily inspired to find my own legends and stories. Mine also take place in a desert, but its laid out in an entirely different way and concept and leads to far different things.

In the fantasy draft I'm currently working on, Mad Rebellion, the protagonist is told a story by her grandmother, about a girl who peered over the edge of a well and fell down into the depths of the water below. But rather than drown, she sunk in a panic, down far enough that she discovered a world beyond. The protagonist reflects on this at a pivotal part of the story, where she finds the doorway to a world that caters to her thoughts and she can't help but make the comparison between her curiosity and that of the girl's who fell to another world entirely.

I think young adult fantasy definitely needs more legends in them because they allow creativity to extend just beyond the current events of the story; they allow exploration of different themes to the ones being written about. In Imperial Infiltration, magic isn't acknowledged but with the use of legends, I still got to write about those with a bit more to them to form a path to Book Two, where I can start bringing in the true magical side of the story. I'm using legends to slowly bring that concept into what is a fantasy duology.

I'm always up for more fantasy young adult books with this theme so if there's any recommendations, come find me on Twitter and let me know!