Adapting The Classics
Yesterday I posted a picture to my Instagram of a pile of books of Greek Mythology. They are the books I will be reading over the next…well, probably several years, as I really dive into this new Greek Mythology re-telling series I’m writing for Kindle Vella. I’m currently making my way through The Iliad since it will be the first book that I start re-telling once I get through this Origins Duology.
Before I go further, some clarification: you are going to see me refer to the books in my Olympic Fates Saga by a few different names. This is because the books are first going to be published on Kindle Vella, and the naming scheme for stories on KV is different than it is when publishing an e-book or paperback. On KV, they’re not even called books, but stories. If a story has multiple parts (like, say, it’s in a trilogy), then the authors can call it Name of Story: Book 1, or Name of Story: Season 1. Some authors publish each book/season separately (meaning each book/season is its own story), and some publish each book/season in the same story, creating stories that are many hundreds of episodes long.
Which I am going to do, I do not yet know. There’s a lot of very strong feelings on this by other authors and I just haven’t seen enough of an explanation of the benefits of either option to make a really informed decision.
What I do know is that the first story in my Olympic Fates Saga will be called Olympic Fates Saga: Season 1 on Kindle Vella.
When I publish it as an ebook and paperback later this year, it will be The Olympic Fates Saga: Origins Duology: Name of the first book (which I am still wrestling over).
The reason I’m distinguishing between the first two books is because they’re setting up the world and giving background information necessary for the rest of the series. The rest of the series will likely be separated into trilogies. I think that will make it easier to tackle.
Now, onto the reading I’m currently doing. I won’t even be touching on anything in The Iliad until book 3 of my Olympic Fates Saga, but I think it will be very helpful if I have at least half of the book read and important scenes/conversations underlined by the time I get to writing that book. For example, The Iliad begins with an argument between Achilles and Agamemnon over who gets which slaves they captured in their sacking of Thebe. Both men are stubborn. Both men are powerful in their respective statuses. Both men feel entitled to their spoils after their victory in the city of Thebe. And while this specific instance is not relevant to the duology I’m currently writing, their personalities, their hostility towards each other, and their personal perspectives absolutely informs how I will portray them in my books.
These scenes are also reminding me of which characters definitely need to be introduced in this duology so that I’m not having to play catch-up with their character development as we move into the Trojan War. Some characters won’t be utilized. I don’t think I’m going to include Penelope’s and Odysseus’s son, for example, because I genuinely don’t know how I would accomplish this given the world I’m setting up. His character is also not particularly important, even at the end of The Odyssey, so I doubt that I will include him. And there are definitely some characters that won’t need to be included until the third book or later, so I’m not too worried about introducing everyone, but the characters who will develop the most as we get into the really deep mythological texts will need to be introduced in this duology, and that’s what I’m focusing on.
I did forget how much of a shit Achilles is, I will admit. But I’m hoping to shift his character into one much more heroic and honorable than egotistical and selfish and…well, dramatic.
I’m sure I’ll have more updates as I go.
