Young Writers Society

I know it's a very overused thing: Greek mythology incorporated into the modern world. But I was thinking of writing characters from the actual myths and having them as characters in the modern day world.

For example, I was thinking of having a boy called Icarus whose father is a genius aeronautical engineer who drags his son into a situation and they both are forced to escape in planes, whereupon Icarus gets carried away and crashes.

Another idea was to have Bellerophon and Pegasus as aspiring rider and horse respectively, with everything that happens in the myth happening to them and giving Bellerophon the same outcome - crippled and forced to walk the lands in search of Pegasus alone until his death, or a modern equivalent of such a fate.

I'd tie all of the subplots together to have them culminate into one big climax where each character influences the fate of the other and it all ends interestingly but not necessarily positively.

What do you think of the idea? Is it overly cliched, or majorly flawed in some other way?

I actually like this idea, but it's going to be huge if you want to include many myths. In my opinion, this feels a little like episodic fiction I think the thread tying the subplots together should make sense or everything just falls flat on its face.

Another thing that might be a good idea to consider is what the characters all want; for character motivations tend to move the plot forward and that's definitely important for the climax from what I see here.

I always enjoy this idea. It's a little clichéd due to Rick Riordan's influence, but I don't think that's a problem as long as you make it your own. I don't see any major flaws, and I think you could make a really amazing story out of it. I say, go for it!

Thank you both for replying!

@PrincessInk I was thinking of having small portions of the story devoted to each set of characters and tying them all up at the end so I'd be able to have a larger cast of characters - but then it'd have the potential to become confusing and not have enough character development.

@Feltrix I know, right? Whenever I see a YA book featuring Greek Myths, I always think of the Percy Jackson series and it automatically taints my view of the other book, regardless of its quality. I think it'll be a fun challenge, though.

I don't think it would be entirely cliche, but you might want to add another layer of depth to it. For example, you're moving the characters and plot to a modern setting and tying them all together. That's great, but maybe also consider the characters' personalities (a little like what @PrincessInk said). Some of the myths give them defined personalities, but how can you twist or tweak them a bit? Does the modern world make them any different? Would they have different struggles to shape them, apart from what's told in the myth? They might be deeper and more complex than original myths, and you might be able to expand on them and bring new parts of their character to light. Just an suggestion! Your idea sounds pretty neat.

The interesting thing about myths and fairytales is that they survive because people tell them over and over again, each person adding their own twist or imagination to the story, or bending the story to themselves. Having your own retelling of them means adding your own verse to a long line of tradition.

Personally, I love novels that have intertwining plots, especially when the actions of one character so casually influences the path of another. It makes them really satisfying to read.

Icarus is my favourite myth and a modern version with planes instead sounds exciting, it would be great to see how you play that out.

The Belleraphon plot doesn't seem as modern, so that might need work. I think if you're going for the modern play on things then you have to remember that it has to be purposeful. It's quite plausible that someone in today could actually walk the lands searching for a horse, but it for it to have a modern theme it has to have something that is applicable only in modern circumstances.