Week 3 Story Planning: The BFC (Big Friendly Cyclops)

"I thought the cyclops might be somewhat friendly, but it seems as though he trapped them to eat overtime. I may try portraying the giant in a friendly manner, just to switch up the story line. All of the stories I've heard concerning the cyclops make him the enemy. Teaming up with the cyclops could be a nice twist to my story." -Reading Notes Part A

"I plan to use the Cyclops, Circe, Odysseus, the crew, and a made up crew member (a woman) in my story. I think dialogue between the Cyclops and Odysseus will be important to form a friendship. Also dialogue between Circe and my new crew member (the narrator) will also play a pivotal role in the story." -Reading Notes, Part B

I would like to blend a few parts of the entire story together because I don't have enough room to write a section about each character. I also think it would be cool to have the characters set apart in the original actually interact with each other. The characters I would focus on combining would be the Cyclops and Circe. In the original reading, Odysseus encounters Polyphemus (the Cyclops), who is an enemy. He ultimately defeats Polyphemus and then moves on to conquer Circe. I would like to twist the story in a way that makes the Cyclops a trusted ally against Circe. Maybe have some preexisting conflict between Polyphemus and Circe that Odysseus helps resolve.

(Metabus with Camilla  --  Jean-Balptiste Peytavin)
Source: Wikimedia Commons

The original was told from Odysseus' perspective. Throughout the story he is very confident/cocky about his abilities (which suits him). Instead of using his point of view, I would like to introduce a female crew member who would narrate the story from her perspective. I think it would be kinda funny to have her be the main protagonist in the end. To do so, I would resolve the conflict with her taking down Circe because she is a woman (Circe's power has no influence over her). Odysseus would then have to come to terms with being more of a side kick figure.

The main protagonist, Camilla, would be a tall, brown haired woman. She would start off as a shyer character, not sure of her ability. Eventually she would find out from the Greek goddess Diana, that she will be a great warrior in the future and is daughter of Metabus (source: Britannica). My inspiration of her character comes from Camilla in other mythological stories. As in many stories, I would have dialogue between Diana and Camilla to portray what is to come from Camilla's future. I like the foreshadowing effects that I've read in other stories, so I would like to try to write similarly to that style in that part. The original story kept the crew members in the background of the story (short end of the stick as far as story life comes), so having Camilla really explode onto the story scene and solve the conflict would be a great twist to my story.

Bibliography:  Homer's Odyssey, Tony Kline