false gods…

[Alia]

So, I’m writing a book were the main theme is that the “gods” of the land and their priests are holding the people in bondage, but there is a small band of rebels fighting. I’m planning on bringing in the God figure (its a fantasy story), but I don’t know how to without it feeling forced

I’m finding a it lot easier to make cruel false gods than to write in the God figure. I don’t want to focus completely on the false gods, but I can’t seem to figure out how to fix it

Any ideas?

WIP - Decisions
Kapeefer til we're old and grey

[Daeus]

@alia Oooh. This is a really cool question.

There are a lot of approaches you could take with this. Most importantly, I think you need to think outside the box. Maybe that means reading more widely within the fantasy genre for inspiration. It definitely means asking yourself what if questions.

One suggestion is to make God an antagonist for a while in the story. I cover this in my article The Sheer Awfulness Of Christianity.

Another suggestion is just to train your mind to approach writing the true God as naturally as possible. If you make it a huge deal that your fantasy world has a God with a capital g, if you have unrealistic conversion scenes, etc, it can seem unnatural and preachy. I think in a story though, the goal is to show God as completely natural — as if the world without Him just wouldn’t make sense. I think fantasy provides a unique opportunity to do this.

Also, try to ask how God is important to the plot. I think it’s important for him to be involved more in the story than just as a part of the theme.

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[Alia]

@daeus, thanks.

I meant plot, not theme earlier….

WIP - Decisions
Kapeefer til we're old and grey

[Elizabeth]

ooh, this is a cool idea. Tough question, too, so let’s see if I can explain my view on it.

In truth, I think all you really need to do is look at the Bible–specifically, the Old Testament. Many books in the Old Testament deal with false gods, idolatry, etc, but all for the purpose of showing the tension between God’s chosen people, the Israelites, and pagan peoples like the Canaanites. The Israelites constantly fell into sin, putting their faith into pagan religions instead of God, and things kinda fell apart after that. Through all of that, though, God proclaimed his presence through his prophets. False gods were great in number, but still his message was shared.

The key is in the contrast between the God figure and the false gods. Use the Old Testament as an example, and you’ll see what I mean.

Writer. Dreamer. Sometimes blogger. MBTI mess. Lover of Jesus and books.

[Author]

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