Writing God as a protagonist?

[zelotwo02]

So umm I've been thinking about writing a novel with a god as a protagonist and I really need some tips or idea on what the gods do because just managing worlds, balance and order seems boring

 

[Corty]

Depending on the kind of God/Gods we are speaking about. If like the greek ones, get ready for a ton of smut and bestiality.

If egypt then it is incest. And so on.

 

[georgelee5786]

Laws. The gods establish certain laws that mortals cannot break. They also lay out a sort of plan that acts as a railing to keep mortals from straying too far into evil.

 

[Twin]

Gods usually have their hands full dealing with their own bastard sons (demi-Gods/Gods etc) who are prophesized to kill them.

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

Have them interact with their own creation personally. What sort of character does the god have and what does the god want? Could make it like a slice of life.
Does the god have a rival? A friend? A corruptor? What external and internal conflicts would a god have? What relationships would a god have?
I'm unsure how big a god you are thinking of writing about. Is it the most powerful god? Only god that created everything? Are other gods similarly powerful peers?
There is a lot of free space to work with, but it requires some worldbuilding beforehand.

 

[AliceShiki]

I think it could be more interesting as a one-shot (or at least a short story) than as a longer novel...

But well, if you have a good enough idea to make a longer novel with it... Go ahead?

 

[Tempokai]

Make him obey some rules that he imposed on himself, because if there's none, he would 100% kill everything

 

[TotallyHuman]

I wrote a oneshot, https://www.scribblehub.com/series/610731/why-so-many-gender-benders-in-isekais/
It has a cynical take on God Protagonist tropes. This is the pinnacle of what I call "bugman" God characters - a version of God born out of the spiritual degradation of the modern society. There is no need to write more such Gods in fiction. My oneshot has perfected them completely.
If you don't want to be cynical or plain dumb, but do want a God protagonist, read some commentary on the Bible, the Quran, the revelations, and texts about Buddha. God should be an absolute being that is infinite. By definition you cannot write a story from POV of an eldritch being beyond human understanding, so infinite love or compassion and wisdom is the way to go.
I will quote an interesting review of Soul Of Negari from NovelUpdates - it has an interesting vision

Opposite to the kind of story where the MC only cultivate and level up (Maybe for hundred, thousand or millennium) until he/she become invincible, become the omniscient and omnipotent. However, if you remove the super power then the protagonist doesn't change much (You may argue that the MC become more mature or the kind of that, THAT RIGHT! Every writer know what is character development thus there is no way the MC character remains the same as the beginning). What I want to stress here is that after the MC becomes invincible, gets married and haves offspring, achieves the "Happy ever after ending". There is almost no difference between the mortal at the beginning and the omnipotent being at the end, except for some kind of special power level- cultivation.

Things are different in this book, It clearly explains the process of one kind of life form evolving into a higher one. The things you lose and the things you need. At certain level, there no longer exist the concept of good and evil, only one own stand point.

But at the end of the day, you write your story

 

[JayDirex]

So umm I've been thinking about writing a novel with a god as a protagonist and I really need some tips or idea on what the gods do because just managing worlds, balance and order seems boring

The fundamental problem with writing a GOD is that a GOD by definition is Omnipotent, all knowing, all powerful. PERFECT.

HENCE, if you are to write a GOD, then it must be a flawed one, or a nerfed one. And you would have to establish in your world what limits a god has. For example, in one of my works I made it clear that the Gods were Powerful. but not powerful enough to create a universe. And that's no worse than a god who gets jealous of a mortal sleeping with another mortal he likes (that is beyond petty for an all powerful being. That's just a petty tyrant.

 

[georgelee5786]

Gods usually have their hands full dealing with their own bastard sons (demi-Gods/Gods etc) who are prophesized to kill them.

Eat them. Problem solved.

 

[rain-090]

Depending on the kind of God/Gods we are speaking about. If like the greek ones, get ready for a ton of smut and bestiality.

If egypt then it is incest. And so on.

Hey! Greek is also lots of incest too!

The fundamental problem with writing a GOD is that a GOD by definition is Omnipotent, all knowing, all powerful. PERFECT.

HENCE, if you are to write a GOD, then it must be a flawed one, or a nerfed one. And you would have to establish in your world what limits a god has. For example, in one of my works I made it clear that the Gods were Powerful. but not powerful enough to create a universe. And that's no worse than a god who gets jealous of a mortal sleeping with another mortal he likes (that is beyond petty for an all powerful being. That's just a petty tyrant.

That's only using monotheistic religious definitions

 

[TheEldritchGod]

So umm I've been thinking about writing a novel with a god as a protagonist and I really need some tips or idea on what the gods do because just managing worlds, balance and order seems boring

Start off as a mortal and he doesn't know he's a god. For some reason he had to go deep under cover. Then he remembers and gets back on the job for book 2.

Also. No infinities. No omni anything. Just say infinity doesn't exist in reality. Because it doesnt. There are no infinite anythings. Infinity is a mathematical concept and nothing more.

Trust me. The limit will allow you to have a story.

Make your gods a classification, not really gods as we know it. Like, owners of a universe. I have been doing work with memetic lifeforms, so i apply those concepts to gods myself.

 

[AliceShiki]

The fundamental problem with writing a GOD is that a GOD by definition is Omnipotent, all knowing, all powerful. PERFECT.

HENCE, if you are to write a GOD, then it must be a flawed one, or a nerfed one. And you would have to establish in your world what limits a god has. For example, in one of my works I made it clear that the Gods were Powerful. but not powerful enough to create a universe. And that's no worse than a god who gets jealous of a mortal sleeping with another mortal he likes (that is beyond petty for an all powerful being. That's just a petty tyrant.

Most gods in fiction aren't omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. Fictional gods tend to be close to Greek gods or Shinto gods or Roman gods or whatever.

It's just more interesting to play with those, usually.

Of course, that's different when you're just playing with the religions and not with the gods themselves. In that case the religion can think the god is all-powerful and whatever... But when you're actually involving gods in your fiction, they usually tend to have limitations on them.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

At certain level, there no longer exist the concept of good and evil, only one own stand point.

I hate this shit.

Everything has the concept of good and evil. What you define as good and evil gets weird in certain situations, but everything knows good and evil, even if it is a bacteria eating shit. Shit is good, bleach is evil.

Look up orange blue morality on tv tropes.

However, understand as a being becomes more evolved, why would it become less moral? Are you more evolved than a shit eating bacteria? Do you have a greater concept of morality than the bacteria?

Why the fuck would a god know LESS about your concept of good and evil? Wouldn't he know good and evil better than you?

Maybe he just chooses to be evil, but that doesn't mean the god doesn't understand.

 

[BearlyAlive]

So umm I've been thinking about writing a novel with a god as a protagonist and I really need some tips or idea on what the gods do because just managing worlds, balance and order seems boring

Watching their prophecies get misinterpreted, seeing their chosen ones getting killed, corrupted or never noticing they're chosen ones, talking smack about other gods, doing whatever they're the god of and of course dealing with Karens in the afterlife.

 

[APieceOfRock]

Cult-building, propaganda, crusades, inquisitions, you name it. Bonus point if you got a rival god that is evil

 

[K5Rakitan]

It depends on if there's just one God or many. Many gods will be fighting each other. One God will be . . . playing God because she's bored and has nothing better to do. It depends on how long she's been God, too. If she's just starting out, she might be more gentle and loving, but then one of her creations will make her angry by eating a fruit she told him not to eat, and she'll be angry for a very long time until she sends her extra special daughter down to get publicly slaughtered by her other creations to prove that she loves them.

 

[lnv]

So umm I've been thinking about writing a novel with a god as a protagonist and I really need some tips or idea on what the gods do because just managing worlds, balance and order seems boring

Yes, gods are bored. I mean look at it this way, do we not write/make/read novels, manga, anime, movies, games precisely because many of us are bored? How would gods be any different?

If you want a checks and balance system, then best ones are usually things like causality. Where if God A interfered 10X, other gods can also interfere 10X. That is why gods limit interference. Because whoever moves first is at a disadvantage, kind of like playing rock paper scissors, but no requirement to do it at same time. Whoever picks rock, everyone else will go with paper. Thus the best way to interfere is through mortals with a chaotic system with lots of conditions(thus low cost). And the god would then hope their words/believers will steer that chaos and conditions towards their favor.

 

[Kouneko]

Depending on the kind of God/Gods we are speaking about. If like the greek ones, get ready for a ton of smut and bestiality.

If egypt then it is incest. And so on.

If aztecs then its blood and human sacrifices, lots of it

 

[T.K._Paradox]

Kinda hard to write a 'god' character when the realm of gods' is supposed to be unobtainable by mortals.

There is always a sense of perfection to them in some way, shape or form.

An infinite patience, and undying love, or endless cruelty other infinite expressions is what defines gods.

Many may use the Greek or Norse gods to counteract my statement, but unlike mortals they still have an infinite property to them that being destiny and existence.

The Norse gods have a fate that is infinitely unavoidable, they can only delay it. And despite the gods of Greece being able to be 'butchered' they never really die. Kronos is still alive despite being hacked to pieces, and Athena's mother still lives as thoughts in Zeus's head they are immortal through and through.

You could also say the rebirth is also a big thing in Greek mythos given that a position previously filled will always eventually be replaced and it typically occurs in a similar cycle.

Like Zeus supplanting Kronos, who supplanted Ouranos.

So basically have something that is an infinite constant for these gods of yours as unlike mortals they are set in their nature.

And don't fiddle with omnipotence or anything like that. It is literally impossible to describe being everywhere at once, and kinda of defeats the point of having a story.