Making a 'God' relatable?
Hi all,
Ok now this may be a bit of an odd one but here we go.
Basically the main characters in my novel are the eight Paladin, surviving Gods of the Dawn War. Each is the ruler of their own slice of reality and you have a range of characters within them. Like 2 twisted demonic siblings, the loyal and sort of empty reaper, and the main god 'Wrath' who is in short just a really nice guy to his people but can easily switch into a force to be reckoned with. He finds the finer things in life beautiful but can also relish in battle.
The trouble I am having is that these are all fairly removed and divine from what we would consider 'relatable'. But I really need the audience to feel close to Wrath and a few of the others.
Anyone got any tips for tugging heart strings with the reader?
Thanks 
Rob
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Make him love someone ( or at least be close to someone). Make him have flaws, likes and dislikes. Write him like you would ,if he were human, as if he were your main character in the story. You want everyone to empathise with him. We all like someone who is like us. None of us are perfect and we all have flaws, so make him a likeable rogue ( maybe).
Just a thought...
The description you gave pretty much suits the main character perfectly. He is very close to his assistant (Gabriella), he tries to protect all of his people but in doing so leaves himself vulnerable to his enemies, he likes little things like fireworks and theatre, but hates the memories of what he had done to earn his own realm. The whole internal struggle type thing.
The main idea of him is that he is a silent warrior who is a beloved King and ruler, but because of his own beliefs he puts his world in harms way. So...sorta trying to make the reader fear for both the characters as well as the world they live in. Not sure if that's a big task.
Jolono's advice is spot on. Exactly right and what I w ould have said. As humans we can only ever balance things fron a 'human' perspective. Sounds like a blast of a story too by the way RJ.
Thanks :) I agree, the advice was spot on. This isn't my first attempt at the story, I did write and publish my first trial...then i read it over time after time and was very unhappy with the execution of it. So, here I am :P trying to keep the idea of the characters alive but bring it into a new direction.
If you're wondering what sort of characters I have setup atm, the Prologue - http://www.abctales.com/story/rjcreatives/children-dawn-prologue Covers the basic introduction and past, and then Chapter 1 http://www.abctales.com/story/rjcreatives/children-dawn-chapter-1-sky-fires gets a little closer to the main character. They need some refining but its a demo of what I am trying to achieve :)
give him a wayward son
a charismatic schizophrenic who hears voices
a hitchhiker from Galilee who consorts with rough unshaven fishermen and says radical and disturbing things about the dead burying their dead
Hmm sorry. No offspring allowed, as such. Its sort of a taboo of their existance. Already set up the story so that the 2 twisted gods breed and that basically leads to deformed demons. But there is a woman, Gabriella, and a young boy, Tel, who he has a direct relationship with.