McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Deus ex Deus?

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QuicksilverKite:
I'm an aspiring novelist and have run into a literary conundrum that I can't seem to get past...

I've been working on a story for several months now (writing in my free time, which is sparse) and I am having a hard time not making plot/conflict resolutions feel contrived. This is mostly due to the fact that a god is a central idea in the story. So I guess my question is how do you take the "Deus ex Machina" out when the "Deus" is the machine in the first place?

OZ:
How powerful is this god? If s/he is too powerful and too involved it will be difficult to have enough conflict to keep the story interesting. Is this a world with multiple gods? Is the god the main character, a main character, or a very involved lesser character? It's hard to know what to suggest without knowing a little bit more about the god's involvement.

QuicksilverKite:
it is the judeo-christian god, the protagonist is a devout knight type of character and while there is no overt involvement I don't want the reader to assume that just because something strange happens it's because "God did it".

OZ:
Unless you have God taking an active part early in the story, most will not expect his involvement. If an explanation is needed for why he is not more active in assisting the knight, you can go many different ways. I'm sure I can't think of all of them but they might range from something as simple as God allowing the knight to grow (which would not happen if all of his problems were solved divinely) to some internal conflict on the knight's part which puts him in a place where he can't access God's help ( lack of faith, failure to follow instructions, etc.) Obviously this would all depend on the character of your knight. I think Elizabeth Moon does a good job with this in her Paksenarrion books. There is some direct involvement by her (Paksenarrion's) god in a few places but for the most part she's on her own.

Starbeam:
Honestly, I'd say to look at how the Knights of the Cross are done.  Strange and coincidental things happen with them around, and they never, at least to me, feel contrived.

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