Young Writers Society

So, in the story I'm writing many of the main cast and villains are supposed to be on a power level with the gods. The only problem, is that I don't know how to write about characters like that. Has anyone else encountered a similar problem, or have any advice?

None of my major pieces have done this but a few things I picked up in shorter projects included:

- Clear boundaries. To explain why heroes or villains haven't simply annihilated whatever lies between them and their goals. Perhaps they can't kill, can't act directly on certain planes of existance, can't be seen to act in fron of normal people etc.

- The relationships between godlike beings may or may not be the same as between non-supers. Do they behave like bratty siblings? Do they sympathise, even with those who are their archenemies, because only they truly understand the terrible price that comes with such power?

These are difficult characters to write for, in terms of their personality and their impact on the story. Look at The Hobbit, where Gandalf had to disappear to deal with The NEcromancer to excuse his not deling with the challenges that arose for the Dwarves and Bilbo. To give your less-than-divine characters a chance to shine, you may be forced to bend your plot to give them a chance.

Hope this helped.

When writing about people with powers beyond humanly possible, remember to keep the human limitations there. People are mostly emotional creatures, and readers love to see those emotions come through. Even Achilles had vulnerability.

What your characters can do is not nearly as important as who they are. What do they really want? Is one constantly seeking more power, and that is his downfall? Or does another wish to stay home in a cottage and catch fish each day, but he feels obligated to work on behalf of the population who cannot stand up for what is right? Or what about one who is overwhelmed by his power and feels his humanity is slipping away (Dr. Manhattan is an example)?

The best advice I ever read was intended for romance, but hey it works if you tweak it a little. They said that a touch on the arm can send more sparks across the room than an explicit sex scene--and they're right. Don't be intimidated by doing justice to the level of power your characters have. Power Rangers was little more than horrible sparring plus special effects, but I adored that silly show because the producers made you believe in the characters.

Focus on your inner characters, and on how circumstances affect them. When you create dynamic, living characters the things they do come with the territory.

You seem to have avoided my biggest pitfall, which is making just one or two characters at that power level. If you have just one or two it's a lot easier to make them Mary-Sueish because they're Special. By having a few characters at a very powerful level, you can balance things out and have a certain level of normalcy between the very powerful characters.

That normalcy is also what makes for some interesting relationships, as there are those less powerful, those on-par and those more powerful (usually) than the characters. So you end up with a ranking of skills similar to those in real life, and can use that to your advantage.

I don't have any suggestions, but my story is like that, also. My characters usually are even tempered, an the writing goes from there, or quick to snap, and both of them are the base of my character's emotions and personalities.