Thoughts on this idea?

I'm not sure if we're allowed to post threads on our personal ideas here, so if not I apologize. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I got this burst of creativity and basically fell love with this particular idea for a story, but as I keep thinking about it I wonder if its really any good at all. So I decided I would ask some other writers. ( sorry if this is overly long)

I got the idea from reading a little bit about how the Gods from pre-christian mythologies like the Greeks and Norse had basically human personalities, that the only thing separating them from us were their powers. So I came up with the idea of Gods that were completely human except for the fact that they were immortal and had lived for a very long time. Because they had unlimited time, they were able to create the earth "brick by brick". Now they live among humans and subtly influence peoples lives and create stories out of them.

The main God of my story would be kind of a sensitive artist type with some shades of a trickster god like Loki. He basically creates tragic stories out of peoples lives. I thinking of maybe adding two other God characters, one native american one and a woman who uses her influence to create karmic car crashes, but I'm not sure if that would ruin the mystery of the whole situation.

The main human character is a Christian Fundamentalist woman who runs a shelter for homeless teens, she finds the main God character on the streets one day and takes him in believing him to be a homeless teen. They slowly develop a mother-son style relationship until she realizes that she is a character in one of the God character's tragedies.

The way I originally had this planned out, she would have a gay son who she kicked out onto the streets, refusing to even let him live in her homeless shelter in hopes that she could force him to renounce homosexuality. The God character's plan is to have the son become so desperate that he kills her, sets her house on fire, and is then either shot by the police or tried and executed.

When she discovers this plan, she attempts to distance herself from her son in order to avert the tragedy but only succeeds in making him more and more desperate. Finally, she begs the God character not to hurt her son, and due to the relationship they developed the God character hints that she has free will and thus can sacrifice herself to protect her child. She then kills herself, ensuring that her son does not become a murderer. The God character decides that the meaning of life is having love for one's creation and decides the protect her son.

I apologize if this is incoherent, I tried my best to make sense of it. Is the idea good or bad? If it is bad, is anything salvageable? If it is good, is there anything I can do to improve it? Any thought on this would be appreciated

I take it that reaching out and reconnecting with her son rather than killing herself wasn't an option?

Also, these folks created the Earth. Would they really be tied down to any given nationality? Perhaps the Native American guy is just going through a phase (nationality as a fashion statement?), or has some other connection to the First Nations crowd?

I like the idea. It has potential.

Same thoughts

You've definitely got something there. And, you weren't all the incoherent at all. I just got the impression you're at the 'developing in all directions at once' stage. You'll focus as you go, don't worry.

Well I was wondering that myself. I guess I was going for some jesus-like symbolism, but maybe that's too cheesy. I just don't think the reconciling would be... mythic enough.

As for the whole Native American thing, originally the Main God Character was going Native American because the whole thing takes place in Colorado and it would be sort of a nod that the original inhabitants were Native American, but I thought that it might be ethnically insensitive so I changed it. The new idea would be that this Native American God would use his appearance to spread lies and chaos in an Indian Reservation to create stories.

, Thank you, I appreciate it .

Thank you, and I guess I am in that stage. The problem is I have a tendency to stay in this stage until I run my ideas into the ground.

To be honest, the characters involved just going 'screw mythic' has a resonance in and of itself. This is, after all, a story about gods fucking with the lives of mortals, and basic, simple human kindness trumping that could be pretty powerful if you pull it off properly.