A way with worlds: 41 - Playing God

This is a more "warm and fuzzy column" than some of my more technical ones. I suppose I can break with tradition now and then. Everyone needs balance.

I've addressed "attitude" in worlds and concepts, but rarely attitudes in authors. But there is one that I'm going to talk about and how it relates to worldbuilding.

The attitude than an author should "play god" in their worlds and stories.

Let's just say I think it's a bad idea.

LET THERE BE SPITE:
To put it simply, to put it bluntly, taking the attitude that you're a god in your world is a great way to wreck your creation and your writing.

What do I mean by playing god in your world?

• Deciding that the world is there to serve a need of yours.
• Manipulating outcomes to satisfy how you think things should be rather than how you think they will turn out.
• "Punishing" characters you don't like.
• Using stories to "make a point" even when it doesn't fit what you've created.

I'm sure we've done this. I'm sure we've seen it done. It's also a terrible thing to do to your world and to yourself as a creative person, and it'll burn your creativity and your worlds to ash if you let it.

CONTROL AND CREATIVITY:
One of the paradoxes of creativity is that, while we think we have ideas, it seems the best ideas are ones that have us. We all know those moments where something is just so synchronized, just so right, we're amazed at what gets done. We're usually frustrated as well when some of those moments can't be duplicated.

You can't control creativity.

The problem when you play god is that you aren't being creative with your world and your story - you're manipulating it, altering it, controlling it for an agenda. It's really no different than forcing your body to body to do things it cant, or trying to force a person to be something they aren't. Like those things, it can backfire - a body breaks down, a person strikes back.

We've had stories disintegrate when we've been heavy-handed with them. We've tried to grasp ideas only to find them flow through our fingers like sand. Yet, ironically, people will gladly engage in large-scale manipulation of detailed imaginative creations, trying to force their will and biases on entire imaginative universes. We may understand the need for a light touch on the small scale, but miss it in the larger.

Playing god crushes what we have.

INSIDE AND OUTSIDE:
When we play god with our creations, we also make the fatal mistake of putting ourselves outside of our creations. Our creations become something to manipulate or control or to change. They're not part of us, they're considered separate from us.

This is a deadly thing for creativity, which works best when it can flow, like water or blood. The more we try to control it, the less it can actually be what it is. We stop dreaming and start manipulating. Control is the antitheses of creativity.

I've read stories where the writers play god. I can't think of a one where the story and characters didn't eventually disintegrate (if they even started out integration). It's as if some kind of soul in the work was slowly running out, as if the initial charge of a battery, of the initial creative burst, was running down under the burden of the author manipulating things.

Playing god keeps us from creating new things and cultivating the old.

THE OBVIOUSNESS OF IT ALL:
Finally, playing god has one important effect.

It's usually hideously obvious and it annoys your readers.