Playing God

Writing, as any creative endeavor, I'm sure, gives the artist a kind of God complex. At least at first. It starts with a spark of an idea and you go from there.

 

In the beginning, there was nothing, an empty void. And God(me) created a world. And unto this world, he, God(still me), created life.

 

"Yea, I'm awesome," God thinks. God shapes his creation in his image. God has complete control over his creation, directing where he wants it to go, bending the world to his will. Or so he thinks. Soon, the world and the creatures that inhabit it begin to control the God who created them. The control has slipped from the creator to the created. And the creator must obey. He realizes he is no God, but a servant, a slave. Think of a writer as a translator. He must tell the tale his "creations" are whispering to him. It's his job to translate the story in a way that entertains, enthralls, inspires, but the story tells itself. It's already there, just waiting for the right person to come along and hear its call and present it to the world.

 

There is no such thing as a bad story, just bad writing.