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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/45653
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

 **_tl;dr_-** Cliches seem bad when things are there just for the sake of the cliche itself. To avoid this, you can develop meaningful notions of the gods – including what they are, why they're there, and how they interact. Probably best to start with deciding if the gods are superheroes or full-blown forces of nature.

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## Step 1: Pick what kind of god(s) they'll be.

I figure that there're basically two kinds of gods:

1. **_Effector gods_** are the driving forces of existence; they cause whatever they're god of to exist. For an example of a monotheistic effector god, the guy [in this xkcd](https://xkcd.com/505/) is literally causing every moment of his simulated world to happen; if he doesn't actively effect something, it doesn't exist. He even apologizes for occasionally causing things to stop existing on accident:

2. **_Superhero gods_** are basically just superheroes who have thematic powers. For example, if Thor, God of Lightning, is a superhero god, then he doesn't really cause lightning to exist in a fundamental sense so much as he just has some cool superpowers related to it, even if those superpowers include abilities like summoning lightning.

I imagine that gods were all originally conceived as effectors. For example, why does lightning exist? Well, because Thor effected it, obviously!

Effector gods are a lot like modern scientific explanations. For example, we now acknowledge Electron, God of Negative Charge, and his beloved Proton, Goddess of Positive Charge. The big change is a [shift toward mechanistic descriptions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor) (like the [Big Bang theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang)) over fanciful anthropomorphic descriptions (like [Chaos theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theogony#The_first_gods)), largely because it feels silly to make up stuff that's [not empirically meaningful](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_even_wrong).

As such, effector gods make sense. But do you want to write about Thor, God of Lightning, whose OCD causes him to effect the phenomena of lightning? Or do you want to write about Thor, God of Lightning, whose superpowers grant him control over lightning when dramatically appropriate?

Some authors seem to mix these options together:

1. **_Effector-superhero gods_** are sort of a compromise, where superhero-like gods are presented as though they're also effectors. For example:

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## Step 2: Figure out why they're there.

Effector gods necessarily exist. I mean, Electron, God of Negative Charge, definitely [exists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-dependent_realism) in the real world. Just.. well, the part about Electron being in love with Proton is fabricated.

Superhero gods are pretty unnecessary. I mean, there's no reason that we need a superhero called Thor who, for whatever reason, has powers over lightning. So if Thor exists, how/why?

> I'd further clarify that having a "god of war" is not a problem, if it makes sense in the context. It is a cliché if the god of war in question is just "filling a seat".

I think this is where you can run into the problem with cliches. This is, if Thor exists simply because the story has superhero gods, then it does seem a bit more like "_filling a seat_".

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## Step 3: Figure out how they interact.

Effector-gods can overlap. For example, if you write about the effector-God who causes everything, then any effector-gods that cause individual phenomena would seem to be aspects of the effector-God. Then Electron and Proton seem to have a complicated relationship with Positron; I mean, while Proton seems to try to avoid Positron, Electron seems to [seek out](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulomb%27s_law) Positron, get caught up [in a fight](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positronium), and finally [blow up](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annihilation). ...drama, amirite?

Superhero-gods seem more ambiguous. I mean, while the God of Water and God of Fire would seem to have conflicting agendas as effector-gods, superhero-gods aren't necessarily at odds with each other just because their powers are. The God of Water and God of Fire could just as easily team up and use their superpowers as part of their _Ultimate Combo Attack: Stream of Steamy Justice!_.

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## Step 4: Ensure it all works together.

So, yeah, just smooth stuff up. If you come up with a good story about gods, be they effectors or/and superheroes, that makes sense and has consistency, then awesome!

I think you can manage to avoid just "_filling seats_", like with a mindless copy/paste of a mythological pantheon, if you give them substance. I think the cliche thing is moreso an issue when people have a stereotypical pantheon just for the sake of having a stereotypical pantheon.

Original score: 2