Yuffie's Writing How-To's

How to write THE CHOSEN ONE & PROPHECIES

Very interesting posts from the-right-writing.tumblr.com. The original post is at http://the-right-writing.tumblr.com/post/95205441417/reasons-to-be-chosen and linked to in the EXTERNAL LINK. Then someone asked about it, and the author answered, and that post is at http://the-right-writing.tumblr.com/post/95228014791/by-no-prophecy-unless-the-prophecy-maker-has-an.

The whole post/convo is copy/pasted below.


Good in-story reasons for a character to be chosen to become a hero:
    -They already have a sizable list of accomplishments
    -They have a plan
    -They have resources
    -They’re closest to the problem
    -They have a lot of training in the required skills
    -They were not chosen at all but they secretly replaced the real chosen one
    -They volunteer

Bad in-story reasons for a character to be chosen to become a hero:
    -Spunk
    -Purity of heart
    -No reason (this is direct authorial intervention)
    -A prophecy (also direct authorial intervention unless the prophecy-maker has an agenda)
    -Gumption (Yuffie insert: I had to look this up, and according to dictionary.com, gumption is: 1. initiative; aggressiveness; resourcefulness. 2. courage; spunk; guts. 3. common sense; shrewdness. So the writer of this article seems to be making the point that personality traits should not be the sole reason a character becomes "the chosen one".)
    -Loyalty
    -Humility

Anonymous asked: By 'no prophecy unless the prophecy maker has an agenda' what does that mean? i.e. what would the prophecy maker having an agenda be like? Like if it's a fake prophecy but they put it out there because they're trying to use the prophecy to achieve their own end is that all right? because that's the premise of my book.

Answer: Kind of. It can also be:
    -A real, certain to happen prophecy where the facts are distorted to manipulate certain people (including the chosen one, who has a skill the prophecy maker needs) into helping the prophecy maker
    -In a world where the future can be seen, but only as multiple possible paths, a prophecy that predicts a specific path in order to manipulate people (including the chosen one, who has a skill the prophecy maker needs) into helping the prophecy maker
    -The prophecy maker can actually make things happen in the future by saying them.

There’s some overlap between the first three, depending on how much the facts are muddled. “Helping the prophecy maker” can also mean helping their family or their cause or anything else the prophecy maker would want to help.

Those are the only kind of prophecies that have anything more to them than “the author wants something to happen so it’s going to.”