Fantasy has a great love affair with prophecies. From King Arthur to Eragon, prophecy is to fantasy what DNA traces are to CSI screenwriters - overused, underutilised, and usually nonsense.

They come in two flavours, usually:

• We're All Doomed (but really I just meant that it'll be a little bit rainy on that day, everything's going to be fine.)
• We're Going To Win (but there's going to be a really big kick up the bum for somebody).

There's occasionally a prophecy like 'everyone will wear hats on Thursday' but unless you're Terry Pratchett, prophecies are rarely so incidental to your plot. In fact, they're usually the whole plot: Here is the Hero, Here is the Prophecy, Here is the Resolution, Hah, I bet you didn't see that coming!

Well, yes, that's exactly the problem. We did. The resolution of a book has to give the reader something they were sort-of-mostly expecting, but in an unexpected way. James Bond never just strolls in to the premesis and shoots everyone; Frodo doesn't borrow one of those giant Eagles, fly to Mordor in an hour or so and pop in to drop off the ring (though now I'm wondering why not...) there are creative, elaborative and exciting convolutions to the plot to surprise the reader, to draw the story to a conclusion that's just slightly skewiff from the one they were expecting.

So when we're given a prophecy, we know that it can't come true exactly as predicted - if it does, we're yawning, and a tad irritated with the author for wasting our time. So, as soon as the prophecy is announced, we start calculating the likelihood of the different interpretations, and therefore the different endings.

Some authors try to edge around this with obscurity. "Ooh, I'll make it a metaphor-bomb, so that no one will be really sure what it means!" Sure, this does remove the probability that the reader can work out your plot from one sentence. It also removes everything else your prophecy was giving to your story. Instead of having any kind of depth or meaning, it's now just "prophecy-poem", with all the hidden layers of a cheese sandwich.

The point of prophecy

Prophecy can be a force for good in the novel, if used well:

• It adds foreshadowing, giving the reader a strong feeling for what the plot's about and where it's going
• It highlights the problems the characters will have to face - they'll need to defeat the bad guy, or survive imminent destruction
• It adds significance to events that might otherwise be too muted. This is only relevant if said events are actually important to the story.
• It simplifies the plot, if it's convoluted or complex
• It resonates with our standard 'myth' structures (because prophecies generally are standard myth structures themselves)

Now, if the prophecy can't be readily understood, you lose all of that. Worse, your reader may spend time trying to work out the  deliberately obtuse prophecy instead of paying attention to the story. Your characters look like idiots, paying such attention to something that they can never be sure of the meaning of (especially if they are certain of their interpretation, because it's almost invariably wrong) and your reader winds up feeling like there's a big meaningful chewy centre of the book that they're just not allowed to have. Just because. So nyah.

The clear structure a comprehensible prophecy gives to the novel is probably a large part of its appeal to authors. It signposts the way through the book not just for the reader but for the writer as well - the character arc, the story arcs, the pacing and development are all dictated by the needs of that prophecy. The big drawback here is that they invite severe and fatal laziness of storytelling:

• It's a magic bullet for any plot hole or character motivation. Why are they doing this? Because there's a prophecy! Even if they don't understand the prophecy (actually, especially when they don't understand), it's there and it's surely real and it's a perfectly valid excuse for why I'm halfway up a mountain with a bucket of pig ears.
• Prophecy does not equal plot. Or it shouldn't, but too often an author comes up with a prophecy, plugs some characters in and goes home. It goes from adding to the foreshadowing to just being the entire foreshadowing. And the development. And the denoument. Woo, three-for-one, bargain!
• Prophecy usually demands centerstage - even if it's being mocked, it's still what everyone's talking and thinking about. That's not necessarily the most interesting or compelling part of your story or world.
• It's been done before. So many times. Give people a prophecy in a book and they roll their eyes and start running bets on which way you'll resolve it.
• It's contrived. Prophecies are typically the author shoving a great big billboard in the plot, and it's obvious. "We don't normally know what the future holds except for this bit right here, we're absolutely sure about that one, yes sir."
• It's a simple, basic story, and not necessarily the best one for your characters or world.

Too often, prophecy is standing in for an author not bothering to really look at their story and find the weaknesses or the underlying reasons. You have a character, and they're going to be special. Why are they special? Because there's a prophecy, just accept that they're special. Why do they want the MacGuffin? Because the prophecy says it's important. Why doesn't Big Bad Meanie just kill them? Because he's afraid of the prophecy.

It's a crutch. It actively prevents the author from developing real, engaging motivations and inner workings for the story and the characters, and turns the story into shadow puppets. All surface and appearance. It gets in the way of discovering what the real story is.

It's also not something you can easily get rid of once it's in the novel - a prophecy plugs into our basic drives as readers, that need to know the structure of what we're reading, to know where it's going, and it resonates with our myth constructions. Set up a prophecy that doesn't pay off in some way and you'll lose your readers. Not because they're miffed, but because the structure no longer makes sense. You started with Bohemian Rhapsody and ended up with Happy Birthday.

There are exceptions, of course. If your main character is, in fact, the one who makes the prophecies, then prophecy deserves centrestage, and you might well have a rich and developed world and character right there. But if prophecy is hanging around because it was a convenient coathook, take a long hard look at what it's really adding to your story.

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Comments (2)

• |2011-06-10 08:20:14 Florence Obieri
  Really loved this post-- I bounced here off a comment you left at Dean Wesley Smith's (http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=4331), and just started reading around generally until I came across this. You really break down the whole prophecy thing very well, addressing things I've always grumped about (useless prophecies that everyone follows anyway!!) AND bringing in new-to-me stuff (prophecy stories being basic stories) as well.
  
  Now, I'm generally not the kind of author that thinks deeply about story structure and similar technical things while I'm writing, but I do love a technical explanation that exposes the inner workings of a story device to me properly. Even if I don't use it directly (e.g. wake up and be like, today, I shall use PROPHECY!1!), it definitely informs my writing and makes it easier to sort out problems.
  
  Just wanted to let you know I got something out of this. Probably going to be combing your archives for more ;)
  Reply

• |2011-06-10 08:51:59 Sofie Bird  - Thank you
  Thanks for the feedback Florence, great to hear you enjoyed it. Gave me a good reminder for some things I should post about in future, too!
  
  I'm similar as a writer: when I'm knee-deep in a scene, I'm not thinking about structure other than "Oh, better make a note to make sure I've mentioned this thing that they're about to use before they use it". But I find that analysing and exploring tropes and structures and similar things helps me steer the story subconsciously, so I find less groan-worthy gaffs when I edit.
  Reply

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