Hello!

[sparkle creature]

Hi, I'm an aspiring fantasy writer! I love world building and making scenes in those worlds, but I have so many different ideas it's hard for me to stick to one and go with it. Up until a few days ago, I had been working on one story, and this morning I discovered an old idea I had-- a story concerning a prophecy. I somehow ended up here, on a thread about writing prophecies, so here I am!

 

[pmmg]

Howdy Sparkle, Welcome here.

There was probably a prophecy about you joining somewhere along the way.

 

[ThrillhoBaggins]

Hello, glad to have you here.
I work on collaborative fiction. It would be great to work together!

 

[PudgeThePug]

I know how you feel about juggling ideas. I finally landed on a solid story that I've been struggling with for over a year. Hope to hear about your updates. Welcome to the forum.

 

[ThrillhoBaggins]

Prophecy stories are interesting to me because how do you not just spoil the whole story? lol

 

[PudgeThePug]

Prophecy stories are interesting to me because how do you not just spoil the whole story? lol

Keep the prophecy ambiguous. Have the readers come to different conclusions about how it's interpreted. It's a cool tool if it isn't straight forward.

 

[ThrillhoBaggins]

By ambiguous, do you mean vague?

 

[PudgeThePug]

By ambiguous, do you mean vague?

I guess in a way. Ambiguity would be a better fit. Is the main character good or bad? Would things have been different if the choices made were different? In the end, was it justice or tyranny? It teeters in a way that can be argued from different angles.

 

[ThrillhoBaggins]

I might take the approach of just not revealing the prophecy until well after the fact and avoid the whole thing.

 

[Prince of Spires]

Prophecy stories are interesting to me because how do you not just spoil the whole story? lol

The idea of spoiling the story is overrated.

People care a lot less about it than they claim and research actually points at people enjoying stories more if they have been spoiled beforehand.

Just consider: if you pick up a romance story, you know the two protagonists will get together. Pick an adventure story, the hero will win. Pick an epic fantasy tale, and the evil overlord will be overthrown.

Yes, there are examples of great stories that end differently. However, for most tales, the reader will know the generic outcome as soon as they start reading. The outcome doesn't matter. It's how you get that that matters.

And of course, great prophecy stories will resolve the prophecy in an unexpected way while trying to convince the reader that the prophecy is either broken or will have a different outcome.

 

[xena]

The stories always just come to you!! We're happy to have you here!

 

[ThrillhoBaggins]

Just consider: if you pick up a romance story, you know the two protagonists will get together. Pick an adventure story, the hero will win. Pick an epic fantasy tale, and the evil overlord will be overthrown.

Those don't sound like very positive attributes to me.

 

[Prince of Spires]

Those don't sound like very positive attributes to me.

In what sense?

 

[ThrillhoBaggins]

Probably being too predictable.