Prophecy in Storytelling

Prophecy is a favourite fantasy trope, and it can be used to great effect if you’re thoughtful about it. Before you dive in to planning your oracle’s speech, or working out how to turn your carefully-constructed prediction into a poem, it’s worth having a think about whether it’s going to add to or detract from your narrative. So, should you introduce a prophecy to your story? Let’s consider the pros and cons.

Positives of Including Prophecy in Your Story

To start with, introducing a prophecy to your story can create a sense of importance, of gravity, around the events and characters. It’s a shortcut to indicating that the events playing out on the page are A Big Deal in the world you’ve created, and can also be an in for having other groups or individuals aware of and invested in what’s going on.

It encourages speculation, as readers look for opportunities for the prophecy to come together. Having a prophecy at play in your story will inevitably mean that readers pay special attention to characters and scenarios that look like they could have something to do with the eventual realisation of that prophecy. This leads us nicely on to another fun aspect…

It provides you with an opportunity to play with expectations. By having elements of your prophecy look like they’re coming true before falling through, or being fulfilled in surprising ways, you can use the existence of a prediction in your narrative to keep your audience on their toes. This can be tricky to pull off, but when done right it can be really exciting. Incidentally, careful planning can make a massive difference to how well a prophecy plays out in your story. Check out my simple three-step guide to outlining for a method to help with this part!

Prophecy Pitfalls

One example of an irritating thing that can come out of prophecies in stories is the “unbeatable” chosen one. Once you know a character is destined to do something, it cuts down on the stakes that would otherwise be in play, and you get a much less exciting read.

It can also feel like lazy writing if the course of the story is determined solely by this prophecy. Prophecy alone isn’t a great driver of plot, so it’s important to ensure your characters are invested in something beyond the fulfillment (or aversion) of the prophecy for its own sake. Consider the consequences of the prophecy coming to pass (or not), and why that might be important to your main characters and the rest of your story’s cast.

Another issue that can arise with prophecy if you’re not careful is that you can create a lose-lose situation for yourself. Readers will naturally expect the prophecy to come true, so if it does your story might feel predictable. But if it doesn’t, why have you bothered having a prophecy in the first place? In either case you’re likely to have some frustrated readers and, while it’s true that you can’t please everybody, it’s worth weighing this up before you make the decision to weave a prophecy into your storytelling.

Prophecy Can Take Many Forms!

There are two major variables to consider in a prophecy: specificity and certainty. Depending on how the prophecy is introduced, and the limitations on these kinds of predictions in the world of your stories, you can play with both of these to maximise the advantages and tone down any disadvantages. For example, a more specific prophecy might create more predictability in your story’s outcome. On the other hand, toning down the specifics gives you more room to play with interpretations, allowing your readers to debate a range of possibilities. It is possible to go too far with that though, and if you make it so vague that it could mean anything you might find that people lose interest in trying to work out how it’s going to apply.

The certainty aspect of a prophecy gives you a different angle to approach the same problems from. There is a massive difference between a prophecy that is completely accepted, and one that is known to be avoidable. Think of the ‘One of many possible futures’ style of prophecy for the latter. A prophecy that has existed since the dawn of time is more likely to be considered a done deal from a narrative point of view, and typically does more to add to the gravitas of the characters involved (if that’s a large part of your motivation for introducing prophecy in the first place). On the other hand, a prophecy with less certainty might give you more opportunity to subvert your readers’ expectations. You have to weigh up the different factors at play and decide what works best for you!

How do You Feel About Having a Prophecy in Your Story?

Prophecy is a big topic, and the question of how to write a compelling prophecy is a really tricky one. But if your question is ‘Should I have a prophecy in my story’, I hope this gives you somewhere to start!

Have you ever written a story with a prophecy? Do you have a favourite example of prophecy used in fiction? Let me know in the comments!