Jo Zebedee on writing – Being Chosen

One of the themes I return to, time and time again, is what it’s like to be a real person facing extraordinary circumstances. I’m convinced that, thrown into fictional events, most of us would be barely sane. I find it hard enough to get to the end of each day intact, with everything vaguely done as it should be, let alone finding time and energy to save the galaxy.

Which is where my fascination with the concept of the ‘chosen one’ comes from. Like most genre writers, I’ve had my share of reading tropes. I am, first and foremost, a character reader (and writer). I’m not turned on by plot, so much, or cool action, but characters and what makes them tick. Which makes me less than tolerant of characters who don’t act like real people. And, especially, of characters put through the mill, shown from afar (even if it appears close), getting up, dusting themselves off, and completing the journey.

None of us would do that. It’s simply not real. The bravest person has their demons. In fact, anxiety disorders are prevalent in ‘copers’. But in fiction it’s not cool to admit that. Instead, our characters go all macho (Ripley, I’m looking at you, sadly), grit their teeth, and make it to the end.

Very few chosen ones come across to me as human. In fact, one of the earliest and greatest, sets the bar for a believability that is rarely matched . Frodo, damaged and lost and, most of all, changed by events. So, too, Paul Atreides, aged by his role. For me, they’re the benchmark, the great characters who meet the challenge and, even if they pass it, lose something. It’s like a magic system: we can’t be remarkable without personal cost. In modern literature, Kvothe (The Kingkiller Chronicles) might be the closest I’ve found to the mix of vulnerability with greatness that makes (for me) a great, if not chosen one, central character.

Given the above, and that I’m a character writer, and hellishly honest, it’s perhaps not surprising I turned to the trope of the chosen one for my first book. I plunder the trope openly. Great ancestry, great expectations, great power – Kare is set up to be the ultimate chosen one.

Except he’s vulnerable. He suffers. He does what most of us would do if we were in his (hideous) position – he breaks. And, in breaking, he’s human. Once we have a human chosen one, we get to ask why the trope is there. What is gained by making our heroes superhuman? What happens if they’re not? And in asking those questions, we shine the light genre reflects on our own world.

It’s okay to not be perfect. It’s unreal to be invincible. The trope is there for fantasy and escapism, yes. But we’re not that person. No one is.

And that’s what I wanted from my trilogy – to take the mirror that is genre and send the message that it’s okay to break. Because, sometimes, in breaking, we find our true strength. I hope, over the three books, I do that theme justice.

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Jo Zebedee writes science fiction and fantasy, sometimes in a big space opera world, sometimes on the streets of Belfast. Her debut novel, Abendau’s Heir, the first of a trilogy, is available on Amazon or through ticketyboopress.co.uk.

More of her thoughts on writing, the universe and everything can be found at jozebwrites.blogspot.co.uk