It depends on who you listen to actually but I could well be, you just never know do you? Usually we start from humble beginnings until Narrative Causality arrives and makes a highly unrealistic demand upon us.
"...Contrary to popular belief..." It says, "Big strong and well discipled people need a complete stranger to their ways, as well as life in general to come and free them from the evil they created themselves! You, the one who is entirely useless are such because you are the Chosen One and have Hidden Powers that can turn people into tadpoles!..."
And so on. Never fails to amaze; even our favourite Space Opera franchise involving light-up swords and an infinite variety of robots and aliens does it
We love a good conflict-loaded 'Chosen One doesn't like being chosen so rebels, loses someone dear to them as a result so grows the ferg up and does some serious Chosen One stuff, maybe meeting Wise Teacher with Beard along the way and engaging in excellently shot fight sequences..."
The trick is to find a way to - I suppose you would call it - subvert the trope. I have seen it done and, you might find this an odd choice but my clue is in the name I give it the "Raziel Paradox".
That Raziel, you know the mean-ass interesting one, not the conflict-riven adolescent angel-wuss people were thinking about. The video games which are known as The Legacy of Kain series have some of the best storytelling and coherence of narrative that I have ever seen. They also twist the whole trope of the Chosen One out of shape and beyond all recognition. If you have not played them, I highly recommend it. Either that or check out the YouTube videos but that doesn't come close, I'm afraid.
How do you break that trope? By playing with and confusing the reader, like I may well just have done...
See, I said Chosen One and you, being a writer, sort of assumed. I may have meant something else and been just leading you along, sort of thing...well, see it like this...
It comes with the territory, I think, we enjoying playing with people's minds and manipulating them, we're not entirely nice people, you realise. We also may or may not suffer from Chosen One Syndrome.
You see I look over the forums, the groups, the conversations and, as any good writer should, I observe and mentally analyse. The anger, the vicious attacking, harsh criticism and outright hatred of anything vaguely approaching religion...well now. The absolute certainty that your memoir about the almost exact same set of circumstances as hundreds of others is better because you wrote it; the conviction that you will be the one to break the mold of vampire/werewolf/zombie/angel love quadrilateral genre; that your epic fantasy will be the next Lord of the Rings of Game of Thrones...we've all done it haven't we? I admit I have.
I will say that this kind of narcissistic behaviour is normal, pretty much, for writers; we are mostly introverted, lost in our own head dreamer types; that's fine. What I don't like is the aggressive 'oh it'll thicken your skin" or "it's character building" types of 'helpful criticism which is increasingly common. You know the ones, never write anything of their own but always full of often vicious opinion on the efforts of others?
OK, some people have skin which is barely thicker than institutional toilet paper or cheap saran wrap. Some people will spontaneously sublimate into a liquid state if someone so much as frowns while reading their work. If you are writing as a way you heal from a highly traumatic even from which you have not even close to healed; one which gives you anxiety and other conditions which makes taking criticism hard; my advice to you is this; avoid Facebook Groups. You are not going to get much nice there, but you are going to get a whole lot of nasty. It's the writer stereotype!
They are certain that they are the Chosen One, simply waiting on the wings for Fame and Fortune to violently ambush them one night...
Remember the trope; one never believes that one is the Chosen One, one has to be told. Even then one does not believe for the longest time. One does not declare oneself the Chosen One; that's what the villain often does and look what happens to them once the real Chosen One shows up! Why does the villain do this?
Come on writers, you know this one! Insecurity and misplaced sense of self-value! Sometimes. A lot. Almost always. Insecure, want to murder everything villain gets understanding and valued then become nice guy...NO! NO! NO! Sorry. Try being nice to the trolls online and you'll see what I mean
Here are what I think are essential parts of the Chosen One Syndrome Survival Kit;
1). Humility. One must be humble enough to accept genuine feedback on one's work. Do not confuse humility with being a doormat though, it's all about balance.
2) It's all about balance. It actually is, everything that is is in balance with other things which are or are not. That's the key, focus on what is and create what is not. Right? You tel me, you're a writer too...last time I checked, I have neither beard nor ancient hidden wisdom...unless it's in my other robe...
3). You are the Writer, you are the story. Stop second-guessing, stop worrying so much, agonising over name, length and how many times the word 'fwibble' appears in your novel. You are writing it. Other people are not. They cannot tell YOU how to write YOUR novel. You can. Listen to you.
4). Fashion comes and fashion goes but sometimes a fashion can be created. I have mentioned our favourite tropes. Don't try to force yourself to write what is popular because there is a strong chance that it will no longer be popular by the time you finish and then what? Or you will rush it a release something truly second-rate and awful.
5). Edit. You must edit it yourself at the very least. With an iron hand and cold eyes you must do it. That is what makes a trope laden piece of awful-pie into everyone's favourite guilt trolley at the restaurant. Edit the ingredients and make the dessert to die for, not the odd lump of thing that nobody is sure about and pokes with the fork but daren't eat.
6). That balance thing again. You have to believe but not be blinded. Some of you will probably hate this word but FAITH! Have faith in your abilities, in your work and your idea/concept. Faith is the commodity one possesses which allows one to weather difficulty and groundless or destructive criticism. This faith should not be blind, though. That is why I cite balance. One must be able to be objective, if you can't, it's time to hand in your pen now.
7). Nobody is perfect. What? I-you-we-but-I...well! No were are not. We will not ever be perfect. We will never create perfection either. We can strive for it, of course but, like Sisyphus, we will never reach it. We will fall back and have to start over each time it is within our reach. (It's surprising how few people got the true meaning of that story. Goes to show how much perception plays into these things eh?). You need to strive but also be aware that you will never get there. Knowing you are not is lesson one. Knowing you will never be is lesson two. Lesson three is about how you're going to handle that and it's completely on you...
Make sense? Fragmentary and confusing as Fisher's rambles tend to be most of the time? It's all about perception and I leave the gaps quite intentionally because I want you to look for them and fill them in yourselves because one thing is certainly true. In life there is no One Right Answer and no One Wrong Answer. Therefore I will not have The Right Answer for this part of your life and; here's the kicker, nobody will. Nobody except you because do you know whose life, whose book, whose dream it is?
That's right! Now ya learnin'
Fired, not yet you are!