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How Do You Not Misuse/Overuse Premonitions?

KittenEV

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Hi all. I don't know if this is the right section or not.

I have a conundrum. I'm in the process of detailing out a story before I write it and I want one of the characters to be blind but get premonitions (sort of like a trade for his eyesight he got to see the future).

My problem comes in with how to use this. How do I have this plot device without overusing it or making it a crutch or making it like a deus ex machina?
 

bleep

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Hm. Maybe have that character's premonitions be somewhat quirky and not always effective? Meaning, they might sometimes get premonitions for things that are not necessarily significant, so that when they are significant, they would be that much more significant, and less like a superpower?

This seems like it would be a fun problem to have. ; )
 

ChaseJxyz

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Have you ever seen the show That's So Raven? It's about a teen girl who's a psychic and she can see the future, so at the start of the episode she'd see something like a bucket of paint getting dropped on her and ruining her new dress, so she does all these whacky things to keep it from happening...but it happens anyway in a way she may not expect at all. One time she saw her kissing her crush and she was all excited because she thought that it meant they were going to get together, but he ended up kissing her for some sad reason and he didn't have the same feelings for her.

We all have expectations to things and we jump to conclusions when we don't have the full story. If you got out of a movie and saw you had 5 missed calls from your mother, what are you going to assume it's going to be? Probably something really bad happened and she needed to get ahold of you. But maybe a grandkid was playing with her phone, or she buttidaled you a lot, or she needed to test if her phone worked and just used your number as a test. So your character having a premonition or a more literal seeing of things of the future won't have the full context of what's going on, so his biases and preconceived notions are going to cause him to assume things, like how Raven assumed the kiss with her crush was because he would like her, too.

Funnily enough I also have a blind character but he doesn't get visions, he just helps a seer with hers. But he was born blind so he has to be taught what things look like. If he sees something outside, for example, knowing what the grass or trees look like at different times of year can help him figure out when the vision is going to take place, but since he's never seen these things himself he has to be taught these things. He has magic so he can sort of "ride" on someone else's senses to see for a bit but someone still had to sit down with him and tell him the difference between green and brown grass.

When did your character lose his sight? How blind is he? Most blind people can see SOMETHING, but it's usually so poor quality it doesn't help them much. There are plenty of animals whose "eyes" are just binary "is that a shadow above me" type things and they manage perfectly fine, but our society is based around being able to see things and make decisions based on that. If your character has been blind/low-vision all or the majority of his life, he might not know how to read "regular" written language, so if he gets a premonition of a news broadcast and the volume is off, he won't be able to read the BREAKING NEWS! PRESIDENT ASSASSINATED and would be missing the most important part of what's going on. Though he could definitely learn how to read "regular" writing, but it would require finding specialists and specific devices to create raised print and not just braille. If this takes place in a modern society, there are going to be non-profits that help blind/low-vision people learn the skills to successfully navigate the world, especially people who lose their vision later in life.
 

TrapperViper

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I think Dune does this with the protagonist, Paul Atrades (i know I spelled the name wrong). He is blind but can see the future. Also Neo...
 

MaeZe

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Those are great ideas! Better than mine:

JK Rowling did it with Professor Trelawney's Divinations class in Harry Potter. She was mostly never right but every once in a while she'd have a real premonition.
 

frimble3

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I have read, here, that coincidence can be used to cause problems, but not to solve them.
Keep the premonitions from being too 'on the nose' or immediately useful. Use the fact that he's blind to make him have to work to figure things out.
When did he lose his eyesight? And when did he start having premonitions?
 

Z0Marley

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I think it's most important to make sure that the premonitions are not the solution to conflict/issues. If it solves the problems, it's a deus ex machina. You can have the premonitions be confusing. Having a blind seer is nothing new, but if you allowed these visions to be exceptionally confusing to the seer, and he or she is 'seeing' things that he or she may not really understand. For example, a blind person may use a microwave, but seeing the physical appearance of one across the house may not register that it's microwave unless he or she sees someone actually using it. This could be a really interesting take on a blind seer, while allowing for your premonitions not to feel like a crutch.
 

armgrab

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One thing I've always wanted to see done more with precognitive characters is looking at how they, specifically, react to the visions they're having. What are the psychological issues that come with knowing how the future is going to play out? If the futures they see are immutable, I could see a character becoming fatalistic, possibly isolating themselves from others so as not to get emotionally attached (sort of like Dr. Manhattan). But if the future is capable of being changed, that's almost worse. Because they now have the duty to prevent bad things from happening in the future, and no idea how to do it, and they are (I assume) only one person. Do they hold themselves responsible whenever they're unable to stop bad premonitions? Do they have trust issues when they encounter somebody they know is going to do something bad but hasn't done it yet and have the Minority Report dilemma of how to judge them as a person? What are their interpersonal relationships like in general?

I don't know if any of that is helpful or not. I just feel like there should be more precogs that feel like real people and not just plot devices.