How to get across to the reader a character’s prophetic abilities

Question

My protagonist is speaking to my interpretation of the three fates from Greek mythology. He doubts their abilities until one of them echoes his every word as, or an instant before, he utters them. How would I best construct this in dialogue? Any help or incites would be graciously received.

Answer 1

It depends on your writing style. Assuming you are writing with a character's voice (the narrator voice is filtered through the viewpoint of your protagonist as opposed to being separate) then you would want to use your character's observations, thoughts, etc. to set up and accomplish this.

Examples:

• My voice seems to echo, and I realize that as I speak one of the so-called fates speaks with me— somehow they know my words before I ever utter them.
• John opened his mouth to ask why they were messing with him, but before he could utter a sound the third "fate" mimicked his unspoken words back to him as though plucking them from his mind. "What game are you playing?"
• Enough of this. All he wanted was to know what had happened to his family, and they were wasting his time. "I'm tired of playing your games!" His words sounded louder than expected, and he took a step back at the realization one of the so-called fates had spoken them with him. "He wants to ask us where his sister is," said another.

If your narrator voice is more distant from the character, you would write things differently. As I said, it all depends on your style. As an example of a slightly more detached narrator:

• Despite the odd things he had seen, John could still not bring himself to believe that they were actually beings out of Greek Mythology. The very idea seemed ludicrous to him. "What game are you playing?" he demanded. Atropos, having grown tired of John's disbelief, spoke the words with him, and the three fates watched as the mortal's eyes grew wide.

These may not be very well-written examples, but I hope you get the idea? Depending on the voice you write with, use descriptions, thoughts, intentions, dialogue tags, etc., whatever works with your style.