Fate Can Be Meaningless

I believe in a sort of fate. I believe that everything that happens is a direct result of what happened before it, which is itself a result of something that happened even further back in time. If you take this all the way back, once the universe was created everything was set into motion. We can't stop it because whether we try to stop it or embrace it, we are equally bound to choose so.

However, this does not involve any kind of planning. Nobody is making specific things happen. You may have been destined to be born, but that doesn't mean you were born for a reason. You simply happened to be the particular combination of genes that grew and didn't die and was raised in a particular area and time. Call it dumb luck that you are exactly who you ended up being (even though you couldn't escape becoming it).

Traditionally, any stories dealing with fate imply a purpose. Somebody becomes The Chosen One because they have the purest heart or maybe because they needed to realize their self-worth. But that is not the only way to treat the subject.

A story that mentions fate could try tackling the idea that the world is predestined, but not crafted. Characters would have to struggle not against fate, but against their own ideas of self-importance, eventually finding ways to cope with it, however they may be.

Actually, the more I talk about it, the more I like that idea. Give it a shot. Write a section of that story. Try covering a moment of revelation, where a character either begins to understand the gravity of fate, or one where a character comes to terms with it. If you like it, then carry on with it.