I'm writing a fantasy novel and I've got this opening scene that takes place a year before the events of the story. It isn't long, and it involves secondary characters, but the backstory is important. It doesn't take long to get through and it sets up why certain characters in the story are the way they are by showing instead of telling. I think it would work well in a prologue, especially since its so short. I don't think it would work well going back later in the novel and telling us these events because it would distract from the flow of the story.
I know OSC doesn't like prologues much, but I've seen him use them to great affect. So, I'm debating if I should put this scene in chapter 1, or if it should go in prologue.
Matt
Posted by kings_falcon (Member # 3261) on :
It's hard to say in the abstract. A Prologue is an event that is remote in time to the main story. A year might not be remote enough.
Stephen Horn makes great use of a prologue in Laws of Gravity . He shows an apparent suicide and the police officer who responds to the call. The scene is brief, a page or two. The first chapter is about 20 years later in a different city without any of the characters mentioned in the prologue. Also, for some readers a prologue signals "skip me."
Assuming you can't get the information out in an effective way in the rest of the story, may I make a third proposal? You might make it the first chapter and then make the current first chapter the second one. While the average chapter is 10 pages, that's not a rule. Christopher Moore's new book You Suck has several chapters that are less than a page - one is just three or four lines of dialog.
Posted by Lynda (Member # 3574) on :
My novel's first two chapters take place ten years before the rest of the novel, but they're important to the story, so I made them chapters rather than prologue, which I know I often skip when reading (the histories presented in many prologues are only interesting to those who are way more anal than me, and to the author - I just want to read the story, not its background). Lots of authors will have a very short chapter here or there, so there's no reason you can't. I think it's James Patterson who sometimes will have several one-page chapters in a row, which seems choppy but certainly gives the story a quick pace.
Lynda
Posted by dee_boncci (Member # 2733) on :
Speaking as a reader that usually at best skims over prologues, often skips them, if it's integral/important to the story, put it in the story as close to where it matters as possible.
Posted by BruceWayne1 (Member # 4604) on :
as a reader I can't remember reading a prologue, I skip them and almost never miss anything, but then again how would I know right? anyhow as a reader I would suggest not putting it in if at all possible
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
I never skip prologues. If the prologue isn't any good then I just don't read the rest of the story. If the prologue is good then there's no reason to skip it. That's my rules.
Posted by djvdakota (Member # 2002) on :
Survivor, that's a good rule. Nicely put.
Posted by Spaceman (Member # 9240) on :
I always read the prologue. I've never regretted it.
Posted by PatEsden (Member # 3504) on :
Because I had been warned against using prologues, I felt uncomfortable about wanting to use one in the novel I'm working on. Then I decided not to feel guilty. My prologue happens fourteen years before the rest of the novel which happens in one week. I use the prologue to provide information which clarifies chapter one, shows that magic exists in the world and sets the tone.
I think the rule about not using prologues is a warning against long boring world building prologues--which are not boring to all readers. If you look at recently published novels you will find that a large percentage of them have prologues.
[This message has been edited by PatEsden (edited January 29, 2007).]
[This message has been edited by PatEsden (edited January 29, 2007).]
[This message has been edited by PatEsden (edited January 29, 2007).]
Posted by InarticulateBabbler (Member # 4849) on :
I never skip prologues.
A time or two I wished that I had, but most of the time I'm glad I didn't.
Posted by BruceWayne1 (Member # 4604) on :
ok let me re-phrase
as a reader I can't remember reading a prologue, I skip them and almost never miss anything, but then again how would I know right? anyhow as a reader I would suggest not putting it in if at all possible
as a LAZY reader... lol
Survivor makes a good point I will read them from now on.
I do have a question - my WIP takes place some 40,000 years into the reign of a godlike power and is the story of it's overthrow. would a prologue of say two paragraphs or so be helpful to bring the reader into this universe and let them know things that the MC takes for granted. it is very hard to fit in things that are now and always have been givens to the MC.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
If this power is "godlike" to the main characters, then it probably isn't necessary. If the "god" or anyone else of similar age interacts with the main characters at a personal level, then perhaps it would be helpful.
In a more general sense, you shouldn't use the prologue to reveal things that the main characters are going to take for granted, only things that they do not know but which will increase the dramatic tension for the reader. And it shouldn't be explained so much as demonstrated (heh heh, "show don't tell" rears its head).