posted
I have taken the habit of using Prologues in my novels, usually as a way to first expose the conflict.
Now, I wonder if that is a bad practice. Should I start the novels with the protagonist and where they enter the story or is it stylistically acceptable to first introduce the antogonist and/or conflict?
My stories, which do feature several bards, often include a tangeant substory in the form of a bardic tale. I try to limit these to stories that are relvant to the primary story either in character development or plot repitition. Chapter wise, I call these Interims but I am not sure what the appropriate label is.
Where Interims are either antagonist short scenes or bardic tale short story tangeants.
MY ultimate point of discussion would be two points. Should I start without the prologue at chapter 1 with my protagonists? Is this kind of story structure acceptable?
Some will like it; some won't. Some people love the songs in Lord of the Rings; others skip them.
My own experience is that whichever character opens a book or a film is the character I then identify with. So if you don't want ME to identify with your antagonist, don't start with them . Other people read books differently.
There is no one size fits all. Do what you think works.
posted
I would also vote for leaving out maps, glossaries, character lists...but again, that's just me .
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posted
Okay, so when not using a prologue, when is a good time to break pace and flip to cover the antagonist?
I have a novel that currently starts with a prologue. Gist is that an insignificant demon-lord uncovers information of the physical realm that would gain him passage there on a permanent basis(this is explained to be a very big deal). IN chapter one, Pantros (my frequent protagonist) finds this item accidentally (it fell out of a gem merchant's safe, really) and is suddenly the target of the demon lord's minions' hunt. In high fantasy tradition, sadly bordering on cliche, he goes on a quest to rid himself of the cursed key gathering a group of friends/allies on the way.
Especially if it's an epic novel with lots of travel and generations of people. I don't like maps that aren't accurate to the story (though it could be that the author messed up).
I like prologues if they are done right. I don't think they belong in every book, but I read them when they are there.
posted
For a time, there seemed to be a rule that any fantasy novel with a map in it was, almost by definition, unreadable. You knew that the protagonists were (for no terribly good reason) going to visit every place marked on th emap, while ignoring anything and everywhere else.
I actualy don't mind glossaries and usually include a "Dramatis personae" scorecard for my novels (though as much for my benefit as anyone else's) - picked up this habit, to an extent, from Dorothy Dunnett (historical novelist of exceptional talent, whose books feature casts of hundreds, as sometimes do mine).
Whereas I've never felt remotely inclined to include quotes (real or made-up), song extracts, proverbs or legends as chapter sub-titles. I do use quotes within text - people regularly quote (or even misquote) literature in one of my milieux, but of course it's literature that no reader could possibly have read, or know. The idea is that the meaning is plain by context, and it gives the world-building an additional density when people can watch plays (one character even uses printed theatrical texts to help her learn new languages - she tries to get a copy of "Martos and Galatheo" everywhere she travels...).
posted
When I say bard's tales, I mean I insert a short story as a chapter (called an interim) and make sure that the story helps build the novel.
For example, my novel "The Ballad of Emily" is told from the perspective of Katriene. Now, Katriene is not the kind of person to talk about herself, so to tell the tale of her past, Emily and Katriene visit with one of Katriene's bard friends who tells two tales (separated by a chapter of base plot development) One of these tales is of Katriene's heroics in a battle a year prior. The other mentions a forbiddin form of magic that Emily later utilizes. Later in the story they stay at an inn where another bard tells another tale of Katriene. Her valor in the previous year's war spread her fame across the country. Katriene is far too humble to even expect the fame so I have other's tell her story for her.
quote:Okay, so when not using a prologue, when is a good time to break pace and flip to cover the antagonist?
Whenever you want to.
I have a paranormal suspense novel that uses dramatic point of view from the antagonist and in my case, I basically keep things going in pure chronological order. The novel takes place (for the most part) over a few days and timing is crutial. That's one option.
Another option is to switch to the antagonist to break up some otherwise less interesting things, to keep the pace going.
Another option is to switch to the antagonist to add more tension to already tense happenings...the protagonist just fell off a cliff and...antagonist stuff...protagonist is saved by _____.
Yet another option is to do is at regular intervals, like every 4 chapters.
Whatever works for you, for your book's pacing, for the tension, is fine. There are no hard and fast rules here.
posted
I use quotes (entirely made up) to open my alternate history novels, and I've also made up many of the sayings that appear and all the books that are mentioned. Some may like that; some certainly will not .
I am not sure you need to let the reader in on why the protagonist is being pursued for the macguffin, I mean magical item, until the point where he finds out that information himself. It can work either way, but there's tension in having a character pursued and threatened without the reader understanding why. Unanswered questions are a strong incentive to keep reading to uncover the answers.
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. Other people read books differently.
