Prologues

[allmywires]

Originally Posted by alchemist

...if you're going to do it, keep it short.

Which mine wouldn't be, so I cut it!

Originally Posted by Gumboot

I'm a fan of the prologue, but I too wouldn't be overly keen on an info-dump prologue. I think that can usually be better achieved by sprinkling information through the books.

Yeah, and also not knowing the mythology part means you can't immediately guess just what's so odd about this one character in particular...It'd be too obvious otherwise. And where's the fun in that eh

EDIT: whoops, Christian, I missed your post. It might have a little something to do with the fact I've already written this in-depth mythology and don't want to see it go to waste...

[springs]

It's hard to let go of bits of the book. I've done it twice now, once cutting 50000 off the start, the next time 20000, but I kept 5000 as the prologue. Each time it was like letting a bit of me go, but it did improve it. I think.
What I kind of thought was none of it was wasted cos the fact I know it means it all stays consistent, and it made it all more real to me.

[SJAB]

Originally Posted by alchemist

Indeed. On the other hand, a myth-laden prologue may turn people off. I echo what others have said -- if you're going to do it, keep it short.

Short, no, you don't have too. Scott Lynch's in the Lies of Locke Lamora is huge!

It doesn't matter if you have a prologue or not, whether it is one page or fifty. The important thing about your novel should be that it is the best story you can write. Folks do seem to get hung up on the so called do's and don'ts that litter the net and in writing guide books. Prologue, epilogue, chapters of such and such a length. I must have such and such number of sub plots.I must not have farm boys on quests with dragons etc, etc. I could go on and on.

Just put your effort into writing a good solid plot with interesting characters. Then edit it within an inch of its life, tightening the plot line, making the characters more interesting and smoothing out any grammar bumps/bad sentence construction. Wipe its nose, pat its bum, then send it out and start on the next book! It is very rare for a first book to make it, but what you learn writing that one might help the next one or the one after that make it.

[Glen]

I'm with Vertigo on this topic. I like a prologue, and the opportunity it affords to cruise away from everyday concerns and into the heart of the story.

I like them so much I've put a whole series of them in my book. I'm thinking I might take out more of the story to leave room for more prologues.

Not a big fan of epilogues though. There's only room for one ending.

[Bowler1]

My view is not to do prologues at all when writing and to get straight into the characters of the story which I think are the real hook to keep the reader turning pages.

I don't mind prologues in books I read and they can give a peek at whats to come, but I like them really short as a personal perference.

As per Glen, one ending.

[Warren_Paul]

In my books I use the prologue - and interludes - to show bits of the story from a particular character that will not feature anywhere else in the book. They are really just another chapter, but I use the different names to separate them, since they really are their own story apart from the other characters - but what happens is still relevant to the overall plot.

It's something Russell Kirkpatrick did in his Husk series that I quite liked. In his books the interludes between parts showed what the villain was getting up to during each part of the story.

The epilogue is supposed to tie the book into the next one and show how the story continues - unless it's the final book in the series, then it's just wrapping it up and answering every leftover question; showing what the characters did after the story.

[Hex]

Personal preference, isn't it.

(I got stuck on The Lies of Locke Lamora -- I've tried to read it four or five times but the prologue draws me in and then I get irritated with the rest of the book. I will conquer it. I will read the whole book one day.)

I like epilogues, though.

[allmywires]

Originally Posted by Warren_Paul

In my books I use the prologue - and interludes - to show bits of the story from a particular character that will not feature anywhere else in the book. They are really just another chapter, but I use the different names to separate them, since they really are their own story apart from the other characters - but what happens is still relevant to the overall plot.

Yes. I like the idea of doing a subplot for a different set of characters in the same world, or in the past, that give meaning to some events that happen during the novel.

Originally Posted by Hex

I like epilogues, though.

Epilogues when they're done well - great. Epilogues where you find out so-and-so got married and lived happily ever after and have their 2.4 children with a picket fence...no thanks (Looking at you Jo Rowling!)

[Warren_Paul]

Originally Posted by Hex

Personal preference, isn't it.

(I got stuck on The Lies of Locke Lamora -- I've tried to read it four or five times but the prologue draws me in and then I get irritated with the rest of the book. I will conquer it. I will read the whole book one day.)

I like epilogues, though.

I'm having the same problem with Tigana. I liked the prologue, but as soon as I hit chapter one, it went really heavy writing style and lost me. I'm determined to finish it one day though - I just hope things go back to the way the prologue was written.

[Montero]

Since you are talking about gods, there is the other option of the quote from a religious book at the start of each chapter.

In terms of reading prologues, it comes down to "it depends on the prologue". The general type I like the best are the ones which are a couple of pages and basically say "big bad coming". Then the books starts with the happy characters, all oblivious of big bad coming, but we know its there.

The other "thing" is keeping the prologue similar to the rest of the book. As the last couple of posts have already said, is that what can happen when they are quite different, is that you could lose readers who like the prologue but not the book, and fail to attract some who would have liked the book but bounce off the prologue.

I sometimes start a book with a prologue, rapidly hit yawn/irritation whatever, flick forward to the actual start of the book to see if I am going to like that, and if the answer is yes, I might go back and plough through the prologue to get the information in it.

[Vertigo]

Originally Posted by Montero

Since you are talking about gods, there is the other option of the quote from a religious book at the start of each chapter.

I know some people hate it but I actually like this approach as well. Neal Asher does this a lot. He uses a number of different 'sources' including 'quotes' from a fictional character with no other involvement in the story, extracts from 'books' on the biology of a planet and so on. These allow him to drip feed background info that would otherwise have been hard to bring in without clumsy info dumps.

So long as these chapter intros are short and relevant to the chapter I love them. They're not to long to be boring but tell me not only important background but also give me an idea where this chapter is going to be going. Both things I like.

[Menion]

I like Prologues that just so filled with action they make you keep reading till you finnish it then you stop take a breath mutter "wow" and then start the first chapter allready enjoying the book.
I prefer to have a discription of the lore and world to be fitted in to the first few chapters rather then the Prologues.
I want something easy and enjoyable as a prologue.

[Warren_Paul]

Originally Posted by Menion

I like Prologues that just so filled with action they make you keep reading till you finnish it then you stop take a breath mutter "wow" and then start the first chapter allready enjoying the book.
I prefer to have a discription of the lore and world to be fitted in to the first few chapters rather then the Prologues.
I want something easy and enjoyable as a prologue.

I agree, I want prologues to be action that introduces the world/background, not a narrator making an exposition into the world and boring us to death.

For instance, I couldn't stand the history lesson Tad Williams gave us at the beginning of Shadowmarch - the book was brilliant though - I skipped it.

But Joe Abercrombie on the other hand had a prologue which introduced one of the protagonists running away from a group of tribemen like people. Granted it was only a few pages, but it was action, and humorous too. I loved it.

[Boneman]

Originally Posted by Warren_Paul

But Joe Abercrombie on the other hand had a prologue which introduced one of the protagonists running away from a group of tribemen like people. Granted it was only a few pages, but it was action, and humorous too. I loved it.

Me too... but it could equally have been chapter one. I've tried prologues and even posted one or two here, but in the end (ie when I'd actually finished the book) and I looked back and reviewed the whole thing, I saw I didn't need it at all. Especially since the prologue in book one was effectively really a set up for book three - that was taking things a bit too far!

[Warren_Paul]

Originally Posted by Boneman

Me too... but it could equally have been chapter one. I've tried prologues and even posted one or two here, but in the end (ie when I'd actually finished the book) and I looked back and reviewed the whole thing, I saw I didn't need it at all. Especially since the prologue in book one was effectively really a set up for book three - that was taking things a bit too far!

I'm pretty sure I really should call my prologue chapter 1, because that's what it is, but there is a system to the way my book is structured. The prologue and interlude (chapter between Part One and Part Two) feature a PoV that isn't anywhere else in the book. So I separate it from the rest of the book by calling it a prologue.


Which brings up an interesting question, does it matter what the word is at the beginning of the chapter. Does it matter if it says Prologue, or Chapter One?