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| SFReader Forums > SF Fiction and Art > Right Now I'm Reading.... > the great prologue debate. do you read them? | Forum Quick Jump
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xiaotien
Adept
      
Date Joined Jul 2006
Total Posts : 562
|  Posted 12/2/2007 1:29 PM (GMT -4) |   | | as a writer, we've been warned not
to write prologues, people don't read them.
but is this true? esp in the fantasy genre
where prologues are often used?
for me, i always read the prologue.
esp if the book is good. i may skip it
and read it *after* i'm done with the
entire novel, as a treat to myself.
but if the author wrote a good tale,
everything will be read by me.
i also wrote a prologue for my first novel.
do you read prologues? have you written them?
cindy p.a little sweet, a little sour.
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ScrewMoonshine
Adept
Date Joined Aug 2005
Total Posts : 851
| Posted 12/2/2007 2:10 PM (GMT -4) | | I always read the prologue. Never even considered skipping one.
I should mention, though, that I think prologues should be short, probably under 1,500 words. Off the top of my head, I think I find that longer prologues tend to be dull, unimportant, and generally a delay on getting to the actual story. Prologues work best as either an enticing teaser or a foundation for characterizations that become important later in the book. ...Of course, all that's a load of generalizations that would likely be disproven if I just spent an hour thinking back over every book I've read.
I have written a prologue, but I tend not to use them, simply because my stories usually don't call for them. I'm much bigger on epilogues.
Robert Orme
Out now:
"Time in a Capsule" in Unparalleled Journeys II (www.journeybookspublishing.com/)
"On the Tree Top" in Ultraverse vol.3 #5 (www.ultraverse.us)
"The Scab, the Man, and the I.V." in Mount Zion Speculative Fiction Review #3 (www.mountzionpress.com)
Coming soon:
"Replacing Someone" in Aoife's Kiss #26, September 2008 (http://samsdotpublishing.com/aoife/main.htm)
"More Than One Way to Protect" in Lords of Justice (www.carnifexpress.net/blogs/) | | Back to Top | | |
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Bill Ward
Biblioholic
Date Joined Jul 2006
Total Posts : 1632
| Posted 12/2/2007 2:37 PM (GMT -4) | | | | |
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humboldthny
Stablehand
Date Joined Nov 2007
Total Posts : 17
| Posted 12/2/2007 11:03 PM (GMT -4) | | | I actually like prologues and epilogues. I consider them a bonus feature - I do agree that they should be kept relatively short and to the point. | | Back to Top | | |
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crystalwizard
Forum Moderator
Date Joined Nov 2006
Total Posts : 4586
| Posted 12/3/2007 1:41 AM (GMT -4) | | | | |
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xiaotien
Adept
Date Joined Jul 2006
Total Posts : 562
| Posted 12/4/2007 5:56 PM (GMT -4) | |
von Darkmoor said...
C.Cevasco said...It never occurred to me not to read the prologue to a novel. It's part of the story, and the author put it there for a reason, and presumably wants you to read it first. It's almost as unthinkable to me to skip the prologue as it is horrifying for me to know there are people who turn to the back of a novel to read the ending before they start reading it... I remember the first time I heard someone tell me they regularly did that, I stared at them for something like a full 10 seconds, utterly incapable of speaking as the gears in my brain seized up and began to smoke, totally unable to process what I'd just heard.  Chris
This is me! Well met, brother!
me too! my hubby does that. i can't
fathom it.
cw, it's advice given at the writing conferences and classes i've taken. i've also seen it mentioned in books on the craft. just get to the story, they say. but i take all that stuff with a grain of salt, as i do break current writing trend rules.
cindy p.a little sweet, a little sour.
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Gustavo
Sage
Date Joined Aug 2007
Total Posts : 1132
| Posted 12/5/2007 2:38 PM (GMT -4) | | I read prologues, introductions, epilogues, author's notes, footnotes and anything else in the book except the chapters from future novels. The novel I'm currently working on has a prologue which I think is important, but which wouldn't work quite as well if I called it chapter 1. That said, I never understood how it was that Robert Jordan decided that 50 page prologues are the way to go. And now, sadly, I'll never get to ask him.
Scott Card might be against prologues, but he really seems to enjoy writing his own introductions. | | Back to Top | | |
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cussedness
Adept
Date Joined Apr 2005
Total Posts : 799
| Posted 12/5/2007 5:56 PM (GMT -4) | | I have only once done an introduction and that was to my collection of chimquar stories. I think I have only written three prologues in 18 novels. The prologues were teasers, no more than two scenes long, but important nonetheless.
I read all of them intros, prologues, epilogues. I never stop to question why, I just read and read and read it all.
Janrae Frank
I have no skeletons in my closet, they are all hanging from the yardarm.
Once there were three brothers, Brandrahoon the vampire, Isranon called the Dawnhand, speaker to spirits, and Waejonan the Accursed, first of sa’necari. Isranon defied his brothers and was destroyed, his descendants forced into the darkness.
Blood Rites
www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/eBook29989.htm
website
www.janraefrank.com
Darkzone
www.janraefrank.com/Vanilla.1.0.1/ | | Back to Top | | |
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Dragon Angel
Lord Dragon
Date Joined Sep 2004
Total Posts : 1066
| Posted 12/6/2007 1:28 AM (GMT -4) | | | | |
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