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| Posted By : xiaotien - 12/2/2007 12:29 PM | | 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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| Posted By : ScrewMoonshine - 12/2/2007 1:10 PM | 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/) |
| Posted By : xiaotien - 12/2/2007 1:14 PM | thank you robert.
out of curiosity, i checked to
see how long my prologue is.
it's 1100 words or so.
you don't need to read it to
follow my main story. but i think
it adds depth to the tale.
interestingly enough, no epilogue
in this first novel.
cindy p.
a little sweet, a little sour.
|
| Posted By : Bill Ward - 12/2/2007 1:37 PM | Anyone who skips a prologue should do time in a Ecuadorian prison.
billwardwriter.com |
| Posted By : darkbow - 12/2/2007 3:45 PM | I always read the prologue. And epilogues. And intermission. And whatever's in a novel. Except preview chapters for the next novel, because I don't want anything ruined for me.
If I had an agent or publisher who didn't like prologues, and I had a prologue, I would probably just rename the prologue "Chapter 1" and adjust the rest of the chapters. No big deal to me. But I will say most prologues I've seen aren't really worth separating from the rest of the story, though a few have been.
www.tyjohnston.blogspot.com
"Hot Off the Press" available in Ray Gun Revival #25.
"Deep in the Land of the Ice and Snow" upcoming in the Flashing Swords anthology, "The Return of the Sword: A New Age of Heroic Adventure." |
| Posted By : Daniel - 12/2/2007 3:46 PM | I read 'em, but over the years I've grown to flinch a bit when I see one. Why not just start the dang story? And of course, the prologue almost always ends with a "cliffhanger" which then gets me started trying to second-guess the author right off the bat.
The last prologue I remember buggin me was from "Perdido Street Station" because the opening of the novel made it seem like the actual central plot would have something to do with the prologue and it does, but the 'central" plot was soon shunted off in favor of digression after digression aimed at clarifying the need for workers of the world to unite!
I've skipped more epilogues than prologues. Some epilogues -- like say the extensive epilogues in Irving's "World According to Garp" are relentlessly frustrating, as though old boy just didn't know how to end a novel.
"Art is the celebration of the ego's destruction."
Daniel |
| Posted By : Dragon Angel - 12/2/2007 7:02 PM | I skip prologues if they are a description of the world. I've seen prologues that go on for 10 pages describing the world the novel is set in. Obviously the writer feels that they can't describe it as the story progresses. Which should have been a sign to me that the book would stink, because it did turn out to be bad.
read free fiction and poetry at http://www.geocities.com/davidolson22/index.html
Part dark, part light. And gooey in the middle. |
| Posted By : C.Cevasco - 12/2/2007 8:36 PM | 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
Christopher M. Cevasco, Editor/Publisher
Paradox: The Magazine of Historical and Speculative Fiction
http://www.paradoxmag.com |
| Posted By : humboldthny - 12/2/2007 10:03 PM | | 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. |
| Posted By : von Darkmoor - 12/2/2007 11:08 PM |
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!
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| Posted By : von Darkmoor - 12/3/2007 1:11 AM | this topic comes up once a year or so, if someone cares to search and find an old one we covered this pretty thoroughly before - I was at that stage Chris describes, marveling at the idea people didn't read them and that there were people who read the end first - if I recall properly, I believe Orson Scott Card is not a proponent of prologues . ..
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| Posted By : Hearthweru - Yesterday 8:18 AM | |
Good timing, last night I read a chapter about prologues in Between the lines: master the subtle elements of fiction writing by Jessica Page Morrell (which is excellent).
She lists eleven benefits of using a prologue and a page or so on prologue pitfalls, and offers some good insights and techniques on writing good prolgues and what they should achieve.
Personally, I always read them.
'Haiku Short' at Liar's League...
'Grimble' at Southern Ocean Review...
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| Posted By : von Darkmoor - Yesterday 10:24 AM | Hey, cool info, thanks Hearthweru. I think I'll take a gander at that there book.
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| Posted By : bleacheddecay - Yesterday 11:02 AM | In Doc and Fluff, I was specifically warned that the writer gave away the whole story in the prologue and that I shouldn't read it. By the time I got around to reading the book, I'd forgotten. I was about half way through when I remembered. So I stopped, read the book then came back and finished the prologue. LOL.
bleacheddecay |
| Posted By : Daniel - Yesterday 4:39 PM | 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
***
Yeah, I caught this "bug" in middle-school from one of my slacker friends and flipped forward in books for about 10 years. I am now in a 12 step recovery program!
Haven't flipped forward in years; still have all that bad karma to pay off though, relative to the poor writers to whom I showed so much disrespect.....
BTW, flipping forward killed the suspense for school-work, too. It was utterly anticlimactic when we finally reached Geometry because I'd already flipped ahead and read about the Isosceles triangle!
Chris is right, flipping forward is a bad habit and an ugly one.
"Art is the celebration of the ego's destruction."
Daniel |
| Posted By : xiaotien - Yesterday 4:56 PM |
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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| Posted By : Hamstersbane - Today 1:34 PM | Read them, write them...even occasionally eat them!
Jeff Parish
Jennings Grove, an online horror serial novel
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| Posted By : Gustavo - Today 1:38 PM | 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. |
| Posted By : cussedness - Today 4:56 PM | 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/ |
| Posted By : xiaotien - Today 5:10 PM |
cussedness said...I read all of them intros, prologues, epilogues. I never stop to question why, I just read and read and read it all.
thank god for book lovers!
i def hold off on intros and such.
i like to read them after finishing the
novel as a "treat" for myself.
cindy p.
a little sweet, a little sour.
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| Posted By : Daniel Ausema - Today 9:13 PM | I always read prologues, etc. Maybe because of that, I hate it when the prologue feels tacky or unnecessary or cheap. Or, for that matter, a prologue that could have just have easily been labeled chapter 1. So I would certainly urge those of you writing a novel to question whether a prologue is the appropriate way to begin a book. But if the prologue really is necessary and appropriate, then go for it.
Twigs and Brambles (my writing blog) |
| Posted By : Dragon Angel - Today 11:12 PM | The prologue to Time Traveller's Wife is an example of an unnecessary prologue. All it does is summarize the characters situations. I guess the goal is that way even the lamest of brains won't feel strained while reading the rest of the book. (Which, by the way, is like a romance version of Slaughterhouse Five, only not as good)
read free fiction and poetry at http://www.geocities.com/davidolson22/index.html
Part dark, part light. And gooey in the middle. |
| Posted By : bleacheddecay - Today 11:15 PM | I found that whole book to be very disappointing too.
bleacheddecay |
| Posted By : Dragon Angel - 12/6/2007 12:28 AM | Please tell me it goes somewhere. I'm up to about chapter 4 and the wheels are spinning, but no plot is evolving.
read free fiction and poetry at http://www.geocities.com/davidolson22/index.html
Part dark, part light. And gooey in the middle. |
| Posted By : bleacheddecay - 12/6/2007 11:13 AM | Eh, I guess it goes somewhere. Where it does go was disappointing to me and my other readers in the group.
bleacheddecay |
| Posted By : cussedness - 12/6/2007 11:19 AM | I have heard that a lot. That's why I decided not to buy a copy of it.
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/ |
| Posted By : xiaotien - 12/6/2007 1:17 PM | wow, really?
i enjoyed the time traveler's wife.
and i almost never read from the current
books list. (not at that time, anyway.)
i just picked it up on a lark.
i found the plot and twists well
done, and the story very poignant.
one could def see the ending coming.
but she managed to tell a tale that
resonanted with me, esp reading within
a genre i don't usually read.
it's all so subjective, innit?
cindy p.
a little sweet, a little sour.
|
| Posted By : bleacheddecay - 12/6/2007 5:24 PM | xiaotien said...
wow, really?
i enjoyed the time traveler's wife.
and i almost never read from the current
books list. (not at that time, anyway.)
i just picked it up on a lark.
i found the plot and twists well
done, and the story very poignant.
one could def see the ending coming.
but she managed to tell a tale that
resonanted with me, esp reading within
a genre i don't usually read.
it's all so subjective, innit?
Yes it is. There is something for everyone out there. I too rarely read the best sellers. I liked the title and the blurbs so I gave it a try.
I expected so much more.
However, I must say the version of time travel is one I'd never have thought of. I'm not sure I like it, mind you but it is unique.
bleacheddecay |
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