Should you write a prologue, or should you throw the reader right into the story? Please select your book type Fiction Non-Fiction. Why are you writing a book I'm writing a book to grow my business I'm not interested in building a business. I'm writing a book to make an impact.
I want to write a quality fiction book that entertains people. Check your email for your book outline template. In the meantime, check out our Book Outline Challenge. Join The Challenge Today. Why should you write a prologue? If you can remove the prologue or a reader can skip it , and their understanding is not damaged, a prologue is not necessary.
If working the prologue content into your story is unnatural or confusing, you may need a prologue. Benefits and Costs Explained. Pre-Writing , Writing.
Comments From The Community. What is Self-Publishing School? What do you think? It can be useful to practise writing clever opening lines, enticing the reader to continue. Shuffle the words around. Try a selection of synonyms. Work with it and keep practising. Choose a novel without a prologue and consider how one could be used. Try to find something in the text to link with your prologue — a theme, the setting, or even some additional background information.
Be creative! You could give a character a secret that affects how they respond to events in the story. Teacher by day and writer by night, Daniel Murphy has self-published three books and appeared in Writer's Edit's anthology, Kindling 2. Currently living in Port Augusta, his spare time is dominated by sports rehab and complicated by part-time study. He loves cooking, reading and road trips. Fantasy novels are well-known for including maps, more so I have been known to use phrases such as 'Prologues are for Authors too bored with their own stories to write them from the beginning'.
However, my current WiP has 'educated' me. Soon after beginning the writing in earnest, it became clear that nothing I was writing would make the slightest bit of sense to an uninitiated reader. After some soul searching, I 'rolled over' and accepted that I needed to 'lead the reader into my story'.
It appeared that a Prologue was indeed unavoidable. With that fixed I moved on to the Prologue. Soon it became clear that a simple short 'chapter' was going to be insufficient. There was simply too much that needed covering.
A Prologue in two chapters? The idea of turning the Prologue into a novellette was born. The novellette rapidly inflated itself into a full novel. At this time, the 'Prologue' is likely to turn into a series of 3 plus novels. To some extent, I have circled completely round and am back at my starting point. If it is an important part of the plot arc, then give it the dignity of its own story.
However, I have now grown inside and am far more tolerant and understanding towards those that write Prologues. Interesting read. I used in my first novel a prologue and epilogue as a container for the story.
So the book is in fact a story-in-a-story concept. Has anyone ever heard of a "double prologue"? In my "evangelical thriller", The Witch in the Wardrobe, I have done just that.
Both are murder scenes that take place about 7 months before chapter one. In Radiance , she intrigues the readers through her prologue, enticing them to relax and enjoy the story.
But there be bad and good, as the pirates say. Take September, a bad month: school begins. Something Wicked This Way Comes provides an interesting look into the point-of-view the novel will take. It also works to set the tone while providing the readers with a bit of backstory. The most obvious part was a hollow, echoing quiet, made by things that were lacking.
It prepares the reader for the writing style. Since a prologue comes at the beginning of a story, it can easily get confused with a preface , introduction , or foreword. Get a clear definition for how a prologue is different. Prologues have an important role in a novel or movie. They provide the readers and viewers with an introduction into the story that will unfold. It could foreshadow the conflict or might even provide a little back story. With the purpose of prologues solidified in your mind, try looking into an epilogue.
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