Does anyone have knowledge of the current trends in the publishing world for prologues? Do publishers have a preference for starting with the first chapter or are prologues an essential part of scifi / fantasy novels?
Replies
It sounds like a readers consensus is preference for starting with chapter one (mine, too). Though, I'm still not sure if that is genre specific.
I think I will stick with starting with chapter one.
Prologues and epilogues do work when skilfully written, but I wouldn't be comfortable writing either.
If an author decides to write a prologue or an epilogue, are they going to 'Show' not 'Tell' to convey the information?
I have read epilogues that, 'Show' not 'Tell', but prologues are most likely to be all 'Tell'.
Jonathan is right. prologues and epilogues are information dumps. Would-be authors should avoid them because they're a lazy way of conveying information.
Hi I tend to agree with Jonathan, you may as well write chapter one. I (isn't it awful how we all begin with "I") Anyway, I wrote my first book and after many rewrites and editing it decided it needed a prologue! but when I came to write it, it became a new chapter one, with all the info needed with action so it wasn't boring, well I don't think it is! So my point, why not write a new chapter instead of just, as Jonathan puts it "an info dump" by the way good phrase Jonathan. But of course that's what I think it is in the end your decision... Hope it works well however you decide to go about it.
It sounds like a readers consensus is preference for starting with chapter one (mine, too). Though, I'm still not sure if that is genre specific.
I think I will stick with starting with chapter one.
Thanks everyone.
Prologues and epilogues do work when skilfully written, but I wouldn't be comfortable writing either.
If an author decides to write a prologue or an epilogue, are they going to 'Show' not 'Tell' to convey the information?
I have read epilogues that, 'Show' not 'Tell', but prologues are most likely to be all 'Tell'.
Jonathan is right. prologues and epilogues are information dumps. Would-be authors should avoid them because they're a lazy way of conveying information.
Hi I tend to agree with Jonathan, you may as well write chapter one. I (isn't it awful how we all begin with "I") Anyway, I wrote my first book and after many rewrites and editing it decided it needed a prologue! but when I came to write it, it became a new chapter one, with all the info needed with action so it wasn't boring, well I don't think it is! So my point, why not write a new chapter instead of just, as Jonathan puts it "an info dump" by the way good phrase Jonathan. But of course that's what I think it is in the end your decision... Hope it works well however you decide to go about it.
Regards Paul.