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
I agree with Jonathan - keep them short or else they really are just another chapter. I use them as well, I do write fantasy and it seems to work well with the genre. You are creating your book, so do what feels right to you :-)
I'm not sure there's any hard and fast rule, though I don't read much of either genre.
I get the idea that prologues aren't generally liked, possibly because they tend to be treated as info-dumps and readers often miss them out for this reason. They're boring.
Personally I feel comfortable writing them and both my stories so far used pro- plus epilogues. But they ought to be short, put the reader immediately in the midst of some action or event and impart information essential, though perhaps not immediately relevant to, the main story. Otherwise you might as well write 'Chapter 1'.
I agree with Jonathan - keep them short or else they really are just another chapter. I use them as well, I do write fantasy and it seems to work well with the genre. You are creating your book, so do what feels right to you :-)
I'm not sure there's any hard and fast rule, though I don't read much of either genre.
I get the idea that prologues aren't generally liked, possibly because they tend to be treated as info-dumps and readers often miss them out for this reason. They're boring.
Personally I feel comfortable writing them and both my stories so far used pro- plus epilogues. But they ought to be short, put the reader immediately in the midst of some action or event and impart information essential, though perhaps not immediately relevant to, the main story. Otherwise you might as well write 'Chapter 1'.
Just my view :)