McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
A question on prologues
Kali:
--- Quote from: neurovore on October 17, 2008, 03:16:17 PM ---I remain unconvinced by this. Look at the opening of The Lord of the Rings, or Watership Down... some stories want hooks, and some want gentle measured openings and some want something else again.
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Both stories written in a very different publishing environment to audiences accustomed to slower-paced books. I'm not saying it can't work, I'm just saying your odds of finding an editor or agent for a F/SF book go way down if you try to ease readers into the story these days. You don't have to start with a building burning down and monkey demons flinging napalm poo -- though that's one of my favorite beginnings for a book ever -- but you might not want to start with a history of the town and the geneaology of its inhabitants, these days.
Starbeam:
I don't think Lord of the Rings can really be used as an example. Granted, not everyone reads The Hobbit first, but Lord of the Rings is a sequel to that, which does start in the middle of action. Plus Concerning Hobbits isn't really a prologue like in most books. It could pretty easily be deleted without making too much of a difference in reading the book. I used to skip over it because I used to think it was boring.
blgarver:
--- Quote from: neurovore on October 17, 2008, 03:11:28 PM ---Frame stories are not necessarily the same thing as prologues/epilogues, though, and what you are talking about sounds like a frame story. And I think the recent success of The Name of the Wind demnonstrates that good things with frame stories can sell.
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I was just about to mention The Name of the Wind, as well. I'm nearing the end of that book, and it is helping me work through my own problems with chunks of historical backstory.
meg_evonne:
I've been re-reading the Tim Powers classic, "Anubis Gate". Guess what, big long prologue and that was published initially in 1983 or so? How times have changed. Of course, lengthy descriptions seem on the wane as well these days as has been mentioned by kali.
Wait, I think I just dated myself! That was 25 years ago!? Eeeccckkk!
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