Prologues

[squeequeg]

Reread the novel last night. It's not bad. There are some lumpy bits, some places where I wasn't watching what I'd changed, and Chapter 1 needs a better punch, which I think I may have figured out. But overall it's a good read. I think I can shine it up nice and pretty.

I'm encountering a mild marketing dilemma, though. At the moment I have a three-page prologue that takes place the night before Chapter 1 (Those of you who've read this already, the draft has changed considerably). It involves a phone call from a dead man, which will prove to be the catalyst for the rest of the story.

Now from what I've heard about trying to market a novel, either to agents or publishers, prologues are not good. Elmore Leonard's rules for writing say to chop off the prologue, and I've talked to a few people who claim to be allergic to prologues. (My words, not theirs.) I've also heard that agents or editors don't tend to look favorably on prologues. But I think much of this concerns prologues that are backstory, and this isn't really backstory.

So how do I handle this? I don't want to ditch the phone call, so I'm still starting the story there. Do I integrate it into Chapter 1 and lose the nice little end-of-chapter punch I'd had? Do I call the prologue Chapter 1 and renumber the rest? (Though if I do that, the first gunshot doesn't come till Chapter 4; it's currently in Chapter 3.) Or do I just leave it as a prologue and damn the torpedoes?

Comments

[2h2o.livejournal.com]

Damn the torpedoes. It's only a guideline, akin to never starting sentences with "but." Prologues are probably a common trap for the unwary, but you have questioned yours and know why it's there.

[bobsquatch.livejournal.com]

It seems like this prologue is really the beginning of the story; it sets the whole thing in motion. If it's that important, I think it deserves to be a chapter.

You could even take a cue from computer science and start your novel with chapter zero.

[stealthmuffin.livejournal.com]

Tempting. But I think I'd save that for a novel that actually had something to do with computers. Hmmm...dammit, I'm not supposed to be coming up with new novel ideas yet! I've already got a backlog!

[haak0n.livejournal.com]

Amen. If the story starts there, then doesn't that mean it's not really prologue?

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

Damn the torpedoes and keep the prologue, I'd say; you know why it's there and you know what it's doing.

[laobscuridad.livejournal.com]

Also, you know why it has your pants.

[stealthmuffin.livejournal.com]

's okay. They're only my emergency pants.

[laobscuridad.livejournal.com]

Keep your prologue - it works for Robert Jordan.

[stealthmuffin.livejournal.com]

I don't want anything that works for Robert Jordan! I've already thrown out the braid-tugging for that reason alone!

*twitch* Okay. I'm better now.

[laobscuridad.livejournal.com]

My point being simply that leaving the prologue in can be done.

[stealthmuffin.livejournal.com]

Sorry. I have bad reactions to Robert Jordan.

[coraline]

i'd say keep it, but renumbering doesn't sound like it would lose you anything (i fail to see why the gunshots coming in 3 rather than 4 is an improvement).

[stealthmuffin.livejournal.com]

Crass marketing issues. Some agents request the first three chapters plus a synopsis, and I want the gunshot to be in the package.

Then again, I could just step up the other chapters a bit. Hmmm.

[nadyezhda.livejournal.com]

keep it. It's important. :)

[ltlbird.livejournal.com]

I agree with pretty much everyone else. If it looks like the novel isn't getting anywhere with publishers or agents, you can change it later, right?

[stealthmuffin.livejournal.com]

Depends. I can't really send it back saying "look, it's all new, I renumbered and everything!" I'll just have to gauge by reactions.

[spyscribe.livejournal.com]

With the caveat that you undoubtedly know more about book publishing than I, my inclination is that the "no prologue" rule is generally addressed to those horrid 30-page monstrosities that tell you this history of the world and then some. (The sort of thing no one would have thought to include before the invention of the word-processor, or that is subbing in for the author's inability to handle exposition any other way.)

Yours sounds more like a TV-style "teaser" (the bit that comes before the opening credits) than the sort of fantasy prologue that induces allergic reactions.

You ought to be okay with 3 pages vital to the story. Or, if you're really worried, call it a "prelude" or "overture" or something else instead. *shrug*

[ethicsgradient.livejournal.com]

Is there some rule that also says the first gunshot has to come in chapter three?

I say call it chapter 1 and renumber.....

Steve

[minyan.livejournal.com]

"Prologue: an introductory speech ... calling attention to the theme of the play"

That's my not-so-snappy dictionary's classic definition. Makes a distinction: an introduction that gives some kind of overview, and is therefore separate from the body of the story, as opposed to the first event of the story which is told in condensed form for dramatic effect. Yours is the second. Whether you need or want to set it up as "pre-story" as opposed to "first movement of story", is your call.

I imagine that when you get as far as laying out the book, there are all kinds of ways to keep that first section distinct and clear, whether you choose to incorporate it into chapter one or not (and you'd know a lot more about them than I do.) If you kept a clear break there, the kind of asterisk and white space routine you use later, would that give a close enough punch?

The risk in keeping it called 'prologue' is that busy editors may make assumptions about it before they've read it, and those assumptions may affect the way they read it, does that sound right? Getting the effect you want, and getting it clear, is the most important thing. If the word 'prologue' is going to set them off, though, maybe there are ways to get the same effect with a slight change of set-up.

[rissymonster.livejournal.com]

I'm siding with the keeping/renaming to Chapter 1 (or 0) folks. And send them Chapters up to the gunshot.

[cmprince.livejournal.com]

Could you use one of those asterisk devices?

* * *

Or, if it's not too much of a cliché, flashback to it in chapter one? You know, one of those massive blocks of italicized text?