How To: Writing A Winning Prologue

Ever wondered how to write a strong, effective prologue?

Your search has come to an end: Here are 10 steps to take if you want to create a prologue even the staunchest of opposers will find hard to criticize.

 Ready? Let's go!

1. Choose a scene from a key point in your novel.
If a character happens to be in danger, dead, or otherwise painful circumstances, cut and paste that tension-filled scene into the beginning of your novel. This will serve to reduce the risk of heart failure, severe paper cuts, and falling off of chairs for your readers when the plot twists come. An honorable reader enjoys knowing what will happen later in the book.

NOTE: It is even better when you repeat this scene later on and force readers to slog through it all over again.


2. If there is no other suitably tension-filled scene to choose, use the ending.
Be sure not to change a thing when you move it from the end to the prologue, either--the more spoilers the better!


3. And if there aren't any tension-filled scenes at all (kudos), pick the most boring one.
OOH LOOK. The character is brushing their teeth! What fine dental strategy! Gets me tingling all over, that does.

4. Make sure there is no stylistic similarity between the prologue and the rest of the novel.
Is your style short and to the point? Write your prologue using lots of flowery language and/or metaphors. For example:

Page 205: "I is gonna blow up this building!" said Smith.

Prologue: And then our bold and courageous protagonist, with the most knightly of intentions, went to rescue the incapacitated and dying goddess of his universe, utilizing the most stunning of torpedoes. He exclaimed, triumphantly, "Beware, all evil parasites of the Earth! I am preparing to send you to the deepest parts of Hell!"


5. Use a dream.
Everybody simply adores dream scenes in books. They add such nice ambiguity and potential/probable pointlessness.


6. Take the opportunity and explain everything about your world.
Readers are always willing to get to know every single little detail of the place the characters live in; you know, history, culture, current economic state, seismic activity, how the world came to be, etc., etc.


7. Set it in the future where the character is obviously alive.
This may actually be even more stress-reducing than cutting and pasting part of your ending.


8. Center your prologue around an unrelated thing.
Writing about a woman on a quest to find the all-powerful crown-doohickey with which she can defeat the bad guy? No problem. Feel free to talk about whatever you please in the prologue. Who wants to know what they're getting into before they start reading?


9. Make appear that you're writing in a different genre than you actually are.
Closely related to #4, it is an effective strategy for attracting the attention of a new audience. Because instead of just getting readers from, say, Literary/Contemporary/Realistic Fiction, you'll get irritated readers of Science Fiction and Fantasy along with irritated readers of Literary/Contemporary/Realistic Fiction. And they'll all spread the word about your novel (forget what they're saying about it).


10. Using your main character's voice, slowly and hesitantly, with many starts and stops, explain why the character (i.e. you) decided to write this book.
J'adore uncertain characters. Nothing like a little "Oh, I can't do this . . . wait, I must, or the world will explode! . . . no, wait, I can't, or I'll explode . . . but no, I have to! . . . no, I just simply can't . . . oh, all right, all right, I'll finish . . . no, THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE . . . but if I don't . . ."


And there are the 10 Effective Steps For Writing A Winning Prologue.

You're welcome.

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DISCLAIMER: The author of this article accepts no liability for those souls who actually follow these instructions. If you really want to write a good prologue, then you should do absolutely everything possible to avoid what I just said.

And before you ask, yes, I have come across these types of prologues in books.


What do you think of prologues?


-----The Golden Eagle

Elements of A Good Plot

A story has to keep the reader's attention. It's what a reader expects when they pick up a book--something that will suck them into a new place and hold them there, as the characters go on quests, fall in love, fight the villains, do things that the reader wishes they could, all following a complex and page-turning plot.

As a writer, it's only a matter of knowing how to create a page-turning plot.

Here are some suggestions:


1. Mess with the reader's head (it's always the writer's job to mess with the reader's head).

Surprise the reader with secrets, (about the characters, about their world, about anything important) events, (coincidences, occurrences, attacks) and ramp up the tension as the character(s) head for the goal. Hinting at one of the surprises can help--little mention of something strange here, a name wrong, a move that seems odd in some way. The good ol' plot twist can go far in keeping the reader hooked on the story.

For the writer, plot twists have the benefit of taking up that no-mans-land of space between The Beginning and The End, called The Middle. They can also take up story-time whenever the plot's slow or not moving the way you want it to.

2. Keep the reader glued to their chair (or seat, or steps, or . . . wherever they may be reading).

Once you've gotten the surprises in there, plus the anxiety-inducing hints, never let that tension release. Don't allow interludes--anything beyond a short, tired collapse by the oasis, so to speak--to appear. Have the character(s) run into more problems as they strain for that ultimate goal; send someone/thing into their death throes, if necessary, but don't let up!

Don't let that tension continue on forever, either. If it does, then the reader will get exasperated, and bored--make sure that what's going to happen, happens soon enough, but not so fast that the plot ends up whipping back and forth. Pace it so it flows like a river, not a thundering, crashing waterfall or a gentle, burbling creek--a river! Get a raft, if necessary.

3. Never allow your plot to resemble Swiss Cheese (no matter how good the stuff tastes).

Sew up every hole. Bring things together. Create something that goes from the onset to the conclusion, resolving the issues (unless it's a series, in which case you should leave the reader wondering about some things) and reaching an end that involves the goal the character(s) set out to complete. Don't allow the character(s) to do unrealistic things just to get to some point in the story, or a to a certain place--keep it tight, true to the character(s) and their environment. Don't cut corners.

Don't let the reader see holes, or allow them to see through badly-patched holes, either; make sure that your plot is strong throughout, and feel for every possible weakness in an event here, a twist there. If a reader can sense what's to happen with certainty and without feeling that the other possibilities are in any way likely, (and they're right about what's to happen) then the rest of the book isn't gripping--it's just an add-on.


Condensed:

1. Surprise the reader.
2. Maintain the tension.
3. Have a tight, hole-free plot.
4. Throw in a gryphon.*

*(Just for fun, of course.)


-----The Golden Eagle

How To: Writing

Here are some instructions on how to write a best-selling, awesome-sauce book that agents and publishers will snap up in about 5 seconds:

1. Use run-on sentences; you know, the kind that get really, really, really, really long because for some reason the writer has a complex that doesn't allow them to write short sentences, and then they go off on tangents, like saying that tangents are really cool in trigonometry but since that has absolutely nothing to do with the original subject they try to circle back but that doesn't work because the reader has already abandoned the novel to pick up something like Ernest Hemingway because at least he didn't bore or frustrate the brains of the reader with long, run-on sentences that go on, and on, and on, and take up entire paragraphs.

2. Tell instead of show. Why? I'm telling you not to show, people! Don't do it! What did you say? Oh. Why on Earth would I want to explain what I'm telling you? I'm telling you already.

3. Use little description. For example: it's a forest. It's green. Plus some trees. Or, there's the ocean. It's blue. There are waves. Or, the sky is blue. There are white clouds. The sun is bright and, darn it, it hurts the eyes. That is all.

4. Use a lot of -ly and -ing words. They are just so wonderfully long, and they sound very good when they're scattered randomly over the page; particularly when they can be replaced perfectly well with other words that aren't so irritatingly -ing and -ly -ish. It's precisely what people really want to be reading.

5. Use a lot of slang and bad grammar. DUDE, I ain't kidding you! Perfect language is so, like, overrated, man, and I hate them grammar check and spell-er thingies. So, like, lame-o.

6. Use a lot of swear words. It's a *%&$!@#$ good idea.

7. Use a lot of short sentences. To the point of being annoying. And choppy. Well. Because. They're short. They say little. They're fast. Readers love 'em.

The end of writing advice.


DISCLAIMER: Note that to actually write a good book, you should do the opposite of the above listed. I accept no liability if you take me seriously.

Just kidding. But in all solemnity, dude, I'm telling you to go finish that &*%# first draft of yours since what else is editing for?


-----The Golden Eagle

Character Flaws--What They Are (Or Should Be)

I noticed that for almost all the posts for How to Write Compelling Characters there was something about character flaws. I called it "3-Dimensionality". (I just had to say that word again.)

And I agree.

The only question is--what counts as a flaw and under what context are they flaws?

For example, let's take an example of a character (I realize this is cliched--I'm using this for demonstrative purposes only): male, tall, handsome, glittery. (Maybe cut the glitter if you like.) Now, if I was going to give this person a flaw there are a range of things I could do to make him 3-Dimensional. Only, some things people might see as flaws are things other people don't see as flaws.

I, personally, am skeptical of male, tall, handsome, glittery (MTHG) characters. However, it seems quite apparent that a lot of people think that such people are pluses for society and quickly fall in love. Unless it's some subconscious need to bind yourself to the weird-y and strange, it's obviously not a "flaw" per se.

Another example is if I made this MTHG dude a fan of science and math. Now, some (me in particular--hehe) would see that as a big positive and simply contribute to the flawless side, while a lot of other people would see that as a drawback AKA flaw. (Geek alert!) Same if I made him a fan of P.E.; some people would be happy about this, others would not. (Jock alert!

(Note that these are stereotyped flaws--be sure to stay away from that!)

So here comes the first question: what are more "universal" flaws that people can relate with? To appeal to an audience (I am assuming that this is the idea when it comes to creating characters) then there has to be something that most people would say is a flaw.

For example, a crabby, snappy attitude in the morning. I think most people would agree that being super-grouchy in the morning is a flaw. Or a nervous habit of talking a lot when under stress and babbling when scared. Or jumping around when things are tense and jiggling and not staying still when things are bordering on really serious. Or having a constant fear of combat and backing off when pressured.

Those would be flaws more people could relate to than meeting a MTHG dude who loves studying molecules.

That sort of flaw-tackling strategy is important, in my opinion. When creating a character, be sure that the flaws of your character are people others can relate to and that they are significant enough to really matter. A lot of characters (MTHG dude was partly based on Edward from The Twilight Saga, Damen from The Immortals, and from other influences I've forgotten by now plus some stuff from off the top of my head) in new fiction don't have enough substance; they're handsome, but that's about it. They aren't real.

Another thing is that a character should have more than one flaw. They could be jittery, and that's a good flaw, but they should also have something else, maybe a smaller flaw, something not quite as important to the overall appearance of the character; for example, an iced-tea obsession. It's not as important, but it adds another facet to the character, another, smaller dimension.

The same goes the other way: too many flaws and the character is going to seem hopeless to the reader.


So all of you were right--flaws are important!


What do you think a "flaw" should be? Do you agree with this analysis? Disagree? Have a point to make?

-----The Golden Eagle

How To Create Compelling Characters

This is a post I wrote about (as is obvious in the title) How To Write Compelling Characters as part of Elana Johnson, Alex Cavanaugh, and Jennifer Daiker's Great Blogging Experiment.

There is a lot more than the following information if you really want to cross-section the process of creating compelling characters, but that would mean an incredibly long post and lots of text. Therefore, I've narrowed it down to what I think are the most important things you should (and should not) do to create compelling characters.

What Is the Conflict?

What sort of conflict is the character going through? What sort of challenges face him/her? Strife is a good way of making the reader bond with the character, to feel something for the events that happen to your character. It can be physical, it can be psychological, it can be any sort of conflict, but there has to be some sort of predicament that the character has to face. If nothing is happening there's really no reason for the reader to stick around--the reader isn't compelled to find out what happens.

I would like to mention here a good example of this sort of thing: Incarceron by Catherine Fisher. Some people said that it was slow and dull, while others adored it. I'm in the "adored" category, because there is conflict in the start of the book. Finn is about to get run over, and afterwards the world in which he lives is revealed; the place is violent politically and is a dangerous world to exist in. It throws you straight into the action and into the lives of the people and there isn't any dilly-dallying over insignificant details.

Every Person Wants Something

It's true. Almost all of us want something out of life, whether it's freedom, true love, liberation, self-discovery, or any such thing as that. What does your character want? Make the reader discover it--but there are different ways of doing that. It can be said in the first chapter with a statement made by the character. Or you can draw out the moment that the reader learns the full scope of his/her desires through a sequence of events or by conversation with another character.

Make the want real. Make it realistic and believable. For example, if there's a man living in Chicago who has a desk job and pores over documents for a living, a realistic desire would be moving away and getting a better job doing something he enjoys. If your character is, say, the President of some country, (I actually do have a character who is the President of a planet) a believable want would be the health and prosperity of his/her people or achieving political goals.

3-Dimensionality

Everyone has their secrets. It's true. I know you do. You might say that one character has this want/need--but, underneath it all, does he/she really believe that's what they want? Withdraw from the character's thoughts for a moment and focus on their external appearances. A person's actions and body language can say a whole lot more than their words can. Do they shift here when someone mentions such-and-such? Do they cough or close their eyes when that person brings up a certain subject? What's really behind his/her attitude should be revealed to the reader and/or to the other characters around them in twists and turns of the plot.

Don't Overuse Ideas

There are a lot of characters out there that are built on the same idea, especially in series. Characters that, while in a different setting, have similar attitudes toward their experiences and follow the same paths as so many other characters before them. Therefore, one major thing you shouldn't do is repeat what others have already repeated. Be original! Take the initiative and build a new, different world with original characters. Keeping things fresh will draw the reader in and keep the interest, whereas if the plot and/or the characters resembles something else, there goes one of the major draws since the reader will be able to guess what's going to happen.

What's the Point?

What is the point of your main character(s)? Are they another facet to a bigger picture, and they're there to show different personalities? Do they add something to the diversity of the setting that your story takes place in? Do they affect others around them in significant ways? Do they have something that makes them stand out and make the reader actually feel something for the character? Love? Hate? Disgust? Adulation?

The character should say "Pay attention!" in some way. Whether it be to make the reader experience what the character is experiencing, to make the reader understand something, to get a point across, or to simply present the world and its different perspectives, you need to make sure that the particular character has a point to their existence. The role they play (for it to be worthwhile to read and write about) has to be influential enough on either the reader or the other character.


To me, those points are the main reasons I find a character compelling. Let's condense:

1. Your character must be going through some sort of significant conflict.
2. The character must want something. Money. Power. Freedom. Love. Security. Even (although this case has been a little overused in my opinion) normalcy. Something that relates to their situation believably.
3. 3-Dimensionality AKA what your character(s) is/are hiding.
4. Be original. Don't emulate, copy, or repeat.
5. Make sure that the character has a purpose in the grand scheme of things.


There you have it! Do you have anything to add? Comment on? Disagree with? Did you write your own post for this Blogging Experiment?

-----The Golden Eagle