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

Does It Bother You If The Author Brings A Dead Character Back To Life?

Say the protagonist watches the love of their life fall off a cliff.

(Lewis Clark, Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 2.0 Generic)

Or, perhaps you read along as the antagonist stabbed one of the main characters through the heart with a sword. Maybe someone got poisoned or bitten. Maybe they disappeared under terrible circumstances.

Whatever happens, there seems to be a trend where the character will (surprise!) re-emerge later on in the book as not only alive, but thriving. I can see why authors would use this as a plot twist. There's nothing like finding out someone you thought was dead is actually alive and has been for a while.

However, I find that I begin to lose faith in the author after that. Particularly if a character's death was described--s/he stopped breathing or was wounded--and the living character(s) witnessed it, I can't help but feel like nothing that happens afterwords can be trusted. And while uncertainty is great for suspense and tension, if there's too much of it, then the story turns into a jumbled mess.

There are exceptions to being "alive", of course--vampires are dead to begin with and a lot of other Paranormal/Fantasy creatures are similar in that regard--but even those characters are usually subject to being killed permanently, and in many cases it sure sounds like the treatment they got was fatal.

Basically, after a certain point, it gets ridiculous. If you killed your character, they should stay dead. Unless there is a really, really good reason that goes beyond plot twists and emotional punches, you shouldn't bring someone back. (Some would argue that this is impossible in any context, furthermore, which is another issue--the characters' perceptions and beliefs on death and dying cannot suddenly change to accommodate another character's reappearance.)

What do you think? For you, how far can an author go in resurrecting characters before you lose faith in the story?


-----The Golden Eagle

Novel: Finito

Yes, that's right. I FINISHED MY NOVEL THIS MORNING.

Woot.

It ended up at 75,860 words, which is 15,000 less than I originally planned for.

But I like it where it is. Also, while I usually write thick first drafts, this one has a lot of stuff that needs to be added later--description, backstory, details that were perfectly clear in my mind that don't come across for the reader. Most of the reason for that is because it's largely dialogue; I would say that over 75% is just people talking to each other (hopefully in a non-boring way, of course) so it will almost definitely be thicker once I've done rewrites/revisions/edits.

Assuming I get around to those. I'd actually be pretty happy if this novel never saw the light of day again . . . it's not my most favorite project. It (I still have not come up with the right title) was good practice, though. Plus, it was my second novel of the year, and my second finished novel; I like being able to say that, yes indeed, I have written more than one book.

Anyway. Now I have to really start worrying about NaNoWriMo. I don't have a plot outline, I don't have clearly-defined characters, I don't have all the details of the world set straight. And it's only 11 days away.

Therefore, I'm paying extra attention to posts about outlining and such . . . I never had much trouble with it before, but THIS particular idea is going to challenge me plot-wise.

Time to get crackin'.

Got any plotting advice? How do you plan your stories?


***Also, I am guest posting about blogfests over at I Am Writer . . . Hear Me Roar!, and I'd love it if you hopped over to check it out.***


-----The Golden Eagle

You Pick Up A Book. You Read. You Come Across Something That's Very Similar To A Bit Of Your WIP

Only one conclusion can be made.

The author stole your idea.

Disregard the fact there's a chance you picked the word up and don't remember where.

Never mind the author died 8 years before you were born.

Surely the fact their book was published 24 years before you even thought of yours doesn't matter.

They must have future-reaching, idea-stealing machines that rip the only brilliant pieces of insight away from innocent writers.

And, obviously, the only thing left to do about this travesty is . . .

Sue their estate
Sigh and do something else, and/or hope your readers haven't come across the book you're reading.

**********

Have you ever found a device/phrase/term/etc. in a book that's like something in your own novel? If so, how did you react?


-----The Golden Eagle

On The Death Of Important Characters: How Do You Feel About It?

You pick up a book.

You read for a while.

A major character dies.

(SOURCE)

It always bothers me when a character (particularly when it's the main character) dies in the end. And not only when the character's someone I'm fond of. Most of the time, I have to wonder: what is so great about their death? What spurred the author to kill off an influential person in the story?

Even if they do succeed in their goal, it often just seems too abrupt, violent, and saddening. Unless the death is handled well--when it comes to the main character--it's even come off as annoying, when it's there just for the sake of itself. There are many instances where I thought the book/story would've been improved without that plot twist.

What do you think? Can you think of any books where you thought the MC's death was a good thing for the story? Does it matter if it's one of the main supporting characters, rather than the main character who dies? Have you ever written the death of your MC in one of your novels? If not, would you ever consider it?


-----The Golden Eagle

Happy Endings: Do You Enjoy Books That Don't Have Them?

(SOURCE)

Disney is famous for changing the endings to such stories as The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and so on, from making them happier for the main character to cutting out the nasty bits. It makes for a nice fairy tale where the princess gets carried off into the sunset by the prince . . . but what about those unhappy endings?

Take, for example, The Kite Runner. I love that book. But it doesn't end happily, and neither does A Thousand Splendid Suns, also by Khaled Hosseini. They're sad, violent at times (particularly A Thousand Splendid Suns), but well-written books, and the endings make sense. Of course it would have been nice if things hadn't happened and the situations had been resolved differently, but it would have resulted in a very different story, and not necessarily a better one.

Which brings us to my question(s):

Does a story have to end happily for you to enjoy it and, if not, what was the last sad book you read that you liked? Have you ever read a book where you thought a happier ending would have made it stronger overall? Do you avoid books with sad endings? Would you (or have you) considered writing a book that didn't have a happy ending?




-----The Golden Eagle

I Pick Up A Book. The Main Event Mentioned In The Blurb Comes Around 200+ Pages Into The Story.

(SOURCE)

I don't like waiting around for things to happen in the books I read. There has to be a hook, and then there has to be some event that catapults the main character(s) into the central conflict the story is built on. So that's why I sometimes skip blurbs altogether, if I like the reviews and the cover of a book.

They can take away the tension. If you ask me, a story should pull the reader in blurb or no, and hold them there on its own. But I've read several books whose back cover, inside flap, or summary (depending on the format) has told me all I need to know to guess at least some of the plot--and not only that, I have to sit around waiting for the main character(s) to catch on to what's happening, sometimes so slowly it's painful to watch them stumble about trying to get the hang of the situation.

Of course, it can go in the opposite direction, too. If there's just some dramatic, broad statement on the inside of the cover, that can deter me from reading the book if I think there's a chance it's going to follow an unoriginal plot, or there just simply isn't enough information about the characters and the rest of the story.

Have you ever skipped a blurb? How much do you think they help--or hinder? How much should a blurb give away about the plot and characters, before it says too much?


-----The Golden Eagle

Do You Have To Like The Plot To Enjoy A Book?

In the past two weeks I posted "Do You Have To Like The Main Character To Enjoy A Book?" and "Do You Have To Like The Setting To Enjoy A Book?" and now we come to the third and final question.

Which is about plot.

(SOURCE)

I consider plot to be the No. 1 most important thing when it comes to a book, in any genre, above both character and setting. It is the glue that holds things together: characters must do things to drive the story, or things must happen to them that cause them to act. Both must be realistic, or at the very least possible.

Some plots are complex, with several storylines that all intertwine and affect each other. Other plots are more like adventure stories, where the small group of characters try to overcome obstacles as they either literally or figuratively travel from A to B.

Some plots cover a long stretch of time, even hundreds of years, while others cover less than a single day. Other plots go back in time, weaving in things that happened before the beginning of story.

Some plots focus on the characters. Other plots focus more on the story itself, and what happens to those characters.

(SOURCE)

And so on. There are also major plot issues that come up again and again--holes, loose ends, deus ex machina endings, (I utterly despise it when things get resolved just because the story had been set up in a way for it to be an ugly situation otherwise) twists for shock factor, repetitiveness, stories that have been told many times before, etc.

So. How important is plot to you? Do you think it is more or less important than characters or setting?

What kind of plot do you prefer? Do you like complex stories, with lots of characters? Do you prefer stories that focus on the characters, or ones that are driven by the plot itself? What are plot issues that really bother you in a story?


-----The Golden Eagle

Do You Have To Like The Main Character To Enjoy A Book?

I've come across novels where I really didn't like the main character, or just felt indifferent toward her/him--but whose plot and setting I enjoyed.

(SOURCE. Do ignore the URL. It's safe. :P)

For example, The Cup of the World by John Dickinson. The main character, Phaedra of Trant, did some things that were naive (and a bit stupid), which just seemed to attest again and again that she was a very strange person. But I read the other two books in the trilogy and liked them as well, for the world the story was set it was amazing (full of its twists and turns and personality, if a world can have personality) and the plot was so complex. The other two books also had characters I didn't like--however, I still felt like that The Widow and the King and The Fatal Child, were definitely worth the read for the other aspects to them.

I felt the same way about books such as The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, the first book in The Genius Wars series by Catherine Jinks, and others. I just didn't like the characters, but I did like the plot and setting of the books. A lot, enough to give them at least a 4-star rating (for those of you who haven't read my book reviews, I go to within a tenth of a decimal point) even if they weren't particular favorites.

(SOURCE)

Which brings up the question:

How much do you have to like the main character(s) to enjoy a book? How much can you stand from a character before it really affects your opinion of a story? Can you think of any examples where you would have liked a book more if the main character(s) had been more appealing to you?


-----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

Random (But Still Awesome) Pieces of Life

Hooray for Talli Roland! She was all over the blogosphere yesterday--so many posts had that wonderful pink cover, spreading the word about her release! And The Hating Game got far on that bestseller chart. :D

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Dominic de Mattos at Writes of Passage awarded me the Versatile Blogger Award! I big thank you to Dominic for awarding me! :)

I will award:

Jules at Trying To Get Over the Rainbow

Caroline at A Writer's Life For Me

Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs

All of them are very Versatile, believe me. :)

(Well? What are you waiting around for? Read the rest of this post and follow them if you don't already!)

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I set up a playlist at the top of my blog, as you have no doubt noticed. It's entirely instrumental; I tend to like Christmas music better when no one's singing. It's all YouTube video, (made at YouTube Reloaded) since that seemed like the easiest playlist to make, and it has the added bonus of the listener also getting to watch, if they want to.

Many of them have lyrics, and if you want something really cool to see, check out the Mannheim Steamroller videos with the Christmas lights (we have a CD of some of his music--my favorite is God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, which is up there.)

*****

It snowed yesterday! And last night, so there's snow on the ground right now. It's not a thick coating or anything, there's still a lot of grass poking up, but it's snow! *smile*

I hope you bloggers in the UK don't have any serious snow troubles, though; the recent bad weather made the national news here in the USA.

*****

You know those brilliant pieces of inspiration that pop up, and then you get that wonderful feeling of know where and when things are going to happen in your story? When things fall into place, after thinking hard and coming up with nothing for the past days . . . weeks . . . months?

I just had a moment of such inspiration, and I'm feeling really excited about my novel. It's a relief, actually, since the story was starting to feel kind of dull. Thank goodness for the mind.


-----The Golden Eagle

Ease or Throw the Reader?

Some books put the reader straight into the setting the story is based on. Others try to ease you into it, through discoveries made by the main character.

I prefer the kind of book that puts you straight into the setting without preamble, another reason SF/F are my favorite genres most of the time. There's no preamble, and things are usually described in the first chapter or so, as you get used to the character's surroundings. Or they're just stated, and the reader is shown how the world works.

Easing the reader into the story--sucking them in, even though there are just clues as to something bigger that may or may not be around the corner--can be hard, and it's easy to bungle. A lot of authors pull it off well, but some do not. I find this especially with books where the protagonist is finding out something about another character, who typically has some sort of secret behind his/her existence, or when the secret's about the MC him/herself.

One problem I find with simply putting the reader into the story is because some things just don't make sense at first. I can occasionally get lost in Science Fiction with the technology--the books appeal to my geek side, but sometimes it's hard to understand the jargon, especially when it comes to things like gaming. (I know little about gaming.) And sometimes the terms are completely made up, and you have to guess what they're talking about, which can be annoying.

But easing the reader into the story can be jagged and feel wrong. The discovery has to be smooth and not terribly obvious, so that the reader has something to actually guess at. Otherwise, that part of the magic is lost. It can work if the reader already knows what's behind whatever's happening in the story, but if the character is unrealistically reacting to things and saying something that fit their character (or general common sense) then it doesn't. And when the MC finds out the secret . . . well, they can't be all "ooooh, goody!" or "I still trust you besides the fact you can kill me and I know practically nothing about you!" because in good ol' Real Life people don't do that. They freak out and tell their friends the person's insane.

Hopefully, anyway.

I could be being too literal with this . . . it's just fiction. But if the world isn't presented right, or if there's something I don't understand, it bugs me. I like my books wrapped up tight, and if they're not, then I tend to get frustrated.


What do you think? Ease, or throw the reader into the story? Do you prefer either? Does it affect your opinion of a book if the beginning events aren't explained completely, or if the protagonist is reacting in a way that's not true to life?


-----The Golden Eagle