One of my how-to
writing books asks: Should I use a prologue in my novel? The author responds with
an emphatic Don't!
Prologues often
occur at a time before the main action. They explain some history important to
the novel. They might take the form of a letter, a will, a newspaper article.
Sometimes they are told as narrative, sometimes as a scene. Prologues can also be a scene or bit of
dramatic action that occurs later in the story. These prologues are like teasers.
They make you want to read the book to get to that part. Occasionally a
prologue is set after the conclusion of the novel, and then the entire novel is
a flashback.
Why don't they
always work?
Most readers
quickly forget what was in the prologue.
Or they skip it
altogether. They want to get into the "real" story.
For a prologue to
be successful, it must have at least a promise of conflict. It must be
memorable. And short. And it cannot be critical that the reader remember
everything that was in it. Because he probably won't.
A prologue packed
with tension does not mean that chapter one can be slow and dull. When you
write a prologue, you are really writing two opening scenes to your novel and
each one must hook the reader with conflict.
My daughter
devours long dense highly detailed fantasy novels. They almost always have
prologues. Curious, I surveyed the shelves of children's books in my study. Among
dozens of books, I found very few prologues. Four to be exact.
One of my
favourite series for kids is the Charlie Bone fantasy series by Jenny
Nimo. Each book starts with a prologue, explaining the backstory of the Red
King. The prologues are written as narrative, some quite complicated, and I skip them all. In my opinion, it would
have been much better to weave that information into the stories, which are
charming and fast paced.
A Hare in the
Elephant's Trunk (Jan. L.
Coates) and Greener Grass (Caroline Pignat) both contain prologues that
take place later than the beginning of the novel. In A Hare in the
Elephant's Trunk, the prologue is a scene when Jacob, a Sudanese boy, is in
a refuge camp in Kenya
in 1992; chapter one begins in 1987. In the prologue in Greener Grass,
Kit Byrne remembers a happier time before the Great Famine in Ireland . Both these prologues are
beautifully written and both fulfill that promise of conflict.
The prologue in
Maggie de Vries' novel, Hunger Journeys, is a short scene, plucked out
of the middle of the novel, when Lena and
Sofie are hiding from the German soldiers. It's dramatic and makes you want to
read the book.
So prologues do
work but they must be done skilfully.
Some advice
from James Smith in The Writer's Little Helper . . .
Perhaps the most
common amateur problem in writing fiction is the tendency to rely too much on
setup. Which is what a prologue most often is. Get on with the story.
MY FAVOURITE
KIDS BOOK OF THE WEEK:
No Ordinary Day by Deborah Ellis
Deborah Ellis is
best known for her Breadwinner Trilogy which takes place in Afghanistan and Pakistan . No Ordinary Day is the moving story of Valli,
an Indian orphan who discovers she has leprosy. A bonus - royalties from the
sales of the book will be donated to The Leprosy Mission.
FUN FOR KIDS:
What if . . . you witnessed a crime? What did
you see? Are you in danger? What will you do?