I know prologues can be controversial, but hear me out. I feel like the prologue is an integral part of my WIP, but at the same time I'm struggling with telling it effectively. I've rewritten it several times and while at first it didn't give enough information for me to justify keeping it, it's gotten to the point where there's too much happening. Still, I can't seem to cut it and just plunge into chapter one because it leaves a huge hole in the setting/ mood of the whole story. The plot is centered on the Christian apocalypse and the prologue depicts the rise of the Antichrist. It's not stated outright that it's the Antichrist but the events are as follows: a woman is murdered, one of the seven seals on a very biblical scroll breaks, and she comes back to life. I went from nothing more than this line of events happening (dies, seal breaks, lives) to a full on confrontation between the archangel Michael and the fallen angel Samyaza (following the death of the woman). I just can't seem to find a happy medium between a rambling sacrifice and an overwhelming amount of action with too many name drops. The WIP is written in third person limited and only follows three characters . The only break from this is in the prologue in which third person omniscient is used. One of the main characters is present during this occult sacrifice, but I didn't want him introduced in full this early on. The prologue is designed to have a different tone than the first chapter. While the prologue kind of jumps into the world feet first, chapter one eases in much more slowly. Perhaps I'm just too attached to the idea of a prologue. Anyway, I'd appreciate some help brainstorming or some advice concerning the construction of helpful prologues. Or some advice on working a world setting event into the first few chapters without just showing it outright.
I'm anti-prologue, but I'll try to consider the possibility that they can be useful. What's the purpose of this prologue? What makes it valuable and/or necessary?
It's a precursor to the main character being informed about it in the first chapter. Essentially a less than credible source tells main character that the Antichrist is walking around and the apocalypse has started. It seems strange dropping this in without any warning ahead of time. And thank you for your help If there's an alternative to the mess of a prologue I've made I'd certainly consider it.
Me personally, what I would do as me, as I am, as the person here, now talking, I would do something different like this. I guess you wanna start on an exciting note to draw in readers before the slow start of your first chapter? Get rid of the prologue, go close third on an expendable character, make that your first chapter, and have them involved in some shit scary action, at the end of which they die. Or not. Just juggling ideas like a mime, or that clown outta IT, or a juggler; probably a juggler.
If this were my thing, I'd show some of the effects of the Antichrist rather than showing the event itself. Maybe a series of news clippings or something.
That sounds perfect to me. The main character isn't sure if the Antichrist is really ushering in the apocalypse, so the reader shouldn't be sure either. It will help us connect with the MC if we experience the same doubt as him/her, learn more with him/her, and make up our minds with him/her. If you show us for sure that the Antichrist is around, and then we're introduced to an MC who doesn't believe it, you risk us being frustrated with the MC and/or thinking they're stupid. Sounds to me like, as in 99.9% of books, Chapter 1 is the perfect place to start.
If you're close third and, at the end of chapter one, he dies, you're telling the reader that everybody's going to die; it's just a matter of time. So the shock effect when an important character dies is lost. Plus, having an unimportant character die turns it, no matter what you title it, into a prologue...This happens before the important stuff...like the prologue to a Bond movie.
It turns it from an omniscient tranche of scene setting and exposition into something more interesting. It provides a hook. Simply that.
If chapter 1 isn't engaging (slow can be engaging, btw) then you need to change chapter 1, not bolt something on before it.
I like prologues in the right place, and have used one myself. But ...have you finished writing your story yet? If not, I'd suggest you just keep writing. In my own story, the Prologue was the LAST chapter I wrote, and then only because the story needed it, to focus the reader's attention on what was driving my main character's actions. (My main story happens 6 years after the events in the prologue, and my character is keeping his previous life a secret from the people he interacts with in the main story.) You'll know when you get to the end of your story whether the prologue is worth keeping, or whether you could incorporate the information elsewhere, or tweak it in some way. The first chapter—whatever you call it—launches your story in the direction you want it to go. Don't get stuck or worried about the effect it will have at this stage. Just keep going. This is how you envisioned your beginning, so move on. Worry about what to call it (and whether to keep it or edit it) later on. The one thing I can practically guarantee is that when you get finished, you'll be making changes during the structural parts of your editing process. Adding or removing a prologue might be one of them.
I agree with @jannert. Push forward for now. Once you've gotten a complete first draft - in essence, once you've told yourself the entire story - then you can go back and decide whether your prologue is necessary or not. You decide, perhaps in consultation with someone you trust, such as an editor you hire to review your ms or a close writing friend. But be forewarned - any question posted around here regarding prologues will inevitably devolve into yet another debate on the desirability and viability of prologues. And when this one does, I hope you will do as I do in such cases - unfollow the thread. In the meantime, best of luck.
Thank you for the response you gave me, here, the person who is here, but, I guess, not really here, but digitally, here, in a manner you might be able to imagine, in that I am not here, but via the keyboard, may be I am a little bit. Ooh existential. Good point.
I agree - I really needed to write a prologue as part of the process of writing my first novel, but once I read through the whole thing it because very apparent how unnecessary it was. There was literally one thing in the prologue that didn't wind up getting covered further on in the MS, and it was very easy to pop it in elsewhere. I think prologues are one of those things where you have to look at the work as a whole before you can decided if they need to go or stay in.
Feign, if you can stomach horror, I suggest you buy 'The Hellbound Heart' by Clive Barker. It is a short read -easily done in a single night- that has a very brilliant use of a prologue. The events in the prologue, which takes place a year before the main story, touches on every aspect of the main story; without the prologue, it would be impossible to understand the scope and horror of the story. In fact, the subtle subtext at the end of the story -which gives the story its disturbing ending- could not be understood without the prologue. The point is this: A prologue (or any chapter) needs to earn its place. Every chapter should build on top of the one before it. If I can cut a whole chapter out, and the story is still the same then it has not earned its place. Write your story, and then cut the prologue. If the story makes sense, it doesn't need it. If the story does not make sense then it needs it.
Just a quick idea from me but you state that the prologue has both the archangel Michael and the fallen angel Samyaza in it. How about them meeting in a hospital corridor or something outside the ICU where a pregnant woman is being treated after being found beaten and mutilated in an abandoned church. They're catching up like old friends (Samyaza referred to as Sam etc). They're chatting away but are interrupted by the heart beat monitor in the room going silent and then seconds later beeping out again - Michael turns to Sam and says "So thats Lucy's son, huh?" "That's him. So it begins" Replies Sam. "So it begins" Agrees Michael. Anyways, just a random idea i thought i'd share.
