I'm not writing my novel yet, but I am doing a rough outline of de story I have in mind so I won't forget, but I have a doubt. It is of extreme importance to my story that I write about events prior to the protagonist's birth that occurred with the protagonist's parents, but I don't know how I should do it. Do I write a big prologue (about 50 pages) or do I start the story with these events? My novel will be an historical fiction and these events that occurred with the protagonist's parents will present the antagonist of the story. So, do you think it is to weird to start the novel without the protagonist, but with the antagonist?
To answer your last question, no. I can easily see a story starting from the antagonist's POV before the MC's birth. It can be done.
I would say neither. Begin in your protag's time, and introduce bits and pieces about the parents well into the story. Consider hinting at something mysterious about them fairly early, but do it to raise questions for te reader, not to answer them. An obvious example would be Harry Potter.
I agree with Cogito, another reason this is good is it keeps your reader reading. Because they want to get to the parts that they have to figure out what happened- another example is the Sword of Truth books, they slowly include the information needed. gives the reader one more motive to stay interested
