I think I have a great story! It is full of suspense and includes rather strong doses of adult situations. The resolution involves righteous retribution against the villain and a well-deserved reward for his victim. Despite the adult nature of the material, one character, the victim, is fated to be impaired by injury and ends up having a childlike outlook on the world. What I want to do (because it feels and reads right to me) is start with a prologue that has this character musing over her situation now, the tragic turn her life has taken, and how relatively well things turned out for her. I want to have her relate this in the first person and in her dreamy, wondering, childlike voice. The part of this that I feel is cool is that her innocent way of telling her story covers for the rather shocking, perhaps perverse nature of the villain's punishment. But (and this is where I really become uncertain) this punishment doesn't become apparent until near the end of the book. This prologue will introduce several characters and refer to relevant situations, then the main book will start in several years earlier with the gritty realities, told in the third person, of how she ended up where she is. The villain's fate will be revealed at the end and returns to the situation that was portrayed in the prologue. I am hoping to get opinions on the use of prologue that actually give a snapshot of the story's end. You don't see the resolution, but you do see a filtered version of the destinies of these characters. What can be especially problematic in this case is that the very first impression of the novel will be one of innocence and idyll when the plot is full of action and adult situations. What bothers me about that is that I'll be promising a thriller, but opening with the musings of someone who talks like a little girl. I'd be grateful for your comments and opinions. This is my first novel so this question is far from the only thing I'm wondering about!
It's certainly been done before, and well. Think Lolita, whose death is mentioned under another name in what is essentially the prologue.
Thanks, Y'all. I have a big portion of it written and this is one of the decisions I must make about putting the pieces together. It's also the kind of dilemma I let myself get hung up about when the writing gets difficult and comes to a standstill. Writing is hard. Surprise, surprise.
As far as revealing what the end will be in a Prologue, I've got no problem with that. It's been done many times before. The fun of reading then becomes finding out how this all came about. My one concern is your concept of 'dreamy' when it comes to describing the character's voice. That can be very tricky. If the prologue seems to ramble on, making little or no sense, I'm afraid people are likely to simply stop reading at that point. If her 'dreamy' voice is unsophisticated and childish, that's fine. But if it's just a meaningless, dopey ramble—given that we know nothing about her or her circumstances at this point, and we are trying like mad to enter the world of your story as soon as we can—this could be a mistake that scuppers your chances of getting read at all, never mind published. She can see her life from a childlike perspective, even use childish words, but that doesn't mean this intro needs to be vague. In fact, children can often be very specific about what they see, hear, want, fear and feel. They live very much in the here and now. See if you can tap into that? You could even start with something as straightforward as: "Mummy says I'm 32 years old right now, but that I have the mind of a child. She never tells me what that means." A beginning like that will immediately orient the reader, but allows the narrator to keep her childish voice.
I'd get feedback on early drafts from a writing partner, because transitions from a prologue can be confusing to readers when POV changes. If problems are corrected late, it might disrupt the flow of the whole book. It's like whack-a-mole where each fixed problem creates two new inconsistencies with motives and cues in the next chapter.
Same, I found early on that it was hard for me to read what I wrote in my earlier drafts. It adds coherence in my future editing so, I know what the hecks is happening. Lol
