Alright so I'm working on a novel. And I was thinking about having the prologue and epilogue be in 1st person and the rest in 3rd person. You think this would be a turn off to publishers or readers?
Well the idea is the prologue and epilogue act like a journal. Which is why they would be written in the 1st person. The character is dieing so he decided to write a journal for anyone who may come across his rotting corps. Another character does find this journal, but we never read entries from it during the story (3rd person).
I think that would work. Of course, you're going to get all the "anti-prologuers" here to give you the other side now.
Anti-prologuers; well that is just their opinion which in reality means nothing. I have read books with them and with out and have no real hate to them as it is not a person so hating them would be childish.
Well, I'm anti-prologue, but it's not as if I stay up nights plotting a violent revenge against the things. So I'm not sure why having an opinion about them is any more childish than having any other opinion about books? I think that fiction should start right in the middle of the story, and pretty much by definition a prologue doesn't do that. So I'm opposed to them. ChickenFreak
I'm mostly anti-prologue for the same reason. That, and also because most prologues are one form of infodump or another. I should qualify that. "Most" means in unsubmitted writing. I've seen plenty of useless prologues in published work, too, but in unpublished stories the majority of them kill the opening. Sad to say, from what you say about your proposed prologue, I think your story is probably much better off without it. I hope it's just a matter of too-quick typing, but two misspellings in this sentence: make me anything but confident in your chances. The bolded words should be dying and corpse. First impressions matter. The choice of using a prologue, and its focus, also sends a first impression to a submissions editor.
It all depends on the prologue. A good prologue will create questions, build suspense. For example, many murder mysteries have the first murder as the prologue, perhaps ending the prologue with a dangling mystery, an intriguing clue that will make the reader want to read on. A bad prologue (as stated, the "info dump") might be, say, a science fiction story that for some reason feels the need to tell the history of the planet before starting chapter 1 with the laser battle. Better to jump into the laser battle and let any necessary information about the history of the planet be gradually revealed to the reader. Charlie
Why are we picking on spelling? I mean, tacked on to the end of a comment that basically slaps someone's hand for attempting to exercise their creativity? I don't get it. I agree. A good prologue helps build mystery and can give us a quick glimpse into a world's (or character's) history. Good prologues I've seen separate themselves to some extent from the present day action/characters, but usually only encompass one brief moment in the past/distant past. My honest opinion is to go for it, write it. You can always take it out later if it's not working. But, if it gets your creativity going, then by all means. See where it goes and where it takes you. I've created prologues for stories, finished the story, and go back to find that the prologue needs to be changed around a bit, or removed. PM if you want to show me anything. Would love to see it.
