Question about my ending/epilogue

[Ivonia]

Hi all,

Well, first of all, I finally finished my first draft of my novel! It's about 63k words on MS Word (is that too short for a sci-fi/fantasy story? Yes I have a ton of story/backstory for the book, but if I throw them in, it'll add another 250k words easily. I consider it partially sci-fi because it has advanced technology/space ships, but it also has a heavy fantasy element in it too). I know, it's far from finished before I attempt to send it out to agents/publishers (and reading the beginning, it is really crappy lol), but I had a question about my ending.

Okay, what happens is the good guys are forced to abandon the last planet they hold when the bad guys come. The hero's girlfriend decides that she wants to stay (yes, this is key plot device, although it's explained more in the 2nd story I have planned), and obviously the hero doesn't want to because he fears she'll be killed. But she asks him to trust her, and he makes a promise to return to her. The hero is a fighter pilot and has to leave with his fleet to protect the escaping civilians.

After they leave, another battle ensues (key plot device again, and it fills in some blanks I intentionally left in earlier in the story), and the hero does some extraordinary things and the good guys win their first major victory.

Soon after, the good guys plan strategies to liberate the planets taken over by the bad guys. The first is the planet the hero's g/f is on, and obviously he's on the expeditionary fleet to go there.

The final scene shows the hero's g/f hiding in a forest with others that they rescued and showing her looking at the night sky awaiting for her love to come back to her. This is to show readers and doubters that she is in fact still okay (and I'm a sucker for happy endings myself).

Okay, that's the last part of my book. The ending I have is a sort of cliffhanger, but I think that it ends on a good note that most people would be satisifed with.

I was also thinking about including an epilogue, to sort of match the prologue (I debated even throwing this in, but as the story progressed, I felt that showing what happens will explain almost everything else that happens in the book, otherwise it'll seem like I wrote this just to slap cool battle scenes together or something), which explains the bad guy's leader and basically the first thing that happens which will ultimately put him in power (and start the war). The epilogue shows the bad guy planning things with his trusted advisors, and although the good guys recent victory was a set back, it was just a minor one, and in the long run, the bad guys are confident they are going ot win (boy are they in for a big surprise themselves lol).

In your opinion, should I include the epilogue? While it will make the ending seem more like a downer, it does explain things that will happen in the 2nd story. And I promise that I'll have a very satisfying conclusion to this story by the end of the third book (I plan on this being a trilogy, but I'm trying to make the first book stand on its own too. Actually, if this book series does well, I have 2 prequel trilogies planned already, which will explain many things prior to all these events in this trilogy).

In any case, I'm really happy I got the story down. After I edit it, I'll send it in and if it becomes a decent success, then I'll have achieved one of my goals as a writer (one of the others being writing an epic tale that will stand the test of time, so that people 50 years or even 200 years from now will be able to read it and learn a few interesting things).

[Writing Again]

I don't like prologues or epilogues. As a reader I tend to avoid books that have either one let alone both: When I do read a book with a prologue I almost never read it.

As a writer one of my goals is to write that which I would read and enjoy were someone else to have written it.

[maestrowork]

I personally don't like prologues or epilogues. I don't read prologues, and sometimes I don't read epilogues. Most writers use epilogues as a way to try to tie up any loose ends -- "and they live happily ever after" or "whatever happened to Baby Jane" type stuff. I find that corny. And if the story ends in the last chapter, let it end. If the story has to continue into an "epilogue" let the epilogue be the last chapter.

For example, Dan Brown misuses prologues and epilogues. In both his Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, I feel that the prologue should have been the first chapter, and the epilogue should have been the last chapter. I think he was trying the cinematic "opening credit scene" and the "closing credit." It didn't work for me.

If the backstories are really that important, incorporate them in the main story. If they're not that important, then leave them out. At least that's my preference.

[detante]

Ivonia,

First, congratulations on finishing the first draft!

Second, I have to agree with WA & Maestro. I'm not particularly fond of prologues or epilogues. If you do include either, keep in mind that many of your readers will skip them entirely.

Why not use the epilogue as the beginning of the second book, instead?

Jen

[katdad]

First, 65k words is fine for a fantasy novel. They tend to run a bit longer but 60k is the bare minimum. And over 80k is a bit long for a new writer getting published.

Regarding your proposed epilog. I think that the ending you mention, with the g/f looking at the night sky, is fine, and probably a good choice.

The bad guy planning session would not make a good epilog, as I see it. It's anticlimactic and would not be an appropriate resolution.

What I might suggest is to insert this as the penultimate chapter. (for those dictionary-challenged folks, "penultimate" means the next to last).

So if the last chapter is Ch 43, and in Ch 42 you have a brief interlude to let us know what's going on at DeathStar (ha ha) then you have successfully given us the teasers for the next book, and then a nice, upbeat closing chapter to follow.

Overall I'm not too happy with prologs or epilogs either. I think you can open the novel with a bang and then do the backstory (which is the function of a prolog). I however have no strong objections.

[maestrowork]

Yup, your story should end. Whether you choose to do an epilogue or not, your epilogue should not be a cliffhanger or anything that is not resolved. Your book must have a resolve for an ending. Otherwise, it'd read like "coming attraction..."

[Jamesaritchie]

There are certainly bad prologues, but I do like a prlogue that's well done and there for a reason. Readers who don't read prologues are often cheating themselves in a major way. A good prologue gives past information vital to the story, and the story simply will not be understood properly if the reader skips it.

I'm less fond of epilogues, though I have read three or four that were very well done, and made the ending more satisfactory than anything else I can think of. I don't think I'd like a cliffhanger epilogue, however.

It sounds like you're trying to write a series, and this generally si not a good idea for a new writer.

[Ivonia]

Thanks for the info. Yeah, I felt that the planned epilogue doesn't match the ending for the story too well. I wanted to see how others felt about it first. I guess I'll just let the ending end like how I wanted it to end.

After all, I mention several times through many characters that the enemy has a really large force (and many of the good guys have a feeling that they're losing the war at that point), although they do destroy manage to destroy one of the bad guys' prized weapons (it'd actually be more like a Super Star Destroyer in Star Wars analogy, but I have a few surprises with it so that it's not "just a big ship and who cares").

Regarding the prologue. Okay, the reason why it's a prologue is because it gives readers a vital hint of what's to come. It starts out with the bad guy as just a sort of regular guy, and then he finds something that corrupts him but also promises him power in return. In fact, the others with the main bad guy realize right before they die that they unleashed some horrible thing into the universe. The bad guy then basically disappears from the rest of the story, other than a few scenes where he's talking to his commanders (lets say for an easy example, that this guy is Hitler, and the prologue tells you what happens before Hitler comes to power).

Then Chapter 1 actually starts some 50 years after that incident, on the good guy's planet (not the same one as the bad guys), and it shows the hero and his friends before the war starts.

Wouldn't it really confusing to readers if I made the prologue Chapter 1, starting out with the bad guy and his origins, and then suddenly skipping 50 years and going to the good guys in chapter 2? I'm not saying I don't like your suggestion and mine's better, I just feel that the prologue sets up the rest of the story (but I hint at how it starts and how the bad guys do what they do as a result), and it doesn't fit any other part of the story unless I have the good guys capture a bad guy and go into "info dump mode" with him (which I don't want to do, especially since the good guys really are losing until the hero jumps into the picture).

With what I said about the prologue, would you guys think that it's better if I left it as a prologue rather than starting it as chapter 1?

[cwfgal]

I'd have to agree with whoever it was that said readers who routinely skip prologues may be cheating themselves out of a more satisfying read. Prologues are often set apart from the main story for a reason, though they are usually integral to the story overall.

I'm curious as to what it is about prologues that most people dislike?? Do most of you who skip prologues automatically assume they are chunks of backstory?

Beth

[ElizabethJames]

We used to skip prologues because they often are stylistically different from the main work . . . and often too densely packed with back story or front story or whatever kind of story they're packed with . . . except the core story.

Everyone in our writing group, however, insists they have value, so we've been trying to read them lately. It's a chore.

[Terra Aeterna]

I suspect as you revise even if you don't add in a lot of backstory you'll end up with a higher word count as you refine things. Prologues and epilogues seem to generate a lot of debate. If you really want one and it feels right to you as the writer, I'd go with it.

[macalicious731]

Sounds like your epilogue is trying to set up your next book. Why don't you make the epilogue the first chapter in the next novel? Since you're planning a sequel, let this story end. You can do as much meddling and setup you need the next time around.

[Writing Again]

A prologue is an introduction: That which comes before the story. An epilogue is an afterword: That which comes after the story.

The story should stand alone and speak for itself.

Seldom is either one ever needed for the understanding or appreciation of the story.