for symmetry? Novel 1 has both. Novel 2 has only pro. Novel 3 has both. Novel 4, I am only 25K in, so I don't know yet.
What about you?
What about you?
If you have a prologue, do you need an epilogue
- Thread starter Prawn
- Start date
- Status
Nope.
If you feel you need one, put it. If not, don't.
I'm just hoping this doesn't turn into another prologue argument
If you feel you need one, put it. If not, don't.
I'm just hoping this doesn't turn into another prologue argument
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2007
- Messages
- 6,449
- Reaction score
- 1,321
I started with a prologue then realized it could just drop in a as regular part like a flashback and would work better for me that way.
Hopefully you don't need either.
One's a cheap way of injecting information, the other is a cheap way to say stuff you didn't fit into your novel.
One's a cheap way of injecting information, the other is a cheap way to say stuff you didn't fit into your novel.
I only have an epilogue - I feel that it's a good way to provide closure and set up the next book after a rather violent and depressing (about half of the characters die) ending. It may just become another chapter, though.
Uh, no. One's a prologue and one's an epilogue.
If you think they're cheap ways of cramming info into your novel and 'bookending' the thing with useless crap, you've got the wrong idea of what a prologue or epilogue should be.
Me? I prefer to judge a book on the quality of the writing, not how each section is divided from the others.
Nope.
If you feel you need one, put it. If not, don't.
I'm just hoping this doesn't turn into another prologue argument
Yeah, and I'm hoping for Joaquin Phoenix and a bucket of blackcurrant jam but we can't have everything...
Still hoping it won't turn into a for/against the prologue argument?
Why? WHY do I do this to myself? I'd be as well jamming my head in the George Foreman grill, paper-cutting my nipples and sticking a red-hot poker up my arse; it'd be more fun.
WHY???
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2006
- Messages
- 1,191
- Reaction score
- 117
- Location
- In my head.
- Website
- www.requirecookie.com
Beats the hell out of me.
I've decided to ignore, discount, and otherwise shun the Anti-Prologue Police. May they live long and happy lives rushing to douse the flames of Prologue Mania (lest we be consumed by the fire, I suppose) and, to thorougly mix my metaphors, batter their fellow writers into meek Anti-Prologue submission.
Serves 'em all right.
Ghosts has no prologue, but it does have an epilogue... and I called it an epilogue, not another chapter, because it takes place 1 year after the main plot comes to an end. The end of the last chapter in the book has all of my main characters making important choices that they've been struggling with through the book. So in that sense, they made the choices, the action is finished. It doesn't "matter" what the result of those choices were, but I felt like the reader deserved to know what the outcomes were. For instance, at the end of the last chapter, a secondary character's life is hanging in the balance. My MC's important choice is based on not knowing whether the secondary character will live. But since the reader's gotten some amount of investment in the secondary character, I thought it would be really mean not to tell if he lived or died. You figure it out in the epilogue.
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2005
- Messages
- 43,746
- Reaction score
- 8,654
- Location
- Los Angeles
- Website
- www.amazon.com
The all-purpose answer: it depends.
First, no, it doesn't have to have an epilogue just because you have a prologue. You can have prologue with no epilogue, epilogue with no prologue, no prologue or epilogue, or both prologue and epilogue.
Second, you have to ask yourself about the purpose of the epilogue just as you would ask about prologue. If it is something like "and then this is what happened to whom after all is said and done" I would caution about writing it. And sometimes epilogues are misused -- for example, IMHO, the epilogue in the Da Vinci Code should have been a last chapter -- I mean, it's an important conclusion of the whole frigging book, the whole reason why Langdon was in this wild goose chase, and he made it an "epilogue"! Epilogue really does mean "and something extra" after the main story has concluded.
The epilogue in Atonement (which is entitled "1999 London"), for example, is essential and correctly done. It really isn't part of the main story, but it gives it a final twist that is very relevant to the entire novel, but the "main story" ends on Part III.
First, no, it doesn't have to have an epilogue just because you have a prologue. You can have prologue with no epilogue, epilogue with no prologue, no prologue or epilogue, or both prologue and epilogue.
Second, you have to ask yourself about the purpose of the epilogue just as you would ask about prologue. If it is something like "and then this is what happened to whom after all is said and done" I would caution about writing it. And sometimes epilogues are misused -- for example, IMHO, the epilogue in the Da Vinci Code should have been a last chapter -- I mean, it's an important conclusion of the whole frigging book, the whole reason why Langdon was in this wild goose chase, and he made it an "epilogue"! Epilogue really does mean "and something extra" after the main story has concluded.
The epilogue in Atonement (which is entitled "1999 London"), for example, is essential and correctly done. It really isn't part of the main story, but it gives it a final twist that is very relevant to the entire novel, but the "main story" ends on Part III.
Only if the book's unbalanced. If you stand it up, and it leans toward the front, then your prologue is pulling it off center. That's when you need an epilogue. Nothing worse than a book that leans on the shelf.
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2006
- Messages
- 1,702
- Reaction score
- 72
I write a prologue and/or epilogue if it's necessary.
My first book has an epilogue which sets the stage for the next book.
My second book has a prologue that covers an important event that happens before the events of the story proper. This one, however, will not have an epilogue since the third book begins where this one leaves off.
My first book has an epilogue which sets the stage for the next book.
My second book has a prologue that covers an important event that happens before the events of the story proper. This one, however, will not have an epilogue since the third book begins where this one leaves off.
More or less my point.
You can have info-dumps. You can have head-hoping. You can even have -ly tags on your dialog. You can even start off your book with the main character waking up and then give them a case of amnesia about halfway through. Double dipping. And, just like you can have all these things, you can have a prologue and an epilogue.
But they are what they are.
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2005
- Messages
- 23,708
- Reaction score
- 10,661
- Location
- In a world of my own making
- Website
- shadowferret.wordpress.com
Yes, for every prologue there should be an equal and opposite epilogue.
And really, it should have a forward, too. And an acknowledgment page. An introduction. A glossary. And a TOC and an index.
And really, it should have a forward, too. And an acknowledgment page. An introduction. A glossary. And a TOC and an index.
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2007
- Messages
- 655
- Reaction score
- 342
I don't think I've ever seen a book that had one and not the other. I think you can have a prologue and epilogue without the other though. I don't think they have to be a set.
- Status