Dumb question time: What if the prologue simply becomes chapter 1? (Assuming the prologue holds the readers interest in the first place.) Some here seem to be freaked about prologues, for legitimate reasons.
Prologues
- Thread starter CindyB
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I'm not freaked out about prologues, and I can see their utility if there is a long time gap between some previous action and the present narrative. For example, if the writer wants to show some vampire being staked, buried, and a clove of garlic stuck in his mouth five hundred years ago, it would probably be appropriate to do that as a prologue and maybe even in italics. Similarly, the scenario about the death of the mc's father many years previous fits well into a prologue. For myself, I would rather work information like that into the main narrative because I think its more fun to reveal such information to the reader little by little -- puzzle novel fashion -- rather than handing it out in chunks. I think that's merely a stylistic difference, and we all do have our own styles.
I agree with you about the style differences. It all depends on the type of information and why it is included.
As far as making the prologue chapter one, I really couldn't. The prologue in my novel was used because while I did reveal the how's and why's as my mc found out the information, the prologue showed his death from his eyes. It included some things - especially his emotions, last thoughts of her and such - which she would have never found out about.
Again, different types of information, presented in different ways.
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