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Showing posts from March 3, 2010

Workin' On It Wednesday #46 -- More About Prologues

I've already written a little bit about prologues , but recently, Agent Kristin did a post listing the reasons why, in her experience, most prologues don't work. Yeah, I agree with her. In my own experience as a reader, most prologues either give away too much, thus ruining the book, or don't tell me enough, leaving me confused and wondering why I should care. I can think of only one prologue in the books I've read recently that worked at all, and even then, when I saw it I almost put the book back on the shelf.* Perhaps part of the reason why I'm anti-prologue is that I haven't had an idea yet that would require one, so I don't understand why every one else shouldn't just chop theirs off their books to conform with my ideas of right and wrong. I don't understand why they're necessary, why a writer would think it was important to have one.** Some authors have said that they use a prologue to convey backstory, but can't backstory be worke