Comments on: I Should Be Writing Daily Experiment #2

By: tim dodge

tim dodge — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 00:35:37 +0000

I am officially hooked on your podcast. I’m really enjoying the daily experiments, but I like the regular podcasts, too. I found your podcast the roundabout way — I head an interview with Tee Morris on Paula B.’s “The Writing Show,” so I started listening to his “Survival Guide” podcast. He mentioned yours on the “Survival Guide”, and now I’m a regular listener.

Can you think of any exceptions to the “no prologue” advice? I just finished the third draft of my first novel (my first readers have it in their hands now), and it begins with a prologue that takes place years after the main story and ends with an epilogue that follows the prologue in the time line. Needless to say, I was interested in your comments on prologues.

By: Cayendi

Cayendi — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 09:50:10 +0000

I agree with your opinion of prologues that are filled with back story. I like stories where we are dumped into a strange world and only discover the how/what/why of it during the story, but …
What if you have an (opening)scene in your book that just doesn’t fit into the first chapter (timeline wise), isn’t long enough to be a chapter on its own, and deleting is not an option? A scene like an opening scene for a film that runs before the title credits.

I have a scene like that, and since it’s only 187 words long (though I plan on expanding it a bit to 300/500 words), I decided to call it the prologue.
Would it really be so bad to have a small prologue?

By: Kiki

Kiki — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 10:22:33 +0000

This exercise was tough! And no matter how many times you say it, I can’t help nodding in agreement. Just because a famous/successful/whatever writer succeeds DESPITE breaking the rules doesn’t mean you should do it.

And I *hate* prologues. They’re enough to make a difference between buying or not buying a book for me sometimes.

My taking a risk for today? Writing a non-fiction article. I suck at having a point.

By: Stijn Hommes

Stijn Hommes — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 04:50:50 +0000

Tough.

By: Mur Lafferty

Mur Lafferty — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 21:06:56 +0000

Kris, they are in the feed, so you should get them if you subscribe to the podcast. I don’t have any plans to make a separate feed just for these, though.

And Stijn, write a page of dialogue with no tags and make sure that the dialogue portrays each character clearly. How’s that?

By: Stijn Hommes

Stijn Hommes — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 20:51:10 +0000

I loved the previous excercise and I’ve now got the guts to write a zombie story (which is totally not my genre) but hey, you told me to take a chance.

What should people who don’t have any prologues lying around do today?

By: kris szafranski

kris szafranski — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 17:26:18 +0000

I loved these two experiments. If you’re going to keep doing them it would be helpful to podcast them. That’s easier to subscribe to than listening through the browser. I know, I could save it or make the browser open iTunes (or whatever), but if I could subscribe to just these hints, then I could make a playlist to hear a different encouraging tip each day. Anyway, very cool. Keep it up.