I Should Be Writing Daily Experiment #2
Another day, another experiment.
[EDIT] Very timely came the Pub Rants blog giving advice NOT to put backstory into dialogue. So while you should avoid prologues in general, be sure not to fall into this trap.
March 28, 2006 | Mur Lafferty | Comments 7
About the Author: I am a writer and podcast producer, writing for magazines and RPGs. I am a wanna-be fiction writer with several short fiction, comic scripts, and one novel sale. Playing For Keeps will be out August, '08.
kris szafranski | Mar 28, 2006 | Reply
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.
Stijn Hommes | Mar 28, 2006 | Reply
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?
Mur Lafferty | Mar 28, 2006 | Reply
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?
Stijn Hommes | Mar 29, 2006 | Reply
Tough.
Kiki | Mar 29, 2006 | Reply
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.
Cayendi | Mar 30, 2006 | Reply
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?
tim dodge | Apr 1, 2006 | Reply
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.