This is my burning question at present in my novel Support Act. It centres around the friendship of two women who have been best friends since they were teenagers. I originally started it with them in their thirties and the whole novel spanned a year. I showed the start to an agent at Winchester last year ( a high flyer so I listened when she spoke!) and she said you need to show the reader some history of this friendship - maybe in a prologue. I went away and thought about this for a while and initially rejected the idea then came round to it. I wrote a prologue - it went on and on and on... I realised I was writing backstory - so I ditched it.
Then I had a moment where I thought I know how to do a snappy prologue with a symbolic link in it to the present - so that's what I wrote. I now think the prologue needs to be discarded and I need to go back and rework my original start. Then a writer friend mentioned flashbacks.
I am now groaning under the weight of prologues and flashbacks and have no idea what to do.
This is my plan though to try and answer this question. Print off the whole novel (without the prologue) and read it to see whether or not I have a story that works and flows - THEN I'll think about prologues/flashbacks.
Off to untie the twist in my writerly knickers! I hope!
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4 comments:
I feel your pain; I, too, am about to tangle yet again with the structure of my novel. I've been advised to think about it from the viewpoint of the reader, and try to work out what they need to know at which point: what information is necessary first, what second and so on. That seems helpful in my head, although I haven't yet tried putting it into practice, but I thought I'd pass it on anyway. Best of luck.
Thanks Zinnia - it's a toughie isn't it? Part of the problem I think is that you can provide this information in many different guises - my story (I think!) could stand alone without the prologue - what I'm trying to figure is what the prologue or flashbacks bring to the story. Too many options - I'm hoping that I will have an ephnany around this and just know what to do - eventuallly!! Keep me posted on how your 'tangle' goes Zinnia. Happy writing!
Not commented in a while, but have still been enjoying the blog.
I would always ask myself: how important is the information the prologue contains, and: could it be told, more subtly elsewhere. If you're not careful prologues can feel like lazy writing/info dumps...
Of course, sometimes they're just right and work perfectly.
Nik
I went to Winchester a couple of years ago and the agent I spoke to said she hated prologues!! (Yes, I had written one!) She wondered why I hadn't just written "Chapter One" instead. She was quite grumpy though - I think she'd had a long day, but it stuck in my mind. Although I've read plenty of books with a prologue and not minded at all, I don't think I'll be writing one again any time soon :o)
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