: Re: How long can a prologue be, and what should you not do? A while back I wrote a prologue about the beginning of time and space and all that. One thing I noticed later is that between the

@Kristi637

Vote Up Vote Down

You have correctly identified your issue: Your prologue has cannibalized your main story. A prologue should generally be brief, otherwise, your reader may grow invested in it to the point that they reject the switch to the main narrative. I've read books by very good authors where the extended prologue was great, but I barely even made it through the rest of the book (Enchantress of Florence, Rushdie, Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, Delany).
Now for solutions: A) Omit the prologue, and think of it as world-building. Most great writers understand that some of the necessary writing you do on a book project is for the readers, and some is just for you, the author. If you have all of this information in your back pocket, you can draw upon it whenever and wherever you need to, in order to make your story more rich and three-dimensional. B) Stop thinking of this as the prologue, and find ways to make it work as the first section of the main narrative. (If it's the prologue mainly because it doesn't actually advance the plot then go back to choice A.)

(0)

Login to post a comment!