![\"Great](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Depositphotos_211409410_s-2015_Prologue.jpg?resize=176%2C117&ssl=1\")
before it’s needed\u2014without actually involving the main characters. It’s a win-win!<\/p>\nI love prologues. Reading them sets the stage for me and gets my anticipation humming. And writing them is like adding backstory\u2014which we all like to add before it’s needed\u2014without actually involving the main characters. It’s a win-win!<\/p>\n
As I’ve mentioned before, when I first started writing several people told me one of the “rules” was that prologues were not popular and I would be better off not writing them. Most of the time I didn’t. But when I began adding prologues, readers told me their interest went up. So what’s the deal in encouraging writers not to use a technique that seems to work for readers?<\/p>\n
For me, the trick is to write a prologue with action. It shouldn’t be more than a few pages, and usually not as long as a chapter. This isn’t the time to build a full character study. I like to tweak the reader (any<\/em> reader, including…well you can see for yourself) with action t That’s my take on prologues, anyway. What is yours? Do you like them, to read or write?<\/p>\n Read the next blog in the blog hop by going here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Dee<\/a> Naval Maneuvers<\/a>: When a woman requires an earth-shattering crush of pleasure to carry her away, she can’t do better than to call on the US Navy. Sorry, Marines!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I love prologues. Reading them sets the stage for me and gets my anticipation humming. And writing them is like adding backstory\u2014which we all like to add before it’s needed\u2014without actually involving the main characters. It’s a win-win! As I’ve mentioned before, when I first started writing several people told me one of the “rules” … Continue reading “Prologue: Worthwhile beginnings #MFRWauthor”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,1,466],"tags":[463,8,459,230,465,464,130],"class_list":["post-805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-uncategorized","category-writing","tag-backstory","tag-dee-s-knight","tag-mfrw","tag-prologue","tag-readers","tag-rules-of-writing","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9wA33-cZ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":836,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions\/836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Cute](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nomadauthors.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Depositphotos_51511697_s-2019_DogGlasses.jpg?resize=152%2C112&ssl=1\")
hat will have them asking, “What’s next?” Of course, both the character in the prologue\u2014often the villain\u2014and the action itself has to lead<\/em> to the main character, but without actually having him\/her appear. Build suspense. Leave character development to the book’s chapters.<\/p>\n
\nOnly a Good Man Will Do<\/a>: Seriously ambitious man seeks woman to encourage his goals, support his (hopeful) position as Headmaster of Westover Academy, and be purer than Caesar’s wife. Good luck with that!<\/p>\n