A question on prologues

[kero319]

Would it work for the prologue of the book to be in a different point of view than the rest of the book?
For instance, a book that is 1st person POV has a 3rd person POV prologue?

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Would it work for the prologue of the book to be in a different point of view than the rest of the book?
For instance, a book that is 1st person POV has a 3rd person POV prologue?

Depends on what you are doing with it.

I would say yes, it's perfectly fine, but so long as there's something specific you are trying to achieve by doing it that way. There is something of a cliche that bad high fantasy starts with prologues setting up the history of the world and conflict in uninspired and tedious detail, so probably best to avoid looking like that.

What's in your prologue that would not be in the rest of the book, and when does it connect on ? I'm fine with prologues not connecting immediately to the main story, but it might be problematic if the book felt like it was going on and on and on without showing you why it had the prologue in the first place.

Myself, I find myself leaning on epilogues from different POVs to tie things up rather more than I would ideally like. Am trying to avoid becoming dependent on that.

[meg_evonne]

Just a footnote ---  I've read several agents pages that did not like prologues.  Several others probably do, but I will toss that out for fodder to discuss.  Sorry I wasn't making notes as I lurked through agent postings and blogs so i can't give you details as to locations...   :-)

[kero319]

well the prologue i was thinking about would introduce a character, in a different time period, that would come up later in the story, but I couldn't really think of a way to introduce his backstory without it being weird.

Basically
The Prologue would be about character B, 1000 years before the story. My actual story is in 1st person, so I thought it might be confusing if the prologue was 1st person but with a different character.

Ill write up the prologue and ask some people, and maybe post it

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

well the prologue i was thinking about would introduce a character, in a different time period, that would come up later in the story, but I couldn't really think of a way to introduce his backstory without it being weird.

Basically
The Prologue would be about character B, 1000 years before the story. My actual story is in 1st person, so I thought it might be confusing if the prologue was 1st person but with a different character.

Ill write up the prologue and ask some people, and maybe post it

Doing that isn't going to answer the question of how well it flows with the rest of the book, though.

[Kali]

As someone else mentioned, agents don't (generally speaking) like prologues.  Neither do editors.  Yes, there are plenty of examples of books that have them, but you can Google "prologue agent editor" to see all the "we don't like prologues" out there.  So don't take my word for it.  Even the Divine Miss Snark, literary agent and blogger extraordinare, hates them on principle.

The problem as a writer is you have this chunk of info, backstory, that you want to convey. But is it NECESSARY to convey it?  Does it add to the story, or is it just some extraneous info?  Does the reader need to know this stuff, will it increase the reader's enjoyment?  Or will it only increase your word count?  The best way to tell is to take it out and read it.  Does the story still make sense? Is it cohesive and coherent? 

Unless you're very good at being dispassionate about your own work (and I'm not sure any author should be able to be dispassionate about their own work), you as the author will likely have a difficult time answering this.  This is why beta readers are important. 

Have someone read the story without the prologue.  It's important they read it WITHOUT the prologue first, so that you know they aren't "tainted" with the knowledge it contains.  Ask them if the story had any gaps that they stumbled over, or if there were things that the story assumed they knew but they didn't, if there were places where they were confused about what was happening or why.  THEN have them read just the prologue and ask them if it cleared anything up. 

Do NOT ask if they "liked" the prologue.  That's not your test.  You keep a prologue if it explains things you cannot find any other way to include in your narrative.  Or, y'know, if it just does it way cooler than you can do it elsewhere, SO MUCH cooler that you think it'll make it past an agent who a) in all probability doesn't like prologues, and b) could possibly be having a really bad day and is just looking for any excuse to toss your manuscript in the trash.

[Captain's Honor]

Then I'm going to be in serious dang trouble when I try to publish one of my books because due to it's story within a story format it has two prologues and two epilogues.

Getting back to your question of having two different points of view between the prologue and main story, I'd think it'd be fine, just as long as the epilogue was written in the same point of view as the prologue, so there was continuity.

[meg_evonne]

flashback...  biggie, little one, they all love 'flashbacks'! 

Remember the best intro is action that is core to the main character (reader/author contract), after that is dialog, better yet, both with a snappy first liner.  Gotta meet that test if it's prologue.  Also if it isn't your main character and it's not a murder mystery set up, try a flashback.

Want examples?  First page of any of JB's books and obvioius Fire works well for him, followed by--  'it wasn't my fault!"  Truthfully, pick up any of the best sellers these days for examples.

:-)   always just my unpublished opinion..

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Then I'm going to be in serious dang trouble when I try to publish one of my books because due to it's story within a story format it has two prologues and two epilogues.
Getting back to your question of having two different points of view between the prologue and main story, I'd think it'd be fine, just as long as the epilogue was written in the same point of view as the prologue, so there was continuity.

Frame stories are not necessarily the same thing as prologues/epilogues, though, and what you are talking about sounds like a frame story.  And I think the recent success of The Name of the Wind demnonstrates that good things with frame stories can sell.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Remember the best intro is action that is core to the main character (reader/author contract), after that is dialog, better yet, both with a snappy first liner.

I remain unconvinced by this.  Look at the opening of The Lord of the Rings, or Watership Down... some stories want hooks, and some want gentle measured openings and some want something else again.

[Kali]

I remain unconvinced by this.  Look at the opening of The Lord of the Rings, or Watership Down... some stories want hooks, and some want gentle measured openings and some want something else again.

Both stories written in a very different publishing environment to audiences accustomed to slower-paced books.  I'm not saying it can't work, I'm just saying your odds of finding an editor or agent for a F/SF book go way down if you try to ease readers into the story these days.  You don't have to start with a building burning down and monkey demons flinging napalm poo -- though that's one of my favorite beginnings for a book ever -- but you might not want to start with a history of the town and the geneaology of its inhabitants, these days.

[Starbeam]

I don't think Lord of the Rings can really be used as an example.  Granted, not everyone reads The Hobbit first, but Lord of the Rings is a sequel to that, which does start in the middle of action.  Plus Concerning Hobbits isn't really a prologue like in most books.  It could pretty easily be deleted without making too much of a difference in reading the book.  I used to skip over it because I used to think it was boring. 

[blgarver]

Frame stories are not necessarily the same thing as prologues/epilogues, though, and what you are talking about sounds like a frame story.  And I think the recent success of The Name of the Wind demnonstrates that good things with frame stories can sell.

I was just about to mention The Name of the Wind, as well.  I'm nearing the end of that book, and it is helping me work through my own problems with chunks of historical backstory. 

[meg_evonne]

I've been re-reading the Tim Powers classic, "Anubis Gate".  Guess what, big long prologue and that was published initially in 1983 or so?  How times have changed.  Of course, lengthy descriptions seem on the wane as well these days as has been mentioned by kali. 

Wait, I think I just dated myself!  That was 25 years ago!?  Eeeccckkk!