Comments on: ISBW #115 – Beginnings and Prologues

By: Shedrick Pittman-Hassett

Shedrick Pittman-Hassett — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:57:05 +0000

I’m battling with beginnings to a story I’m working on as well. I’m not doing a prologue, but I’m afraid of being cliched. Currently it’s the classic “guy is in a bar and is approached for a job” beginning. I’m pretty pleased with it but that “this has been done to death” feeling sometimes taps me on the head. I’ve toyed with doing a kind of Tarantino-style shake up of the narrative, but then I think “my that’s going to be gimmicky and obviously trying too hard”.

By: Eliyanna

Eliyanna — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 05:04:04 +0000

I’ve been battling with the prologue thing too. I’m thinking of splitting my prologue into little bits and using it as beginning quotations for each chapter to reveal a bit of the backdrop as the story unfolds. I wonder if that’s annoying too?

By: Arkle

Arkle — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:01:15 +0000

This is very timely, as I’ve been engaged with myself in a debate about “To Prologue or Not To Prologue.” I’m starting to lean towards just doing a prequel short story, but I’m worried that would be cheating since this is a NaNoWriMo project I’m thinking about.