So I'm writing a novel and looking around on the Internet, I see a whole ton of hate towards prolouges and I don't understand why? What happens if the backstory in the prolouge is important and benefits the story, are agents just going to stop reading just because it says prologue? Can somebody please give me a little bit more detail on this, thank you.
Answers (2)
I suspect that what they hate is your spelling. You need to read novels. Lots of novels. Any novels. Notice that they all have perfect spelling, perfect punctuation, perfect composition. Notice where they use one space and where they use two. Notice that every speaker in a dialog gets a new paragraph, and every paragraph is preceded by a blank line. Notice any writing techniques or figures of speech. Take notes so you know where you found what you know. It takes a lot of reading to be a writer.
I went to a thing called YAK Fest, where authors of many different genres come and talk to students and sign books and things for them. One of the many topics that they talked about was Prolouges. If I recall this correctly, Jessica Brody, or maybe it was Lauren Oliver, said simply, "Prolouges are boring." As you write the story, just add in details about what should've been in the prologue as you go along. Sorry if this didn't make sense.
I'm glad I could help.
Oh okay thank you a lot, it made sneeze and was actually really helpful!