What's a good start for a prologue

Ellieporter

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So, I've been thinking about this lately.

Should the chapter start by waking up in his/her bed?

Should it start with how their room looks like and take it from there?

Mostly i start my chapters with dialogues. Any ideas for this?
 

Snusmumriken

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Should the chapter start by waking up in his/her bed?
No, unless you are really really good
Should it start with how their room looks like and take it from there?
No, unless you are good. Or the room contains a major plot point.

Both of these can wait even past chapter 1. not even mentioning the prologue.
In the prologue you want to give a piece of a setting, and provide the hook for a reader, and/or highlight what the story will be about (especially if the chapter 1 starts with a different flow.

rest could be done in chapter 1.
 

ArcadiaBlade

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If your good at suspence, start with the future your heading into. It would left people wandering what's going to happen to your novel and a good start if you know which direction your heading into.

If creativity is your strong point, start through where to begin such as an encounter or just a daily life.

If its a relationship, go for how the two's relationship is going or what happened.

If you wanna unlock more of the advice, you can buy it at a low, low price of $69.69
 

RepresentingCaution

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Should the chapter start by waking up in his/her bed?
Only if they are woken up in an unusual way.
Should it start with how their room looks like and take it from there?
Only if their room is incredibly exciting.

In general, you want to jump into the action and develop the characters through their actions.
 

DubstheDuke

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I mean I always think the prologue should be something really out of place, like putting you right in the middle of the story and then reverting back to the beginning for chapter 1 or something.
 
D

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idk it depends on the story and what you wanna do. i wrote a scene that happened before the rest of the storyplot. its to pull others in.
 

JayDirex

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You don't need a prologue The story starts on chapter one, page one. I'm not kidding.

No one's interested in the lore of your luscious world. They are interested in a story. So get to the story, get to the stakes of the MC's predicament immediately. Prologue equals you're trying to pre-tell something. Don't do that. just tell the story.

And the story starts on page one, chapter one. Period.
 

Motsu

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Good question.

To be honest, your way of starting the prologue is pretty mundane—indifferent, it won't rake up interests—whatsoever, I am not one to care if that's what you want to do. Most writers start off with a monologue, of course, that's how you start off a first person story. Usually at this point, if the MC talks about youth or school, it could be that he is in high school right now. Monologues can be very important when starting off a story, mystifying a plot twist, and when understanding the mind of an MC.

Nevertheless, talking endlessly about things isn't good, especially if it doesn't have anything to do with his situation. Maybe start by thinking what would be unique? Can't say for sure if anything I'd say would be of any help. Just think about it. :s_wink:
 

atgongumerki

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the prologue is not part of your main plot

could be from the perspective of your villain

could be about the precursor of the story, explaining why the story even happened

could be worldbuilding

could be about the past of mc

could be hundreds of different things, but it is not about the main plot from the main characters pov
 

LinXueLian

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Y'know, I actually like the waking up in bed thing.

I tend to like stories that start with events or actions, mundane or not - but if it's mundane the pickup needs to be really quick to hold attention. Wake up mundanely, two paragraphs in BAM something more exciting or funny happens. I like that!
 

Sylverius

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I started by introducing the librarian who starts telling the readers about the novel's common legend. It has a lot of huge plot points such as why the color silver was hated, who the silver king is and why the Gods are all dead as well as why the world is currently at peace.

For the first chapter, I started with the MC remembering bits of his past before forgetting his identity. That in itself is also important, as well as the God/Goddess he spoke with in order to reincarnate him.

I had a lot planned out, but it didn't really grab the audience's attention well, and halved the number of readers instead.

Big sad.
 

Jemini

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Should the chapter start by waking up in his/her bed?

You know? I've been playing a game called "Another Eden" a lot lately. It's written by the same team that made Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. All three of these games start off with their character being woken up by someone, and Another Eden almost seems to be a frame-for-frame re-make of the way Chrono's mom wakes him up in Chrono Trigger.

Chrono Trigger is well regarded as a prime contender for #1 best JRPG of all time, and Another Eden is well regarded as an excellent return-to-form for the JRPG genre in the modern day and is also well loved by it's followers.

That said, seeing this question asked makes me almost want to start a story by waking up a character in a manner almost identical to the open for Chrono Trigger. It could be a fun little thing to throw in somewhere.

All this said, I have to go along with what was said first in response to this. "No, unless you are really good." It is extremely easy for this opening technique to go very badly. You should only use it if you know exactly what you are doing, exactly how this technique can go wrong, and exactly why it goes wrong. You should also have a very particular idea in mind for what you are going to be doing with it.

Really, the important thing for a prologue is it has to tell the reader something about your character, the world, and what to expect from your story. In the spirit of that, you are going to want to put your character in a situation that tells the reader those things.

I like telling reincarnation Isekai stories. So, most of my prologues have to do with finding a good way to effectively kill the character off in a way that tells the reader as much about the characters and the world as possible. In Key to the Void, I had the protagonist get killed by Amashilama, a divine leech from Babalonian mythos, as part of paying a price to have her heal his granddaughter. In A New Hero God, I had the school councilor protagonist die while protecting a student from a school shooter. In the process, he actually got a death grip on the shooter's leg and kept his hold until the police came in. In both cases, the way they die actually grants them some form of benefit in their respective next lives. Asaren from Key to the Void gets Amashalama's incarnation as her twin sister. Daren from A New Hero God gets the "Hero" and "Sacrifice" domains in his power set.

No matter what, your prologue should link to the rest of the story in some important way.
 

Derin_Edala

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I wouldn't write a prologue unless you have to. If you have to, start it wherever you need to to get to the point of the prologue as quickly as possible. Whether that involves waking up in bed depends on how you're telling the story.
 

TheTrinary

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It's a weird question since you're asking about how to literally start the first sentence as opposed to what to make the prologue about.

The answer is impossible for us to give specifics on since we don't know what your prologue is about, and not really a problem in and of itself anyway, since you just need to open with what the prologue is about. With that said, the prologue is probably not about a person sleeping or what a room looked like.
 

JayDirex

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I started by introducing the librarian who starts telling the readers about the novel's common legend. It has a lot of huge plot points such as why the color silver was hated, who the silver king is and why the Gods are all dead as well as why the world is currently at peace.

For the first chapter, I started with the MC remembering bits of his past before forgetting his identity. That in itself is also important, as well as the God/Goddess he spoke with in order to reincarnate him.

I had a lot planned out, but it didn't really grab the audience's attention well, and halved the number of readers instead.

Big sad.
Because you didn't start them with a story you started by listing things that they didn't need to know at all. Readers are not here to read about your world. they're here for a story.
 

AliceShiki

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I think a prologue should usually be really short and show something meaningful to the audience. And something that will lead to the main story's events.

Maybe it can be the thing that led the MC to be where they are. Maybe it can be something from the point of view of someone else that is not the MC, but is relevant to what will soon happen that will trigger the start of the story...

Something. Just... Something relevant. And something short. Don't waste too much time on the prologue because your story is about something else, the prologue is just a quick lead up~

At least that's how I do it~
 

Sylverius

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Because you didn't start them with a story you started by listing things that they didn't need to know at all. Readers are not here to read about your world. they're here for a story.
Yeah, I didn't really consider that one. It's my mistake and it cost me a bunch of potential readers.

Although, in there, I also pointed out how the world works, their transportations, their powers and classes too. I guess they weren't patient to the point of reaching that.
 

Ai-chan

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He planned to kill Sondra.

Instantly grabs you attention, doesn't it?
If you really want to grab attention, you would write it as something like...

Sondra must die.

This thought reverberated in his mind. A single overriding desire, an uncompromising wish, and the start of a journey. A journey that would see his satisfaction for a job well done or one that would bring him to complete ruin. Yet it must be done. There is no other avenue for deliberation. It must be done.

What started this train of thought? What reason was there for him to consider this the end result? How would he achieve this? How would Sondra die?

It didn't matter. The end result would not change. The journey would not be delayed. Nothing should stay this goal. This was his unwavering truth.

Sondra must die.
 
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