To Prologue or Not To Prologue . . .
When I was in high school, I took a class where one section was on Obedience to Authority. We read about and discussed Nazi Germany, for example, as well as not-so-violent examples of citizens conforming. To prove the point, we created an experiment.
Patterson Hall was a long, L-shaped building with six double-door entrances and a long, narrow hall. We printed signs declaring that the hall was now One Way Only, that when you entered you could only walk to the right. We SAID we were the administration on the signs, but we weren’t nor did we get permission–it was an experiment, after all. We wanted to know if anyone questioned it. We wanted to know what the secretaries would say if someone did. We had a memo that was distributed in all first period classes explaining the new safety rules in Patterson Hall and why the hall was now One Way Only. There were no posted penalties, we simply declared the new rule as gospel.
Surely enough, within less than two days everyone was walking only one way in the hall. No more running into people rushing to class! No more dropped books because you were accidentally pushed aside by the biggest linebacker! No more stepped on toes!
What did we learn by this exercise that I can apply to writing? Simply: when you speak with authority, people follow. When you act like you know what you’re doing, people listen or get the hell out of your way. There was a modicum of sense to the new One Way rule–we’re always learning about safety. If we say that something is being done for your safety, you’re more apt to go along if it makes some sense.
This is exactly how writing rules developed. People with some authority spoke passionately about what to do–or what not to do–in writing, and that declaration became a RULE. Like:
NEVER write a prologue.
(My editor loves them; when I neglected to write one, she asked to me to add it.)Flashbacks are weak.
(I love them.)NEVER change POV within a scene.
(Why the hell not?)ALWAYS use the “scene and sequel” approach when switching POV.
(Ugh. Don’t get me started.)DO NOT have two strong male characters who could be the hero.
(Joe Morelli? Ranger? Let me count the ways . . . eeney, meeny, miney, Joe . . . )ONLY use the hero and heroine’s POV, though you may sometimes use the villain if absolutely necessary.
(What works for some, doesn’t work for others.)NEVER write about a rock star. Or a politician. Or a professional athlete.
(Tell that to Susan Elizabeth Phillips!)NEVER use “was”–it’s passive writing.
(”Was” is a perfectly good word. It’s not passive voice, and usually not passive writing. Pick up any adult fiction book from your shelf. ANY. Count how many times “was” appeared in the first two pages. My guess? Five or more. In every book. Probably ten.)
I greatly enjoy Nora Roberts, but I love the IN DEATH series. I have almost every book, and certainly every hardcover. (Great packaging; they look gorgeous in my bookshelves.) The “rule” I first heard about was “no head hopping.” Someone pointed out that Nora does it. The rule fascists declare that she can do anything she wants because she’s Nora.
Well, no, she can’t. She still has to deliver a good story. She still has to please her readers. She can head hop (which she does sparingly) because she does it WELL and with PURPOSE (even if she doesn’t plan it.)
In fact, I never once noticed that she DID head hop until after I joined RWA and entered a bunch of contests and learned what head hopping was. And I want to throttle every person who pointed out that Nora head hops because now I DO notice it–but I’d read at least 30 of her books before I started seriously writing and never noticed it.
Sort of like you never notice you have gray hair until your mother points it out and suddenly, you see gray strands everywhere . . .
I gave my Breaking Rules workshop at the New Jersey romance Writers conference last weekend and greatly enjoyed it. I always like to talk about breaking rules 
. . . but here, I thought I’d talk about how readers perceive rules.
For example, crime fiction reviewer David Montgomery, an otherwise great guy I consider a friend, wrote in his blog awhile back that he hated prologues. Several people commented that they didn’t read them.
WTF? Why not? Prologues have a purpose. They are usually complete stories BEFORE the story that the reader needs to understand the motivation or goals of a specific major character. I love prologues, both reading and writing them. I consider my prologues carefully–what early event was so important that it needs to be shown in real time? For FEAR NO EVIL, I chose a scene where my heroine was too late to save her partner from being killed. In KILLING FEAR, I chose a courtroom scene from my villain’s POV where he was convicted. In the upcoming ORIGINAL SIN, my first prologue was the climax of my novella, “Deliver Us From Evil,” rewritten from the villain’s POV. I loved that prologue, but my editor was right in that it would be confusing to new readers and introduce too many people and storylines. I changed it to that same day, but from my heroine’s POV–and she’s 3,000 miles from the event. It ended up working perfectly for the story.
I love prologues. I think Suzanne Brockmann is one the best in writing pivotal scenes in her character’s backstory for the prologue.
I would argue that READERS who are NOT writers don’t notice when authors break the so-called rules. I’d argue that all readers care about is a good story well-told.
But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Nora Roberts legion of fans cringe whenever Roarke walks on scene and has an internal thought about Eve when we’re supposed to be in Eve’s head. Maybe Suzanne Brockmann hit the NYT list in spite of the fact that she writes long prologues from her character’s backstories (my favorite, BTW, is Sam & Alyssa’s book, and the prologue in Sam’s POV as a young boy. It. Is. The. Best.)
So I really want to know–writers can comment, but ONLY as it relates to how they read now compared to before they knew about the damn rules and whether any of it matters to them. But I really want to know what readers think. Do you have reading rules? Your own rules? For example, you NEVER read a book about XYZ, except that once you read ABC by So And So and loved it . . .
Curious minds want to know! Comment for a chance to win a copy of my novella mentioned above. It’s the prequel for my new series AND features stories by the fantabulous Roxanne St. Claire (yes, a Bullet Catcher story!) and the incredible Karin Tabke.
Rules? Yeah or Nay?
Copyright
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