Writing and Reading

Prologues and Epilogues: they’re like those fat-filled custard desserts that make you want to retch and moan with pleasure both at the same time. They’re delicacies; they’re also devious. Guilty pleasures. You feel the gluttony in you grow like lip crud, crystallizing into little nuggets on the sides of your mouth. You can’t help but either peel them away or eat them! MMM! Prologues, epilogues…. Prologues, epilogues….

Seriously, though–this topic came up in my head literally only 20 seconds ago. And rightly so. It sort of fits the topic itself, doesn’t it? Or maybe I need to explain.

Let’s get down to the nitty gritty. I nit. You grit. Prologues and epilogues are fun! They’re like teasers. For some odd reason, we take delight in teasing people. Drama aches in a prologue and epilogue because we don’t know exactly what’s going on.

A prologue is a scene preceding the actual start of a work of fiction/nonfiction; an epilogue is a scene following the actual ending of the work. Now take a minute to actually read what I’ve written here. Prologue precedes the start; epilogue follows the end.

DOES THAT NOT MAKE ANY SENSE?

OR AM I A DRAG QUEEN FROM HELL?

Unless my brain cells have morphed into lip crud, I can’t for the life of me understand how something can come before something starts. Or when something follows an ending. Naturally, when something starts, NOTHING came before it. Right? And naturally, when something ends…NOTHING follows it then. Right? So the concepts of a prologue and epilogue seriously defy logic for me. They tear the fabric of space time easier than the flux compacitor Delorean time machine. That’s heavy, Doc.

I admit, though: I’ve used prologues and epilogues before. I’m guilty.

For real, though, here are the possible consequences of using prologues and epilogues in your work. Quality writing practice usually goes around the ’starting late’ motif, getting into the story, getting your characters going. When you ’start late’, your reader’s automatically thrown into the mix and being pulled into a story that’s blooming both forward and backward–backward for a little background and resting place, and forward to keep the pages turning. The ‘backward’ gives the reader understanding; the ‘forward’ keeps the reader going. Essentially, a prologue delays that ’starting late’ wisdom. It essentially takes the reader longer to get into the story. That’s the possible weakness of adding a prologue.

In the same vein, when you end a story, you must tie up loose ends. That’s common law. I swear it. The House of Commons even passed a law on it. You break it, you die. No kidding (yes, I am). Usually, unexpected twists at the end are choppy, cliche, trite and even frustrate the reader on several levels. When you end your work…you end your work. An epilogue, however, can tend to delay that. How are you supposed to end the story if you keep going after you ended the story??

As I’ve said before, though: I’ve used prologues and epilogues.

The fact of the matter is, in the literary world, prologues and epilogues have been used with great effect contrary to the possible disadvantages. Just like everything else in the literary world, creative freedom is king.

So the question you need to ask yourself then is…. DO YOU FEEL LUCKY…PUNK? (Wrong quote, back up, back up….)

(ahem) So…the question you need to ask yourself then is….

DO YOU *NEED* A PROLOGUE/EPILOGUE IN YOUR PARTICULAR WORK?

(end of article. I swear. No epilogue here. Move on. Come on. Move on. GO!)