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The Prologue: a Solution!

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Paul Whybrow

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Jun 20, 2015
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We’ve discussed the prologue many times on the Colony.

Last night, I started reading a novel that did away with the prologue while keeping it! I’m normally averse to bestsellers written by celebrities, feeling grumpy about them trading on their public image, but Graham Norton’s first two novels have been well-reviewed so I borrowed A Keeper from my local library.

I grinned when I saw that instead of a prologue, he’d titled it BEFORE. Going on into the story chapters were numbered and headed THEN or NOW, depending on where they fitted in the time frame.

It’s a neat solution to indicate when something happened.

Perhaps Graham Norton was inspired by William Shakespeare.

quote-what-is-past-is-prologue-william-shakespeare-26-73-59.jpg
 
Stephen King opens with a prologue in 'Salem's Lot'. The prologue is the now, the aftermath- and then he takes us back.

I am partial to a good prologue.
 
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