One of my friends at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers asked if I’d write a piece in favor of prologues. Given my stance on prologues, that seemed like an interesting challenge.
I talked too much about it this morning before getting taken up with kid duty.
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I’m glad your wife went to seek medical care and hope she will be feeling better soon and gives herself the time she needs to heal. Suggest that you also don’t push yourself too hard right now in order to not tax your own immune system while your wife is sick, especially if what she has is contagious, as no one will benefit from it if you weaken yourself and you both end up sick concurrently.
Being productive and meeting commitments is a good thing but sometimes we need to just stop and listen to our bodies.
I really loved your ruminations about the prologue this walk! I think you’re right – the prologue isn’t usually necessary in a story, because if an author requires a prologue to fill you in on what’s happened in their universe up til the story’s beginning, they should really have written that book first. With a play, you’re often dealing with an audience with a limited frame of reference and a short attention span, so I can see the necessity there. And as far as that goes, in many ways, the Canterbury Tales are very much like plays. They’re mini morality tales written in verse (mostly) that beg to be recited. The reader takes on the role of the all-knowing storyteller/actor/Greek chorus.