Prologues and epilogues: a good idea?

Prologue and Epilogue. Do they have a use? Should they be used? Can you have one without the other?

What an interesting topic and one I hadn’t really thought about since neither is a permanent part of my writer’s toolbox. I have used the prologue twice, in both instances when only a short blurb was necessary to set the rest of the book.

In T’s Trial, I needed to show the hero’s depravity and ego in order for his redemption to be all the more worthy. In Wedding Belle Blues, I needed an intro to the five part book set-up and to give it a fairy tale entry, a ‘once upon a time’ lead-in that, of course, totally falls apart before the first chapter is ended!

I’ve used an epilogue only once in order to tie up all the loose ends of One Year Past Perfect. I needed to skip time, which seems to be a main purpose of epilogues, to show the Happily Ever After for all the parties concerned.

Can you have one without the other? Well, I obviously think so.

The only time I get a bit sideways with prologues is when they give us a terrific hero/heroine in distress moment and then—wham!—take it away from us by going back a day or two. Or a year. Yes, it grabs my attention. Sometimes, it holds it. Not guaranteed. Now this happens a lot in episodic TV also, when you think you must have missed an episode because you don’t remember the characters having been left dangling from a rope over a canyon with a train about to cross the bridge they’re affixed to. Then, it says, ’24 hours earlier.’ I can handle that transgression a bit better. And, of course, being TV, it’s over in an hour, not 300 pages later.

Please check out the other participants in this blog tour, all answering the question of prologues and epilogues.

Participants:

Margaret Fieland
Skye Taylor
Dr. Bob Rich
Marci Baun
A.J. Maguire
Diane Bator
Victoria Chatham
Anne Stenhouse
Helena Fairfax
Beverley Bateman
Connie Vines
Rachael Kosinski Rhobin Courtright

Goodnight!...

...it's been a week since I posted. You'd think that someone with all her Christmas shopping done would have a better track record than that. Obviously not.

So how have I occupied myself? For starters, I finished that geological survey puzzle of my 4x6 mile section of the Earth. Finished it and then let it sit there for 4 days so I could glory in it being finished. Showed it to everyone who came near the house.

In to Dallas twice for business, two dinners, a surprise birthday party, a cookie party (had to contribute goodies for all these affairs--what fun!), the cantata at church today and another party tonight. For it, I decided to do something easy but different, (not always a good sign) so I made my traditional pecan pie in a square pan and I'm going to cut it in pieces for serving. Like candy. I'm either on to a break-through in my baking years or stopping for ice cream to take.

I did finish wrapping gifts. I haven't ironed. I haven't vacuumed and I haven't written one single Christmas card although I'm enjoying those I've received and I've written the annual Christmas letter.

I spent a day and a half reviewing the galleys for my January release, WEDDING BELLE BLUES, from Wings ePress. That's intense, reading for everything that I didn't catch, the editor didn't catch, the copy editor didn't catch... and there were two pages of little bitty things that got through all the checks and balances.

I wonder what I missed. I'm not going to think about it.

Now I have as houseguests, the "grandest of kittens", one son's two housecats while he and his family spend Christmas in London with his in-laws. But right now, this very minute, I hear strange noises from the sewing room, so I'd better go check. I think the haloes are off the grandest.