- Dirk B.
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You should post that to Premium. It's really interesting. Older readers like thrillers and religious books. I better write faster before they all die off.
- Kdot
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I wish I remembered where I heard this, but to paraphrase: introduce characters like their names are a new word. I’m 80% sure my source (I’ll update this if I find the video I got this from) worked with little kids learning to read once. She said that, as kids read, they would hold up a finger for each word they came across they didn’t know. If they got to five, they would stop and ask for help. This was to make sure kids were reasonably challenged by the stories but not overwhelmed.
She then goes on to say this same principle can be applied to character intros. Readers don’t know who these people are, so their names are “new” and lack meaning. Introducing one or two or even three on one page can be fine, but if you’re front loading all of the names/intros on one or two pages readers may feel more overwhelmed. Try to keep track of who’s introduced when and how frequently these introductions happen.
30 2024-04-24 07:41:20 (edited by Dirk B. 2024-04-24 07:44:38)
- Dirk B.
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My prologue has been criticized for having too many characters (Romano, Connor, Father Bianchi the tour guide, Antonio the ghost, and the head of the Swiss Guard protecting Connor in the Holy Land (can't remember his name offhand), but it's a necessary evil since the prologue is simply an excerpt from chapter 32 in the Holy Land, where all five characters are always present.
I don't think it's a big deal, though. Connor and Romano are obviously the key characters in the prologue and are featured again/fully introduced in chapter one. The rest will pop up again later, so I don't really care if the reader forgets who they are in the meantime. I think readers know that prologues often leave a lot of unanswered questions, usually intentionally so.
It boggles my mind that some readers claim online that they never read prologues, which I think is stupid. The author obviously thought the material important enough to the story to put it before anything else. Technically, mine is optional, but I kept it to set the tone of the book and to showcase key elements of the story as an enticement to read on (Revelation/Apocalypse, Catholicism, Connor's remarkable powers, the Holy Land (esp. the Sea of Galilee), and Vatican Swiss Guards).
31 2024-04-24 13:25:10 (edited by George FLC 2024-04-24 13:26:44)
- George FLC
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K and Dirk, good comments. I try to limit names but sometimes it's hard to be super legalistic about it. However, I like the idea of a glossary with names, perhaps Cheyenne words, history, etc. at the front of each chapter. I found out that women in my book's time period married around 22, men married around 26. This was attributed to the Civil War. Lots of younger men got killed. I put that in the glossary. I plan to keep the glossaries.
- Kdot
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hah, yes, I always auto-skip prologues. I'm one of the eeevil people (muahahahaha)
- Dirk B.
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Yet you would happily read it if it was called chapter 1 instead of prologue? What's wrong with that picture?
Funny thing, Cathy thought my opening battle chapters (1 & 2) in Archangel should perhaps be labeled a prologue since it takes place well before the main story, and I kill almost everyone off. Ever hear of a 24 page prologue? 
- Kdot
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Dirk B. wrote:
Ever hear of a 24 page prologue?
There's a rare good prologue in 2001's Dawn of Man (https://screenrant.com/2001-space-odyss … nal-scene/).
I could go on long rants on this topic but I can sum it down to: I buy a lot of non-Big-5-work from the market and have learned to peek past the prologue before making a buying decision.
- Dirk B.
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>There's a rare good prologue in 2001's Dawn of Man (https://screenrant.com/2001-space-odyss … nal-scene/).
Although I found the film painfully boring, the opening scene with the monolith, the apes, and the accompanying music were excellent. I loved 2010, which (mercifully) didn't spend too much time showing off a director's vision of a sci-fi future and just told a great story. It remains one of my favorite films.
>have learned to peek past the prologue before making a buying decision.
That I totally agree with. Assuming I ever finish a book, I always intended for both the prologue and chapter 1 of Rise of Connor to be available for preview on sites like Amazon. If you don't like those two chapters together, you won't like the book.
- Kdot
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I've managed to mail a bunch of you about the re-birth of the backup site.
This one is gonna have automation. The old, I had to log in and click "backup" which made it kind of poor at backing things up. The old one is also quietly dead. I will at one point go in there and export the forum stuff into the new... but ya, it was pretty ancient.
- Kdot
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I fear E. Free's message bounced back. It had kind of vanished into the cosmos for a few days and I thought it actually was delivered. But it showed back up last night. Troll Email had me fooled. I thought njc's wasn't working but it turns out I simply cannot spell.
So far most votes are for the 2nd option for the sidebar.
- Kdot
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https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigatio … 024-09-26/
"Laser sword" should be next
- George FLC
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This is a little embarrassing, but I was scouting around because I thought I saw a post by you. I then saw the Book Baby link and checked it out. It's interesting. Good info. Thanks for posting it a few years ago!
- Kdot
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Bc my postis hidden in the stickies. Can Dirk or Sol unsticky it?
- Dirk B.
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This thread isn't sticky, but VQF is. Do you want me to unstick that one?
- Kdot
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Yes. Sometimes I forget it's up there and lose my own posts
- George FLC
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Help me out guys. I googled "sticky" and did not find anything. What's a good meaning?
- Dirk B.
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It means pinning a thread to the top of the forum, so it's always there, regardless of how many other threads are created or updated in the same forum. Have a look at topics in the Premium forum. A whole bunch of them are pinned there.
