Prologue

As I’ve sending off queries to independent publishers, I double-checked the manuscript of First to make sure I’d left it formatted correctly. In doing so, I read the first few pages and it made me wonder again if a prologue was a good move.

When I wrote Assignment Day, the idea started with the prologue, and in particular the last line, which set the foundation for the whole story. I have no waffling about the prologue in that book. TBH I’ve struggled mightily with the prologue for First, though. Which may be the sign that it shouldn’t be there and I should rip it out.

The reason I started the book with that particular prologue is because it puts the reader in the middle of the action right away. The prologue is short, less than a page. And it gives a hint of what’s to come later in the book without giving away too many details. See, when I write it out the reasoning like that I want to keep it.

But then I look at the negatives. Does it really add anything to the narrative? Plus, I like the first line of Chapter 1, which is: I spent most of my first day as an astronaut trying to find the nearest restroom. It’s not Dickens or Melville, but I think it’s pretty good since it sets up several things right out of the gate. To start with, the narrator is telling the story in first-person narration. Next, he’s just starting the journey to being an astronaut, but what kind? Is he going to the Moon? Or Mars? Or someplace else? We don’t know but we’ll find out. And finally, the wry comment about the restroom is his main takeaway from the first day on the job and not something glamorous. Why did he need to use the restroom so much? Medical condition? Nerves? Well, as we find out in the next paragraph, it’s because he drank too much coffee. I think many of can identify with that.

So, with all that floating around in my mind, to prologue or not to prologue in this case? I finished the book over a year ago and I still go back and forth about it. And I still don’t know which is the right way to go.