Can you make multiple prologues in one book?
I am writing a World War 3 Novel, and I want to write the backstories of the main characters as prologues. It's really short, so I can't make another book.
Is it even possible to make multiple prologues?
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Is it possible? sure. It is your novel, so structure it as you will.
Is it wise? probably not.
Prologues are theives which steal from their creators. They steal the backstory and motivations which defines who your characters are; leaving you, the author, with nothing except your characters' future actions to build your story with.
It is very hard to write a prologue about a main character, without giving the coming story away. The historical facts which you choose to share, subtly inform the reader of what parts of all of a world's history is important to this particular story. The particular character details which you share, let the reader know what the character is likely to do, and which personal demons they will have to slay along the way. No matter how carefully you craft a prologue, you are likely to give away more than you desire.
Keep that precious backstory hidden. Save it for the slow moments between the action, when your characters might naturally reflect on their past and how it relates to their current adventures. Don't reveal your characters' pains and dreams before the reader has even met them. Allow time for the reader to learn to love them, before telling more about who they are.
For me, the proper quantity of prologues for any novel, is none.
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This strikes me as a semantic quibble. You can have a section in which the stories of various main characters are told before some larger action commences. Lots of novels have multiple parts, often with gaps in time between them. Calling the entire first part, with its multiple chapters, a prolog, however, seems to stretch the meaning of the word for no obvious purpose.
But you should also bear in mind that backstory is not really backstory unless you are already in a story and, at some point, reaching back into the past to reveal earlier story. What you are talking about is starting the story earlier. And that means that your character introductions need to be stories in their own right. Simply writing biographies or case files that do not work as stories is not going to engage the reader, and calling them prologs is not going to change that.
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