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Q&A Can you make multiple prologues in one book?

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...

posted 8y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2020-01-03T20:41:50Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/23631
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:23:32Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/23631
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:23:32Z (almost 5 years ago)
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.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-06-29T13:12:07Z (over 8 years ago)
Original score: 2