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Consider the possibility of a Prologue, in which someone other than the (subsequent) narrator lays down the essentials. If you do this, be careful with your writing style, since many prospective re...
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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/27903 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
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Consider the possibility of a Prologue, in which someone other than the (subsequent) narrator lays down the essentials. If you do this, be careful with your writing style, since many prospective readers will simply glance at the Prologue before deciding whether to read the book. Example: Agatha Christie's _Murder on the Orient Express_. In the original book, in real time, Hercule Poirot discovers a small piece of evidence. His own knowledge leads him to a theory, based on a news event that occurred long ago and far away. We learn about it later in the book. But in the movie version, there is a Prologue, in which we are at the time and place of that news event. Then, after that fades, we go to the Orient Express.