Can I have two prologues
i'm writing a story and i want to write two prologues the first one when the MC was being born and then later on when the MC is around ten years old before starting the main story. can i do that?
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1 answer
How would this be different from having chapter one by about their birth, chapter two be about them at 10, and chapter 3 start the main adventure? This is a perfectly normal progression for many novels.
A prolog, generally, is not simply an incident earlier in the career of the MC, it is in a different narrative voice altogether. If it is giving the historical background of the story, for instance, it is written like a history, not dramatized incident.
Prologs tend to be frowned upon, mostly because most of them are done badly and are a symptom of lazy writing. This is not to say that you can't do a prolog well, but any agent or editor seeing a book start with "Prolog" is likely to breath an inward sigh, and who needs to start with one point against them?
Gaps in time between chapters of a novel, on the other hand, are perfectly normal. One might even say they are essential, because most adventures, real or imaginary, involve a certain amount of waiting or transportation that does nothing to advance the plot. It should be skipped, and skipping it create a time gap. Your story has time gaps between birth and 10 and between 10 and adulthood. There is nothing unusual about that.
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