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Q&A Should important events that happen a long time before the rest of the story be in a prologue or in chapter 1?

If there is such a huge time difference and there are no big temporal skips in the rest of the book this would likely be a good prologue. Because of the difference this would feel to the reader lik...

posted 6y ago by Secespitus‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-12T23:01:20Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33153
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 · 2019-12-08T07:54:27Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33153
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T07:54:27Z (almost 5 years ago)
If there is such a huge time difference and there are no big temporal skips in the rest of the book this would likely be a good _prologue_. Because of the difference this would feel to the reader like something that is not directly related to the current story, but is important to understand for example the character's motivation. If it was a _Chapter 1_ the reader would expect that such a skip would happen somewhere in the book again. If that is the case using a _Chapter 1_ would be better, as the time skipping is part of the style that you as the author prefer to narrate the story.

In the end it's up to you as the author what you prefer and what you think makes sense. Maybe the editor or publisher will want to have a say in this matter, but in general it's up to you.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-02-10T13:47:56Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 13