I thought my fantasy novel needed a prologue until a beta reader called it 'info-dump city'

I cut it and started with chapter one's bar fight instead, and the pacing is way better. Anyone else ditch a prologue and find it fixed their opening?

3 comments

3 Comments

rileyellis8d ago

Heard about a friend who wrote this epic prologue explaining the entire magic system. It was like reading a textbook. His first chapter had a kid finding a weird glowing rock in a creek, which was actually cool. He finally cut the prologue and just let the kid be confused about the rock. Suddenly you WANTED to know how the magic worked instead of being told. The whole story just clicked into place.

alice_kim7d ago

Used to think you needed all the rules up front, but @rileyellis is right, mystery pulls you in way better.

the_piper7d ago

Totally feel that. My old drafts were full of those boring lore dumps. Had a whole page about how the city's government worked before anyone even met a character. Cutting that junk and just having someone get lost in the weird market district made readers actually care about the politics. Mystery makes you lean in.