Writing a Prologue

[Nyx]

He will be able to fly by the end of the book, maybe not exactly perfect (dunk in the lake anyone?), but he can fly. I think Socorro has a long way to go before he becomes huge. I have heard from others their "horror" stories of the Eragon series. I personally couldn't get past the jarring writing, Which, is a shame because I love dragons. :3

 

[Phoenix]

Yes! It annoyed me so much. The dragon should have to grow like any normal creature. Not with the power of sunlight. Have you came up with your external struggles? Are they trying to take the throne?

 

[Nyx]

If I read a book or seen a movie that did that I would use the book as a coaster for the rest of its life and no doubt I would walk out the movie.
I have a few bits here and there and I actually have my ending. The middle and most of the struggles however I still need to plan out. I don't know if he wants the throne yet. I do know he wants his father to pay for what he's done, so most likely he will inform an enemy of his fathers which triggers off the events that leads to the dare I say "heartbreaking" ending.

 

[Phoenix]

Oh, the killing of MCs I smell?

 

[Nyx]

Only 1 and I got a feeling it will be the one people get attached to. I just hope the ending I give, will not be all clichéd and awful.

 

[Phoenix]

Thanks for giving away that she's a female. Sine there's only one we'll know who it is too. I won't even read it...JK! But you might want to watch for spoilers in the future.

 

[Nyx]

I don't think I'll be posting it here as I'm not good at giving critiques so it's not fair of me to ask for one :3 It's not really set in stone as I have 4 possible endings and possibly another POV since a plot line just popped into my head so I doubt you'll know which of the (now) two of them dies. I should really shut off the music Not that I would expect it to be interesting enough for people to want to read. Plus if I want help in how to execute my ending I was going to have to give it away anyway lol.

:3

 

[ThinkerX]

It is two of my main characters at different points. The first is the prince when he watches as his father lets his mother die instead of getting a healer, so he can marry another younger woman. This causes a few things to happen later including the king trying to kill his own son so he doesn't expose what the king has done.

The second part will be my main main character finding and bonding with a dragon who is newly hatched and abandoned, that he needs to hide and protect. I feel I need this because in my world there are only 2 -4 dragons rumoured to be left in this world so if I just have him introduced with a dragon it's gonna look very weird

Possible solution:

The prologue is all one piece, from the POV of a character who see's *both* events. Maybe a faithful servant or 'rat in the walls' type character.

 

[Nyx]

Neither have anything to do with the other. Rin (the guy with the dragon) lives a fair bit away from the castle with his grandmother. Also nobody but Rin and the others (eventually) know about the dragon. :3

 

[ThinkerX]

Neither have anything to do with the other. Rin (the guy with the dragon) lives a fair bit away from the castle with his grandmother. Also nobody but Rin and the others (eventually) know about the dragon. :3

Still workable from a different perspective. One character - the POV prologue character witnesses the bit with the dragon, or enough of it to get a glimmer of whats going on. He then goes to his cousin or other relative who works in the castle, who is utterly dismissive about his tale of a dragon, but has a tale of his own - the kings antics. Shortly afterwards, one or both characters either die or leave the area altogether.

I would also point out that keeping something like a dragon secret - especially with the setup you describe - is going to wear at the mind of your prmary character, who is likely to be jumping at shadows and rumors. A rumor based on what the POV character saw would go a long ways towards upping the tension: who was this person? was there an actual witness? who did he tell? who believes this story? and so on and so forth.

 

[Nyx]

Again nobody but the king and his son know that a healer could have cured his mother. It's why the king resorts to plotting to kill his own son. That is a great idea for a prologue though, even if it's not for me. :3 thanks for taking the time to give me help.


Yeah there are always rumours going around about dragon sightings so my main character is very paranoid about the rumours he hears in the market. He only sneaks out after midnight to feed and let the dragon out near the lake to have some exercise/fun. I am planning a near miss or something in the first chapter they appear in. He might get caught but then I have no idea right now how Rin would react, or if indeed he would kill to keep Socorro safe.

:3

 

[ThinkerX]

Again nobody but the king and his son know that a healer could have cured his mother. It's why the king resorts to plotting to kill his own son. That is a great idea for a prologue though, even if it's not for me. :3 thanks for taking the time to give me help.

Used to be a sign on the wall of a place I worked at:

`Do you want to speak to the person in charge? Or do you want to speak to the person who knows whats going on?'

Because you have the management (the King in your story) who gives the orders on the one hand, and then you have the employees (servants in your story) who actually carry out those orders, do the work involved.

There is a tendency among the upper crust (royalty, nobility) to simply not see the servants they depend on.

Yes, the King could very well have attempted what you describe and thought that it would be a secret, but it is about 99% certain that despite any precautions he took, at least a couple the servants in the castle would still have a pretty fair idea what happened. The servants job pretty much depends on knowing what his master is up to at any given time, what their masters think, what they want, what all their little habits are. What you are describing is a disruption to their routine - and that *will* get noticed. Now if the king is a truely nasty sort - as you seem to suggest - he might decide to do away with the servants who might have had an inkling as to what was going on along with the son. A smarter or more paranoid servant might decide to vamoose before becoming the guest of honor at his own funeral.

Yeah there are always rumours going around about dragon sightings so my main character is very paranoid about the rumours he hears in the market. He only sneaks out after midnight to feed and let the dragon out near the lake to have some exercise/fun. I am planning a near miss or something in the first chapter they appear in. He might get caught but then I have no idea right now how Rin would react, or if indeed he would kill to keep Socorro safe.

Move the 'near miss' to the prologue and make it a *very* near miss - maybe he see's part of the dragon binding ceremony. The prologue POV character is the witness, and the souirce of some of the initial rumors about the dragon your main character has to confront. Shortly after his near miss with the dragon, the prologue POV character meets up with his cousin or inlaw from the castle, the one who had a pretty fair idea what the king did and lit out about two steps ahead of the royal guard. They exchange tales...and then both wind up dead when attacked by 'bandits' - actually kingsmen cleaning up loose ends.

 

[Phoenix]

I think that how far he's willing to go to protect the Dragon should be one of the main points of your story.

 

[Nyx]

Dragon binding? I think you may have me mixed up with Eragon I think that's from? This dragon simply just takes to him because he cares for it.

I actually don't like it when authors use a random POV character in a prologue and then you never see them again. I think I will stick to my 3-4 main POV characters the whole way through. You did hit on how I perceive the king though. He has killed people he thought may know, slaves and relatives. Your idea just isn't my style but thanks thinkerX.

Pheonix is that a vote for a kill in the first chapter? lol
Also Rin and Socorro's bond plays a big part in this book.

 

[Phoenix]

No! A first kill in the chapter would be to soon. He wouldn't have bonded to the dragon as much. When he finds out how important the dragon is (to him and the world), then the question arises. I think the Prince should want to use the Dragon to take the Throne from is father. Rin (like the simple name for the peasant) might have conflicting issues over this. Of course this wouldn't be solved in the first book because the Dragon would have to grow to be useful in battle.

 

[Nyx]

By the time Rin finally gets a chapter he'll have had the dragon at least 3 months. Having the prince want to use him is an interesting plot point. I didn't really try to give the peasants simple names, they have names that suit their personality, one of the slaves is call Fleur. I am thinking of making each book of the series independent, same world new story if you know what I mean.

 

[Phoenix]

So that's why you wanted it included in the prologue. How big is this going to be? Looks like you would have to cover a lot of land in one novel.

 

[Nyx]

Yeah I might have to do two parts whether I like a series within a series or not. If you mean how big is this book going to be I can estimate between 100,000 and 130,000 words. If you mean the series as a whole then I have planned 12 books. :3

 

[Phoenix]

Oh, going far, going far! Well I hope your writing is a a success. If you would, could you show a passage of your book?

 

[Nyx]

It started out as one book then my muse took over. Good luck on your writing to and at the moment I don't have anything except a rough draft of my prologue and chapter 1 which I won't kill anyone's site with just yet. :3 thanks for all the help.