When I was pitching my book to agents, I came across an article that said something like, “Why Prologues are not a Good Idea.” It detailed the ways in which agents, editors, and publishers were not interested in reading a book with one and that they would rather have the author label it as “Chapter One”. I went down the rabbit hole with this one, and encountered so many negative responses on many writing blogs that said a prologue wasn’t a good idea. At all.
I became more anxious, and I started worrying that no agent would accept my work. I even thought that I should get rid of the prologue, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t see the prologue as anything else. Then, it hit me — this was just advice. Granted, not having a prologue was something that lots of writers, editors and agents believed in, but it wasn’t absolute. Even famous fantasy authors like Brandon Sanderson use prologues.
And even though I’d sworn off writing advice for this very reason, I, myself, became a victim to it. And that, I feel, is why reading too many writing advice blogs is detrimental.
See, advice is just that, advice. It is up to a writer to decide if it works for them or not, or if it applies to their work. But those who dole out writing advice can be incredibly persuasive, and it sounds like their word is the law, especially when they have accolades and credentials. It shouldn’t be.
Whatever writing advice I dole out for this blog will simply be the strategies that I use have worked for me — it is up to you to decide if it works for you. If it does, then great. If it doesn’t, then it’s okay, too.
Featured image by GotCredit