To Prologue or Not to Prologue...That Is the Question

One piece of advice I've gotten over and over again is about the importance of having good Beta readers. I've been lucky enough to find a small group of serious writers and we're helping each other out.  When I posted the first couple chapters, I immediately heard from multiple sources to drop my prologue.  At first I thought, "no! That's my dramatic irony!"  I mean, what would Romeo & Juliet be like if we didn't know they were star-crossed?!

However, I realized a few things after calming down: 1) I am no Shakespeare and 2) they were right, especially because my prologue is only serving as a crutch.  

I have found that it's difficult to know what to tell when, but all good books and shows manage to do this well.  Just look at Lost...they kept us watching, no matter how ridiculous the show got, because we wanted those back stories.  And what would be the point of The Hunger Games if we [SPOILER FOR OBLIVIOUS PEOPLE] knew up front how Peeta really felt about Katniss and didn't have to experience her self-doubt as she did?  What if George R.R. Martin just included a list of everyone that was going to die? Oh wait, he did--it's called the "Cast of Characters."

^ OCSD Waiting to Happen ^

So, I know I have to do the right, albeit harder, thing.  My question is do I use this as an excuse to continue to stall on getting into the rising action or will fleshing out the exposition better lead more organically into the meat of the story?  I guess I'll worry about that after I watch Orange is the New Black, so I can understand what the hell all my friends are talking about.

A Letter to Stephanie Meyer

Dear Ms. Meyer--

If you had ever met me, you would never have guessed that I was the kind of person that would read a book like Twilight.  To be honest, in many ways I'm not.  When kids kiss in the hall, I get in their faces and yell "gross!" I forbid them to talk about prom in class.  I'm not very romantic myself.  I once got a poem from a boy and gave it back with suggestions for improvement.  And prior to Twilight, I hadn't read a Young Adult book since I was a young adult.   So how did I end up reading it?  It certainly wasn't the popularity.  When my sister-in-law tried to get me to read Fifty Shades of Gray, our conversation went like this:

Her:  Hey.  I just read FSoG, you should read it!

Me:  Absolutely Not.

Her:  Whatever.  Just read it.  You read fast.  It'll take you like a day.

Me:  Yeah, but what if I died right after I finished it and that was the last thing I did?  I'd rather die by setting myself on fire or ingesting poison-coated wolf spiders or...

Her:  I get it.  Fine. Sorry for trying to connect with you, you heartless jerk. 

So how did I end up reading your book, in the face of much derision from my fellow English teachers?  It started honorably enough.  I was doing a book club with some students.  A couple of them read Jerzy Kosinski's incredibly depressing book The Painted Bird on my recommendation.  I had warned them, but they went for it. Then, they got really, really mad at me.  I agreed to read something equally upsetting and they picked Twilight for me.  

Now this was a big deal for me because the last time I agreed to something like this, a student made me read a book called Flyy Girl by Omar Tyree. It wasn't terrible, but it was filled with so much sex I blush to think about it seven years later (and I'm HBO levels of desensitized).  I am, however, a woman of my word, so I ponied up and read Twilight, and hate to admit that I didn't hate it.  I wanted to, desperately, but I just couldn't do it. Despite what many people say, it isn't terribly written and was a good story.  Most of all, it was a lovely break from the Russian literature kick I was on.  I ended up reading all four because I have a severe case of OCSD,Obsessive-Compulsive Series Disorder.  Once I start, I can't stop.  (For instance, while I love Game of Thrones the show, the books drove me crazy.  George R.R. Martin cannot edit himself and overuses the word jape more than I leave my shoes at the bottom of the stairs and almost kill my husband. I still read the series last summer.  All 85,000 pages of them).   Anyways, I read the whole series, and liked them less with every book.  Regardless, they did get me excited about YA lit.  Even my sister-in-law supports my new habit (thanks for The Hunger Games, Aubie!).

Long story short, I kind of owe this writing project to your work (and those vindictive students), and I recently needed it again. I've finished the exposition of my book and stopped to streamline it.  I don't want to get into the habit of editing all the time, but I also don't want to have to correct habitual mistakes.  I noticed that I wasn't doing a great job at physically describing characters and my dialogue needed some work, so I decided to look back at Twilight for inspiration, and it worked.  I can't lie.  Some of the inspiration was what I don't want to do (i.e. make my character clumsy and totally dependent on her dude to save her), but plenty of it was helpful (such as how to introduce a character that the reader can picture or craft believable teenage dialogue).  

So I'm sorry.  I kind of hipstered out on you at the beginning and still want to deny that I've ever read your books and punch myself in the face for having used my precious time on earth reading that instead of Don Quixote or something. But thank you for writing your book anyways and for helping me remember that reading can be fun and for teaching me that vampires could be chaste and sparkly.  

Sincerely,

Allison KT