Writing Erotic Romance – Prologues
I wrote a 3,000 word, 12 page prologue for Breathing Vapor, the follow up story to Releasing Rage (Breathing Vapor will release in November).
Mira, my heroine, acts like a major beyotch when she’s around other beings. She has a great reason for acting this way but I was worried that if you didn’t know this reason when you first met her, you might find her an unsympathetic heroine (i.e. you’d hate her guts).
So I wrote a prologue, sharing a scene from her past that showed why she was that way. It was powerful. It made me, as a writer, cry.
It was also unnecessary. My awesome editor convinced me I didn’t need it, that I’d created a character readers would love without knowing the backstory. I took it out and you know what? It’s a much stronger story without the prologue.
I’ve written many prologues. Not one has survived the editing process. Why? Because usually a prologue isn’t required (usually! There are always exceptions to every rule, including this one, but those exceptions are rare.).
Why Editors (and Readers) Hate Prologues
A prologue is set at an earlier time and often a different place than the core story. Every time writers change settings, we jar the reader out of the story. Jarring the reader out of the story between the prologue and chapter one is a HUGE risk. The reader hasn’t yet become emotionally invested in the story.
Especially since the first pages are a prologue. The reader bought the story expecting the hero or heroine portrayed in the back cover copy. In Releasing Rage, readers want to meet a tormented, angry hero. They don’t want to read about Rage when he had a kinder, gentler view of the worlds. It is kind of like seeing a guy’s baby photos on a first date. It’s much too soon for that.
Prologues are also backstory dumps. Backstory is powerful. Readers often read for it (in the case of E.L. James’ Grey, they’ll buy an entire book to read a character’s backstory). That’s why they turn the pages. “This hero is completed fucked up. I have to know why.” We can only use a juicy piece of backstory once. Do we really want to use it at the beginning of a story, before the reader cares about the character?
Alternatives To Prologues
A great writer once told me that ideally backstory should be threaded into a story as the reader needs to know it (threaded, not dumped – again, you don’t want to draw readers out of the story). That timing often makes it more powerful.
In romance, this revelation is often easy to do because a heroine, loving a fucked up hero, for example, will eventually want to know WHY he’s fucked up. The reader can discover this at the same time.
If both of the characters already know the backstory, it is a bit more challenging. If the past truly haunts the character, he or she will likely dream about it. An incident might also trigger a memory. In Breathing Vapor, the heroine sees someone and, at first, thinks that person is a person from her past. The character might be facing the same decision they faced in the past. Will he or she make the same choice?
There are thousands of great ways to reveal backstory. If you’re stuck, reread beloved stories and note how those authors handle it. (Or email me and we can brainstorm!)
How did I handle the unsympathetic heroine in Breathing Vapor?
Mira acts like a beyotch when she’s around other beings. The solution? I show her true nature when she’s alone (actually, she’s caring for a cyborg baby but he can’t tell anyone about her kindness so she feels she’s safe).
Yes, the solution was ridiculously simple. I threaded the rest of the information throughout the core story and eliminated the prologue entirely.
How have you eliminated prologues in your own manuscripts?
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Half Man. Half Machine. All Hers.
Rage, the Humanoid Alliance’s most primitive cyborg, has two goals—kill all of the humans on his battle station and escape to the Homeland. The warrior has seen the darkness in others and in himself. He believes that’s all he’s been programmed to experience.
Until he meets Joan.
Joan, the battle station’s first female engineer, has one goal—survive long enough to help the big sexy cyborg plotting to kill her. Rage might not trust her but he wants her. She sees the passion in his eyes, the caring in his battle-worn hands, the gruff emotion in his voice.
When Joan survives the unthinkable, Rage’s priorities are tested. Is there enough room in this cyborg’s heart for both love and revenge?
Buy Now:
On Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Releasing-Rage-Cyborg-Sizzle-Book-ebook/dp/B00ZOL1DRO
On ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-releasingrage-1850041-340.html
On B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/releasing-rage-cynthia-sax/1122455646
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