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Is description enough or prologue?

2 years ago

I am making my first story (over Ambitious) and I want to know if I explained the over all premise in the description would a prologue explaining it all again be repetive or is it a nesscessity for those that may jump right in... Cough me?

Is description enough or prologue?

2 years ago
No, I will not cough you.

The description is understood to be a 'hook' to get the reader interested in checking the game out, you don't need to over describe everything there. It's not meant to stand in for the story content though and you'll want the information contained in the game to be complete on its own.

That said, starting out with a prologue just explaining a bunch of things isn't usually going to be ideal either, it gets people interested faster if there's a character and things happening right up front. The first page is actually the most important for grabbing reader attention so you may not want to waste it in a bunch of backstory or whatever about characters and a world no one has any reason to care about yet.

Is description enough or prologue?

2 years ago

Thank you.

 

Is description enough or prologue?

2 years ago

I'd guess that most readers don't want a premise explained or a prologue explaining; they want to just get right to the storytelling.  They want to see characters that they can start caring about, and a reason to be interested in your world.

Is description enough or prologue?

2 years ago

thanks I just deleted the lore page I made lol, just gonna thow the character into the scene and let lore build as they go.

Is description enough or prologue?

2 years ago
First page: action. The best stories I've read all have something going on right there at the start on page 1. In addition, it's not starting from nothing. In other words, if you take 4 pages to describe the nice sunrise and introduce the character, I'm pretty bored already. But if you start the story with action going on AND join the story "in progress," I'm going to be hooked. But if you want someone to cough you, we're going to have to find some others to do that...

Is description enough or prologue?

2 years ago

You are so right I don't know how I didn't think this right away I hate books and even shows that are like "let me explain how we got here" I just deleted my story history/lore page and changed the description to match thank you.

 

Is description enough or prologue?

2 years ago
Really I'd recommend finding a couple of fantasy books you like, and paying attention to how the author starts them out. The flow of necessary info, when and how it's introduced, is often almost unnoticeable when reading. It's done in a way that rarely takes you out of the story.

Is description enough or prologue?

2 years ago

I think I know how I want it to start out I need to learn to just let myself write, I'm not even really doing it for it to be read I just want to tell a story even if it is just to myself lol.

Is description enough or prologue?

2 years ago
While you're at it, you might also want to include paragraphs and capitalization in your description. Those seem to be the common denominator of all successful stories.

Is description enough or prologue?

2 years ago

Yeahhh... I'm a high school drop out lol I used to love writing in elementary school and then throughout middle/highschool I fell out of love with it and stopped taking it serious and now I want to get back into it I should probably look into some form of re-education lol, probalby something on youtube.

 

Is description enough or prologue?

2 years ago

There's some good articles on writing here on the site, in the Help & Info section. One thing I noticed that you do is you write with a lot of run-on sentences, so that would be a good place to start.

Is description enough or prologue?

2 years ago

lol this is literally my signature mistake, I even had non language arts teachers tell me this.

Is description enough or prologue?

2 years ago
Well if it makes you feel any better, I've observed that graduating high school doesn't seem to teach anybody how to write a sentence either. It's one of those things you can semi absorb just from reading a lot of good books on your own, and there's plenty of free resources out there for filling any gaps.

We have some articles here on the site under Help & Info, although that whole section is due to be overhauled soon. The ones by Gower are really solid though.

Is description enough or prologue?

2 years ago

thanks.

 

Is description enough or prologue?

2 years ago


To start you on your journey.

Is description enough or prologue?

2 years ago

I have a better idea to start his journey.