writing – Page 2 – Jill French

Words and a Phrase Editing Is Very Likely to Cut

Read time: 2 mins

Beyond the very first draft of a manuscript (where a writer is getting down the ideas in as flowing a manner as possible) there are certain words which are almost always be better substituted out. When these are swapped for a more precise, descriptive and interesting terms, the writing quality improves. Here I point out half a dozen of the ripest for replacement.

Suddenly

This must go because it is standing in for words which will give the reader a context for what is about to be described, whether that be events or feelings. It is not necessary because if something happens suddenly, telling us this will be slowing the pace down at just the time the action is happening, and the pace has sped up.

Nice

This term is okay in a first draft with the excuse that the writer is in their flow and will replace it later. By the second draft, this term should usually be replaced by a more descriptive term, as it is vague to the point of almost meaningless. Substitute with a more precise term which will make the writing more interesting, more rhythmical and more enjoyable to read.

Obviously

Anything which is really obvious does not need mentioning, and if it is mentioned, it does not need signposting. If the term is left in, it can seem like unnecessary telling, which no reader is likely to appreciate. Any sentence which is obvious can be removed to improve the writing, making it more relevant and more punchy.

Actually

There are so many words to choose from to convey what the writer wants the reader to know, and including ‘actually’ is often irrelevant. It rather belittles the rest of the sentence. In editing, actually, is a term, I regularly cull.

Thought to herself

Thought alone says it, there is no need to add the to himself/their self etc. How do you think ‘to anyone else’? No, it is just thought.

Inevitably

Well, sometimes this word has something to add, but more often than not it is best left out. It often points out the obvious, and as such, gets smoothed out in a second draft, best removed.

Trim this lot, and editors will prefer to see your more interesting, fresher word choice. The revised draft will be livelier and tighter. Readers will find your writing more engaging – what’s not to like?

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How to Write a Great Character

Read time: 4 mins

Writers place characters in stories to have an impression on their readers.

“As I don’t write characters that leave no impression on me.”
– Lauren DeStefano

Creating characters

When creating main characters in your writing, they need to be make an impact on the reader and should be believable and engaging. Main characters are more believable and arguably more interesting if they are multifaceted and show identifiable personality with motivation to pull them through the events of the story.

Memorable main characters

Unlike side characters, the main characters in most novels will have memorable names which clearly distinguish them from other people. The main characters will also be developed through the story and undergo some degree of change, this process is often described as the character arc. This arc is most pronounced with the main character, especially the protagonist.

Your main character is so important that they are likely to be introduced within the opening section of the novel. They will be introduced in an active scene, making them relatable for the reader, who will witness the character making a decision, or reacting to something, rather than reflecting on events in their backstory.

What makes a character different from everyone else, is characterization. Describing direct characterization, Janet Burroway highlights a character’s qualities as speech, action, appearance and thought and to these Matthew Salesses adds that we should think about our character’s attitude. In this, we develop understanding of their actions and decisions. He suggests an exercise a writer can carry out to focus on the character’s attitude by considering as broad as possible ‘They [the character] were the kind of person who … ’ by answering this question repeatedly about the character, the writer focuses on what attitudes the character holds. The significant features will be the basis of what makes that individual different from others, and it is that which will make them interesting and engaging.

For the protagonist, this attitude is likely to include some of several positive and appealing features.

Orson Scott Card reminds us that some characters are drawn as relatively flat characters, which was pointed out by E.M. Forster, who suggests that, in fiction, flat characters can be just as important as rounded characters. An example of a flat character would be Mrs Micawber, who never deviates from supporting her husband.

Craft complex protagonists

The delight in a complex character can be their unpredictability. It is this ability to surprise which intrigues and engages, as Mary Kole points out, the best characters are those readers either love dearly or that intensely. For igniting of this passion within the reader comes from the same passion for the character in the writer. The level of care the writer has about their character can be increased by them getting to know that character in detail. Writers might list their answers to questions about the individual to build up a clear picture of what the character. This could include what the individual looks like, what food they like, what the main events were in their life, who they mix with, where they live and who they in love with. From this bank of information, some detail will be used in the writing, but like the tip of an iceberg, most will just inform the writer. This will help to build up a more rounded personality. This leads to a more nuanced set of characters to carry out the events of the plot and interact through the story.

Another technique for developing character is to decide on a character and in a scene then, as an exercise, write what that character would be thinking – their internal monologue. By doing this for several characters, you begin to hone in on the differences between those characters, which will help to find those you are most passionate about and most interested in writing about. Awareness of the internal monologue could also be the basis for incorporating some of that thought within the novel. This can increase how the reader relates to a character, allowing them to witness internal conflict and personality more closely.

Often characters are made to stand out by having a memorable quality or quirk and this can be used to differentiate individuals, to surprise and bring both interest and uniqueness.

Make marvellous antagonists

To bring conflict to a story, the protagonist is likely to be up against antagonistic forces, and most often this will be in the form of an antagonist. This character will be interesting if they are much more than one dimensional. The stronger or more objectionable your antagonist, the more powerfully they can work against your protagonist. This will lead to more extreme measures being required by to overcome the conflict the protagonist will find themselves in.

Antagonists are more satisfying if they possess their own morality, which the reader can see playing out. This may be part of their backstory or a feature of their personality, but it needs to make them seem rounded and believable with their own consistent objectives and motivation.

The same questions could be used to build up a bank of information on antagonist characters, or you could develop a specific set. Such a set could include, what their weakness is, what they secretly enjoy and what are they like most about themselves.

Whatever the conflict and struggle between the two main characters, readers do not want the protagonist to succeed easily, so the villain must have skills and allies to work to mount a convincing and enduring challenge to sustain the story. The stakes of your story can increase where the two main characters are pitching against each other, strong opposing forces lead to higher stakes and greater reader engagement.

Authors seek to make their main characters lifelike, but as David Morrell points out, fiction is a paradox here as we have never known any living person in the way we can feel we know a written character. In fiction, we can access someone’s innermost thoughts and emotions, an experience which Morrell describes as ‘… totally unrealistic, however magical.’ He also cites Forster saying that one of the central appeals of fiction is that novels suggest a more comprehensible, and thus more manageable, human race.

Bibliography

Morrell, D. 2008 The Successful Novelist, Sourcebooks Inc. Naperville, Illinois

Boulter, A. 2007, Writing fiction, Palgrave, Hampshire

Forster, E.M. 1956 Aspects of the Novel, Mariner Books,New York

For How to Present Your Manuscript To Another Reader click here.

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How Long Should My Book Be?

Read time: 3 mins

Often writers will ask me variations of the question ‘how many words make a proper book?’ This question suggests the questioner is probably a new writer. They may not have spent long looking at the types of books they are writing or aspire to write.

As with many questions about writing, my immediate thought is, it will depend. Although some will say that a creative should let their writing flow and produce the manuscript which tells their story and writing should not be constrained by a set word count, this is not going to help a new writer. In the early stage of getting a first draft written, flowing creativity is most helpful and story is paramount. The beginning, middle and the end need to be crafted. At some point in the writing process, perhaps still at first draft or when self-editing and editing, manuscript length is worth considering.

When does it NOT matter how long a book is?

When the words are precisely as the author wants and the intention is to self-publish, the word count does not matter. Some books may be made in this way, for example, where a poet has invested a great deal of time crafting their lines and verses and has a group of themed poems to go into a volume. The author is the final arbiter and if this is their process the reader could be presented with any word count in a book. Once an author has become established and has a loyal following, they can be less concerned about the word count of their manuscripts.

When DOES it matter how long a book is?

With digital publishing, typesetting constraints are not what they once were, but physical books still have the same issues.

Picture books are typically thirty-two pages long, as they need to be in page count multiples of eight. The words need to fit within this construction.

Most books are not tied to a fixed page count, and equally, most are not entirely free from an expected word count norm.

At any stage in the writing and publication process, the word count of a manuscript comes with implications.

Getting it written – if you know the word count you are aiming to write for a project (whether book, blog post or article) you can use it as a gauge for how far remains to completion. The word count can be helpful to break the writing down into chunks which are more manageable to consider as chapters, scenes or acts to help bring a balance or pace to the narrative. Grouping word counts within a long-form manuscript can help outline and plan.

Managing the project – word count can be used to monitor progress. Awareness of word count helps with scheduling dependent activities such as self-editing, copyediting, proofreading, beta readers, publication and marketing.

Meeting genre expectations – book genres come with standards for the number of words they require, which is based on traditional publishing. Staying within the recognised word count appropriate to the genre will prevent frustrating the expectations of others.

Word count will have a bearing on editing and proofreading costs; production costs and perceptions of value. Books which seem short may appear as poor value for money, and books that are longer than readers expect may be perceived as drawn out or demanding.

What are standard traditional publishing wordcount guidelines?

These are benchmark word counts and come from various sources including Hill (2016), and the Writers and Artists Yearbook (2020):

Children’s Picture Books: up to 500 (absolute maximum 1,000)

Short Stories: 1,000 to 8,000

Children’s Chapter Books: 6,000 to 10,000

Novellas: 20,000 to 50,000 (some recommend a maximum of 40,000)

Novels: between 40,000 and 100,000 but typically 90,000

Young Adult: 50,000 to 80,000

New Adult Novel: 60,000 to 85,000

Horror, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller: 70,000 to 90,000

Mainstream Romance: 70,000 to 100,000

Literary Fiction: 80,000 to 110,000

Women’s Fiction: 80,000 to 110,000

Crime: 90,000 to 100,000

Science Fiction: 90,000 to 125,000

For a new writer, it is advisable to keep within word count guidelines as it is less likely to succeed as an exception than by conforming, although there will always be some exceptions.

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To see how I can help with your fiction or creative nonfiction do get in touch.

Resources:

Hill, B. (2016). The Magic of Fiction: Crafting Words into Story: The Writer’s Guide to Writing and Editing. Atlanta: Title Page Books

Writer’s and Artist’s Yearbook (2020). Writer’s and Artist Yearbook 2020 113^th ed. London Bloomsbury Yearbooks

Honesty About Perfect Writing

Read time: 2 mins

I think honesty from the outset about the quality of writing is important. Clients sometimes ask for their manuscript to be edited to be perfect, but quality in writing has a subjective component. There will be improvement, but perfection is an elusive aim.

Every writer decides at some point that a piece of writing is finished and ready. However, they know that if they leave their document for a while, then go back to it and read it again, they are likely to tweak and improve what they have written – to improve the clarity or the pace of the story or the words which are used. Redrafting and editing are all iterative processes; many writers produce multiple versions before they feel that their work is complete. What writers aim for, and what readers seek, is good writing, but it is difficult to pin down exactly what that is.

Perfection v. improvement

Editorial professionals, be they developmental editors, copy-editors or proofreaders, work to improve the content they are presented with. Ask a dozen copyeditors to work on the same manuscript and give them all the same reference books (such as Butcher’s Copy-editing, The New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors, New Hart’s Rules or Merriam-Webster and The Chicago Manual of Style), then read the twelve edited versions. You will find that no two versions will be exactly the same. Why is this?

They will have spotted a great many of the same changes needed in spelling, grammar, capitalisation, consistency and the use of language. But their individual suggestions will differ, if only slightly, and across the manuscript there will be a number of variations. Each edited version will be an improvement, but no two versions will be exactly the same improvement.

As an editorial professional, I aim at perfection, but writing is subjective and each revision of a text will find further enhancements to make. There are constraints on everything and deadlines need to be met so, at a point, the work must stop, and the improvement be deemed sufficient.

I work to lift your text and voice to the next level. Realistically, perfection is the aim and improvement is the reality.

To see how I can help with your fiction or creative nonfiction, do get in touch.

Illustration courtesy of sketchrobin.com

For How to Present Your Manuscript click here.

Why Editors Need to Know about Genre

Read time: 3 mins

3 min read

The written and unwritten rules of fiction, which readers and authors acknowledge, group stories into recognisable genres which usefully serve as a form of jargon or shorthand to guide readers to find the types of novels they enjoy by knowing which genre they are choosing. On the other hand, genre also helps the authors to deliver fulfilling writing to their readers and to meet reasonable expectations based on the chosen genre.

Publishers also use genre to inform their purchasing decisions and to direct their marketing. Genre is of great importance in fiction writing and there are many tropes and standards which apply within a particular genre and do not apply in others, for example, a story from the romance genre and a story from the horror genre will attract different readers. For an author to include extremes of the horror genre within a romance is very likely to put off a swathe of readers, who will then avoid selecting titles by an author who does not write in a manner which conforms to their expectations.

The term genre comes from the French word for kind and is helpful for everyone in choosing the right content or type of story. Knowing the genre of a book helps to recognise what can be expected from it without having to read it first.

Text in context

Whatever story an author writes a genre will be fitted to it by the world at large and that labelling will, to some extent, select who chooses to engage with the story. Readers come to a title with certain assumptions depending on its genre. Knowing this, authors wisely craft their stories to fulfil those expectations in the reader. If it is a humorous work, the reader will have different expectations to those they would have for a thriller, where they are looking for suspense and intrigue. Umberto Eco states that no text is ever read independently. Authors and editors do well to steep themselves in their preferred genres to help create the emotional effect of stories on the readers, while at the same time avoiding the presentation of cliché.

The reader should be offered an entertaining experience where they can be drawn into a story and feel that the author has crafted a believable world, without the distraction of unpleasant surprises. These pull the reader out of the story, leading to dissatisfaction and disengagement. This is especially a problem with long form, due to the greater investment of time for both the reader and the writer. Whatever an editor can do to steer a work to better fit a genre will serve both the author and the reader.

Dynamic nature of genre

McCaw notes that genre is not static. So, whereas there is a temptation to view what works of a genre have in common, as though there was a fixed set of criteria to be met, genres change over time. The differences within a genre can be studied and change is ongoing, which points to the importance for both authors and editors to be aware of recent works written in the genre they are writing for, or editing within.

At the online Edinburgh International Book Festival 2020, The Midnight Library author, Matt Haig, points out how he has witnessed massive change over the past ten years. He says ‘genre snobberies have evaporated remarkably’ and the barriers which used to exist between literary and commercial works have moved, making it much more possible for authors to take creative influence from everywhere. Which he sees as a more natural way of doing things.

Experience shows that editors may come across a manuscript which pushes the boundaries of genre, and they must be ready to embrace this in their work, otherwise the dynamic nature of genre could be restricted and the new could be stifled. As with much about fiction editing, sensitivity and tuning into the author’s voice is paramount. I would argue that this craft element will always present a problem to techniques of artificial intelligence and will ensure human editing retains its elusive, unique quality and value.

Illustration courtesy of sketchrobin.com

To see how I can help with your fiction or creative nonfiction do get in touch.

For How to Write Speech in a Story, click here.

References:

Eco, U. (1981). The Theory of Signs and the Role of the Reader. The Bulletin of the Midwest Modern Language Association, 14(1), 35-45. doi:10.2307/1314865

Edinburgh International Book Festival http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/media-gallery/item/matt-haig-the-library-of-second-chances.

Iglesias. K, (2005) Writing for emotional impact, WingSpan Press.

McCaw, N. How to Read texts, continuum.

Should Dad Be Lowercase?

Read time: 2 mins

Illustration courtesy of sketchrobin.com

Speech can bring difficulties when it is written, and one area of difficulty is that of whether to capitalise some naming words. This is because the words Mum, Dad and Grandad have different forms. These words can be used in their proper noun form, and this is when they should be uppercase.

Proper noun form

Sentences where these words are used as proper nouns:

Did you like the flowers, Mum?	✔
Can I borrow your glasses, Dad?	✔
I asked Grandad to pass the map.	✔

To check that a word is being used in this form, you can keep the sentence the same but swap out the proper noun form and swap in their proper name, if the sentence still makes sense, then the word was being used in its proper noun form.

The same sentences with the names swapped in:

Did you like the flowers, Mary Gilesbie?	✔
Can I borrow you glasses, Ian Telling?	✔
I asked Alfred Potter to pass the map.	✔

Generic noun form

However, these words can also be used generically – as generic nouns or regular nouns and when they are, they are lowercase.

Sentences where these words are used as generic nouns:

If these sentences are given the same swap test, they don’t work because the word was being used as a generic noun.

My mum does not like red flowers.	✔
All dads have children.	✔
My granddad called on us.	✔

Sentences where generic nouns have been swapped for proper names:

My Mary Gilesbie does not like red flowers.	✗
All Ian Tellings have children.	✗
My Alfred Potter called on us.	✗

Rules of thumb

Whenever these words are preceded by a possessive adjective like (my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their) the noun will be lowercase.

Whenever you use these directly as a name, they will be uppercase.

I brought this for your mum.	✔
The coat was from my dad.	✔
These are from Grandad.	✔

When there is a determiner preceding the word (such as – a, an, the, this, that, these, my, his, their, much, many, some, two, seven, all, every) use lowercase.

Some mums drove the car.	✔
Seven dads ate the pizzas.	✔
His grandad was in the play.	✔

This works for other similar words in the same way, these include: uncle, aunt, father, mother, daughter, cousin etc.

Is it a name?

Changing between upper and lowercase depending on usage happens with other words. This applies to when the word is a title or political entity.

Where a word is used as a name it will be uppercase:

They followed Captain Wilson over the bridge.	✔
We walk up the steps to meet Queen Bess.	✔
Come on let’s go Governor. (instead of name)	✔

Where a word is not when it is not being used to replace a name and is being used as a description, it will be lowercase.

Our old captain turned to fight.	✔
The girl was a princess.	✔
The governor was going to the meeting.	✔

Style guides often have requirements regarding capitalisation and these should be followed where applicable, but as with general rules about writing, it is important that the rule is applied consistently or the writing can be jarring, and the reader can be distracted from the meaning of the content.

Illustration courtesy of sketchrobin.com

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How to Use Dashes

Read time: 4 mins

I have checked back to my references for crystal clarity, referring to the New Oxford Style Manual (2012) and to the Chicago Manual of Style, although these do not state every instance and are only conventions adopted, or not adopted, by publishers. There are also instances of exceptions, so these are far from being strict rules.

How to create dashes

The en dash can be found on the ribbon on the Insert tab and at the right-hand side. Click on Symbol and the then on More symbols.

Select the Special Characters tab and the top two offerings are the Em dash and the En dash, select the one you want and click Insert.

The keyboard shortcuts are:

Alt+Ctrl+Num for Em dash and Alt+Ctrl+Num for the En dash.

Alternatively hold down the Alt key and using the Numbers Pad:

key 0151 for the Em dash or 0152 for the En dash.

When introducing a phrase at the end of a sentence

A phrase at the end of a sentence can be introduced with an em dash (closed up) and the example given in New Hart’s Rules which, in my copy of the New Oxford Style Manual, is p81 (4.11.2)

Everyone understands what is serious—and what is not

So, this is a single parenthetical usage, and replaces a colon and is widely accepted in UK English.

When used as a pair of dashes

Where you use em dashes with a space before and after, these would be parenthetical. This is not currently a general UK English publisher’s preference.

New Oxford Style Manual (2012) 4.11 p72 states:

‘The en dash … Many British publishers use an en dash with space either side as a parenthetical dash, but Oxford and most US publishers use an em dash.’ And

(p80) ‘The em dash … Oxford and most US publishers use a closed-up em dash as a parenthetical dash; other British publishers use the en dash with space either side.’ …

A pair of dashes expresses a more pronounced break in sentence structure than commas, and draws more attention to the enclosed phrase than brackets:

‘The party lasted—we knew it would!—far longer than planned’

And

… Use an em dash spaced to indicate the omission of a word, and closed up to indicate the omission of part of a word:

‘We were approaching — when the Earl of C— disappeared.’

So, both the em and en dashes can be used to set off an augmenting or explanatory word or phrase in a sentence that could stand alone without the insertion. Examples include:

That small flower – the pink one – is as fresh as can be.
That small flower—the pink one—is as sweet as can be.

He knew the price of that rare vintage – everyone did.
She knew the price of that rare vintage—everyone did.

In the UK, it is conventional to use a SPACED EN DASH. This is not a law, but is the conventional style used my many (although not all) UK publishers (an exception being Oxford).

In the US, it is conventional to use a CLOSED-UP EM DASH. Not a law, just a convention, but one which many US publishers follow.

It is also true that there are some style guides which ask for spaced em dashes; however, this is relatively rare.

So how are authors using the dash conventions?

Beyond the reference material it can be useful to look at how published authors’ work appears.

Publishing in the UK

In Stephen King’s Everything’s Eventual (2002)

There is an example of the single parenthetical en dash:

(p299) ‘… for what I’ve done – for what I did to Skipper, even.’

And in Val McDermid’s Killing the Shadows, (2001)

(p159) ‘That someone hated Kit – or his word – even enough to pour out such venom…’

Whereas publishing in the US

In Emma Donoghue’s Room, (2010) there is an example of a pair of parenthetical em dashes:

(p133) ‘Old Nick will carry you into the hospital, and the first doctor you see—or nurse, whatever—you shout …’

And in David Baldacci’s The Finisher (2014) there is an example of the single spaced em dash:

(p1) At first light, I was almost always up in my tree — a stonking, straight-to-the-sky poplar with a full towering canopy.

In conclusion: I recommend using spaced en dashes or closed-up em dashes because that is what readers are most familiar with. The choice of which depends on where much of the target audience are (US or UK), however, where there is an international audience either style can be chosen, as long as it is applied consistently.

Illustration courtesy of sketchrobin.com

Services for your fiction or creative nonfiction do get in touch.

For How to Capitalise Family Names click here.

Should I Use a Prologue?

Read time: 4 mins

Illustration courtesy of Tom French

What is a prologue?

A prologue will delay the start of a book for the reader who, having just opened it, is champing at the bit, or at least more interested than they have ever been up till now or will ever be again, to find out what the book is about. A prologue is a piece of writing separate from the start of a book, setting out an early thought that the author really needs the reader to know to be fair to them embarking on this reading.

Rather like a host at a party will mention a whispered aside to the only guest who has not been to their home before, ‘We don’t open the red door, that’s where we keep Grumpy the Doberman when we have visitors, everyone else knows not to go in there.’
Good to know, important to know, the newcomer is grateful to have been clued-up, so they don’t inadvertently upset the social occasion but finding this out was not the main reason they called at the house.

Likewise, the reader will be better prepared having the information set out in a prologue, but that detail is not the main thrust of the story they’ll be reading in this book, and it is not usually the thing they are reading to discover. The aside is what should, if it is needed, go in the prologue.
On another occasion, a newcomer to the house might call when someone has kindly taken Grumpy on a long hike, there would be no need for any concern that the red door might be opened and on that day no need for the aside – no prologue.

If there is no need for a prologue, do not have one, do not hold the reader up unnecessarily when they are at their most ready to engage with the content of your book. If it is not needed because you have no secret which they will be at a disadvantage not knowing about at this point, leave it out, let them get on with what they have come to do.

Useful background

Placed at the front of a book before the start of the story, a prologue should say all it needs to but briefly and should not take up a great deal of time. A good prologue gives a little extra information about the background of the story, which will help a reader fully appreciate the context in which the story is being told. So, it will help to create a satisfying rounded story and, used well, will help the reader feel engaged and immersed in the world or setting of the story right away. So, include an event or at most two events which help to draw the reader into the best place to be to start reading the story set out in the book. To write a good prologue, consider the timeline of the book and if there is information outside that timeline but which you feel should still be included, this is likely to be the right sort of material to make into a prologue.

Particularly in sci-fi, using a prologue can introduce unexpected features of world-building or alien characters which are in the early scenes of the story without slowing those scenes down with the description. This also makes for an intriguing context being set out in the prologue which will give more to those readers who do take the time to read the prologue without delaying readers who prefer to dive straight in and try to work the contextual detail out for themselves.

A prologue may be a great place to mention an event which gave the characters their motivation so, for example, a character who has lost a young child may have that reason to become over-protective of a child they later adopt. To show this actively, the past event could be placed in the prologue, making the reader aware of that context for how the character goes on to act.

Another use for the prologue is to give a different point of view from the main story and fill in some detail or insight from a different character’s perspective. So, for example, how a murderer feels being taken away to prison, may be given in the prologue when the main character in the story would have no way of knowing that information. As perhaps, the story is about the first-person experience of the murder victim’s sister.

You can use a prologue to start the story from a different point in time from the main story if that would be useful for some information which you feel the reader will need as context for your main story but which cannot, for some reason, be delivered within the main story set up.

Why not to include a prologue

Don’t write a prologue if your story makes sense without it. The content you were thinking of putting into a prologue may fit in the main story, and if it does, no prologue is needed.
Avoid just using a prologue for mood, atmosphere or for world-building alone. These can be uses for a prologue, but there should also be a further reason that a prologue is required because all these things could be done within the main body of the book.

What is a good prologue?

If you still decide a prologue is needed

Make it interesting imparting crucial information.
Make it short in length (considerably less than any of the book chapters). Some recommendations are between one and five pages, others suggest around 1,500 words.
Refer to one or at most two events; otherwise you risk overloading readers with too much information.
Make sure the language is consistent with the rest of the book; otherwise it will appear odd.
Make sure any questions posed in the prologue are answered by the end of the book.

In conclusion, when it comes to whether to have a prologue, it is good to remember the words of Benjamin Franklin, ‘If in doubt, don’t.’

To see how I can help with your fiction or creative nonfiction do get in touch.

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