The Losing End - Prologue, sort of

As indicated in the title, this is, well, some sort of prologue. Maybe I'll write more at some point. I've always wanted to write a prologue. Hope you like it.

Prologue, sort of

So where do we begin?

Beginnings are arbitrary, and doesn't that sound cool? I´ll write it again: Beginnings are arbitrary.

And I´m not merely being post-modernistic, hip and edgy here. I mean it; they really are arbitrary.

I could start with my mother, who died when I was 24. But that would mean starting on a somewhat gloomy note: hospital-stuff, death-stuff, calls-in-the-middle-of-the-night-stuff, funeral-stuff, black umbrellas and rain. Don't wanna do that because - very much like with an album of a great rock band - I think you need something accessible at the beginning, something to lure them in and when you got them, you can do pretty much what you want.

I could start with my childhood, the classical way; where I grew up, what my Dad used to say to me, the kids in school always did this and that, my first love, my first kiss, a sunset on an empty playground or whatever might be of interest. But: Ain´t that kind of boring? Maybe it´s better to just leave out the boring parts and cut to the chase. Time is money and all that.

I could start with violence, at least there we have some momentum; action, smoking guns, crime and blood. But wouldn't that be rather confusing, without any exposition? Isn't it a golden rule of storytelling that you have to know who you are dealing with, to make the readers care about the outcome?

The same with sex. There is potential for sex in this story; sex happened, it occurred from time to time. But I mean who really cares about sex, when there´s no context, just people, well, having sex? Maybe I'm a bit naive here, but, no, I can't bring myself to do that, it would somewhat feel like a cheap trick.

Then I thought, well, maybe start with a woman.

Yeah, I know.

But when I think back, I always come back to Elena, and even though that might be kind of old-fashioned, it´s still true. Maybe I can afford some old-fashioned ness, I'm 35 now.

I was born in Germany, the country of the poets and thinkers, of great inventors and musicians and painters, of beer and football, of Nazis and inner strife, of guilt and shame, of effective ways of separating the litter, of perpetual-ness and threatening boredom, of complacency, of unwillingness to change, of mild weather and abecedarian lists, of precise train schedules, of people always eager to become indignant, and of people desperately trying to ignore each other in the elevator.

But before I get carried away, I´ll try to focus on Elena. Elena; why not start with her, then? With her and music maybe, because the music is your friend, always.

Reviews

[Richard Patrick]

I think you should try and find your hook in the story.
What would make us, desire to know this? You have to start
with a beginning. That is now what you desire for us to know
about the story.

What is the fulcrum for the story. What will make us desire to know this.
Why should we do this? You have to shake us up. Make us draw our breathe.
Take it away. Your analogy is good, but it does not sell the story.

[Bobby Garfield]

Thanks for reading and reviewing. And, well, I think you've got a point. Let me think about that for a while :)

[Richard Patrick]

Well, it is good. Just do not over analyze each detail. Just go with the flow, that is running around in your headd. Until you have it down on paper or in this case on the computer, than look it over. See what you think of it.

[Kaliope]

I'll be honest with you - in general I'm not too fond of prologues. Actually, for the very same reasons you address in this beautiful, clever little gem of a text. So just to avoid any misunderstandings: I love THIS prologue! I was thoroughly entertained by it and your take on this - imho - often problematic and misused narrative device, managed to do something most prologues fail to accomplish: it set the tone, it gave me a lot of information about the narrator without boring me and - most importantly - it made me wish there was more to read. Bravo!

[Bobby Garfield]

Thanks for the constructive review. Glad to hear that what I had in mind pretty much worked out for you. You're right, most prologues are problematic. If you want to read a really great prologue then you should try "The Robber Bride" by Margaret Atwood. The novel itself is also pretty good :).