Adding a prologue?

[Moesakuara]

I have a question. My main character's backstory is a little complicated. I want it to be clear that two separate events put her in the situation she is now. One event is a tragedy, her neighborhood was bombed by the cops, which spurs her to be a vigilante. The other is how she ended up on the planet the story takes place on (it's used as a prison colony for an Earth like planet).

The characters talk about these things but not explicitly. I'm worried readers aren't picking up on the the bombing story line, and want to add a prologue actually showing it. I'm sixteen pages in. Is it too late to add this prologue? And are these two backstory events too much for one character?

[IndigoShirtProd]

Well, if you're not too far in, it can be okay. How would you frame the prolouge? Is it possible to add the back story later in the story in an interesting or climactic way?

[Wisdom]

If you're worried about what the readers are picking up, you should consider inviting a beta reader.

[Moesakuara]

I would frame it as a flashback, then flash forward to the story as is currently. So, two new pages would be added in front of the opening pages.

[Moesakuara]

Not a bad idea! I think I know someone who can help me with this.

[IndigoShirtProd]

Is it paramount that the readers know this information at the start of th story? Can it be put off for a more dramatic reveal later?

[Moesakuara]

It would be kind of weird to not know until later, since it is central to the set up of the story.

[cherrystark]

As a reader, I HATE prologues. The few that I've liked have been the "Once Upon a Time" style openings where you NEED to know that the Beast had until the last petal fell or else he'd die. That kind of thing is important.

A problem that I've see a lot of writers do is oversaturate the "prologue", they'll introduce characters, drop you into the middle of tense scenes, etc all without any build up. These types can go on for multiple characters. When we finally get to the "first" chapter, it feels disjointed and disorganized so I put it down.

If the scenes are important, I like using dreams and conversation to show it to the readers. For example, camp fire stories. One character could be narrating what happened in the flashback to other characters.

[river121693]

If it's just 2 pages, you can def just frame it as flashback. It's still early in the story. I've read your comic twice now and I actually thought that her history was going to be unravel further down the line since it was alluded the conversation with Bob and Breda. I was actually the most curious about what happened to those two. I wouldn't have been able to guess that there was a bombing from the hints so far though.
Imo the bombing sounds like a very big reveal and gives a very clear reason to why she's a vigilante. You can probably write a whole character arc around how it impacted her.

[Moesakuara]

That character arc is basically the entire story, hahaha. I’m thinking of having it in a flashback towards the end of the first issue, which is coming up soon, or at the beginning. So, since you’re curious, you think it would work as something towards the end then? I guess her backstory is kind of clear now, the human colony is rough and she doesn’t want to go back. She basically says that. Thank you for the insight. Now you go forth with spoilers

[darthmongoose]

I don't always like prologues.... but in my case I did actually bite the bullet and put one in Errant, and it's quite a long one too! Because simply later flashing back to this traumatic event that changed the protagonist's life and damaged her relationship with her best friend wasn't as good as just putting it at the start and letting readers live it with her.
I ended up feeling like... similarly to the prologue of the show "Firefly", introducing the character being heroic and good and then seeing what caused their fall was a lot more emotionally effective than introducing them as a comparatively crappy person and later filling in why they're like that.

If the prologue is actual entertaining content with dramatic stakes, not just a narration crawl, I think it can work. Sometimes I wonder if I made the right choice, but hey, Errant isn't performing terribly!

[powerplantanimations]

I'd do it like you're pitching an idea to the audience. That's what I did for my comic.

[Moesakuara]

Mine would basically be a large dramatic scene showing how/why the character is heroic. But I’m wondering if putting it in early before we know her would lessen its impact

[darthmongoose]

It depends I guess on the initial impression you want your readers to have, and it's a tricky one!

In my case, I found that Rekki is a much more sympathetic protagonist if you're introduced to her as a 14 year old who feels overshadowed by her more talented best friend and like she can't do anything right, but yearns to be important and powerful. The original openings where you first meet her as this grumpy, tired young adult who has incredible powers but it just makes her miserable made her seem kind of hard to understand and even bratty or ungrateful without that context. A lot of characters may not have this problem.

There is a key ingredient here that's specific to Errant's storytelling too; Errant doesn't use much in the way of narration or internal monologue, with storytelling more like a movie or TV show. If the comic uses internal monologue so the protagonist can explain themselves to the reader; why they did something, how they really feel, something like this might not be so important.

[river121693]

I def think it would make a great hook if you put it at the end of the first issue!

[Moesakuara]

It’s so funny, my comic is reverse in some ways. My character starts out heroic, you need her that way right off the bat. But mine also has no internal monologue, like yours, mirroring film etc.

[system]

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