Young Writers Society

Some writers believe that the only way they can get their readers hooked into their story is by telling the readers upfront what every single little aspect of their story is. This, sadly enough, is what prologues are used for frequently.

So, before you want to spew out information left or right at the very beginning, remember:

The only thing that you dump is crap.

Thank you and goodnight.

I sympathize.

If you bombard your reader with too much information, then they have a harder time determining what is actually important.

Detail dumping will make your story into a reference book, like a dictionary or encyclopedia. This is the absolute last thing a story should be. In fact, it is the exact opposite of a story.

I agree. It causes brain overload!

The words "Da Vinci Code" are rapidly flying through my mind here. I wonder why.

Good advice.

She's right.

What's worse though, is Opressive Identity Syndrome.

AKA:

She was going to the store and she noticed that there was a man in the trunk of her neighbor's car. She decided that the best thing she could do was to call the police so she ran to her bedroom, grabbed her phone and she said....

and so on.

Do you see what I'm trying to say with this? SHE this and SHE that ARGH I hate stories like that.

I am also a firm hater of dumping as you so eloquently put it.

dumping = bad
repeated sentence structure = bad
repeated words in too short a time period = bad

there are lots of mistakes, but have to say that dumping is at the top of this list for a reason. There is no better way to murder your story than to dump everything out like that. It's like asking for someone to close the book and walk in the other direction as quickly as possible.

Agreed. I tried a prologue once. Needless to say, it's now under my "what in the world was I thinking" file on my.. eh, the computer.

ta Snoink, and you stole the line I stole.

And spewing information is bad. Very very bad.

Now, I hope you're not saying that prologues are bad, because a prologue (when properly used) can be really helpful and intriguing. It's just when you try and pack every minute detail into a very short space and give too much information that it becomes a bad thing.

hehe, nah. i managed to make it a first rate dumping groud. I never knew I had such.. talent in that field. It's good for a laugh, and a reminder what not to do in a prologue. In fact, I might offer it up as an example.. *shudder*

ah... examples... Yeah... I've got a few of those that I could probably give up as well.

And I have to say, that just maybe you should cultivate that talent. You never know when you'll get famous for being absolutely terrible. Like with William Hung... *shudders* (you know I'm just kidding.)

The Da Vinci Code did just that.
But I'm one of those people who loved it for just that reason--I didn't think the plot was so great, the characters and the settings were very 2-d and lifeless. But his interesting facts and knack for inserting them in just the right places made me a fan of that book (but it's still not my favorite).

Hello, I'm El.

*everyone chorus's: Hello El!*

And I have a tendancy to skip large blocks of text, especially dumpings.

*cries of "it's okay" and "everyone skips thing sometimes*

And I'm not doing a thing to resolve it, because I have the right to skip what bores me!!!

*everyone cheers*

Ahem. Whenever I come across a big dumping of background information or histories in storys I tend to just not bother reading them. And I usually don't to a bad job of understanding the book without it all.

This, sadly enough, is what prologues are used for frequently.

It's barbaric the way some people treat their prologues! I'm I anti-prologarian. A vegetarian is someone who loves animals but hates plants (otherwise why murder them and consume their bodies in such quantities?). I'm anti people who hate prologues. Prologues are precious, delicate things ... you have to treat them right.

I hate it when you get overloaded on information. It is so annoying and confuzzling. I rarely read prologue.

A prologue done correctly can be fabulous - it can hook the reader into the plot and get things rolling, provide background without unnecessary explanations, et cetera. I like prologues. They can be useful.

I do not, however, like dumping grounds.

Personaly, like El, what I do when I see a big block of text that is all either a) description or b) back story is, I skip it. I just do. I hate it when writers dump stuff at you like that, particularly when it's description, or prophecy (like some fantasy stories do). Done right, like I said, it can be an awesome and powerful tool. Done wrong, and, well, it's as atrocious as my grammar when I'm tired, hehe.

The easiest way to hook a reader is to begin with action. If you have to read through half the book in order to get to anything interesting, there's a problem. In my opinion, prologues should be sort of a mystery... Something that doesn't tie in with the story until later. It's the best place to put little hints and clues, because by the time the reader gets to the "Aha!" stage (you know, the one where he or she finally realizes what's going on), he or she will have forgotten about the clues. If it's REALLY well-written, he or she will then flip back excitedly to the prologue and find all the little connections and try to piece together what will happen next. Yes? Yes.

Detail dumping does indeed spread a load of crap over all your beautiful writing. Don't do it. I beg of you.