Preface v Prolog: Which comes first

[Lifestyle66]

Ok, all of you English Lit Majors out there. I'm [obviously] an amateur, and trying to write a series on swingers. I started with how they got into the swinger scene ("Getting Started..." series, which I'm deleting as I rewrite), and was later told by editors my writing was too technical and lacked character development. So, I restarted with my "Lifestyle..." series with a Preface explaining "I'm a geek" writer.

Now I've written a Prolog with dialog which shows what I think is a good brief scene in their later swinger lifestyle, to introduce readers to the series.

Does anyone combine and repost their stories into the Novels/Novellas category to see how that works? (Most of my stories are short chapters of less than 8,000 words.)
***********
Prolog

The lights over the headboard were already turned down low, and she’d turn them off when she gets into bed. I laid down and fluffed up the pillow behind my head, shifting it closer to hers in the center of the bed. I pulled the blanket up to my neck and stretched my left arm out to wait for her.

She came out of the bathroom two minutes later and crawled into her side of the bed. As she shifted over beside me, she laid her head on my shoulder and put her hand on my chest. I wrapped my left arm around her, pulling her in closer to feel those 38-Ds squeezed against the side of my chest. That always catches ‘his’ attention, as I felt my cock twitch.

“Mmmm. This is my favorite part of the day, lying here with my head on your shoulder.”

“Mine, too. You always catch my attention.”

I felt her hand slide slowly down my chest to caress my cock, knowing she felt it stiffening.

“Hmmm. Does he want sloppy seconds?”

“Just seconds? I would have thought sloppy thirds, fourths, or fifths? And you didn’t clean her out? Oh, you dirty girl!”

“Look who’s talking. I doubt he has anything left in him after … how many blowjobs? Or did you just fuck them?”

“Didn’t you watch … and count? I thought that was the whole reason for the ‘same room’ rule.”

“I was too busy with all those cocks,” she said, and switched to her innocent girl voice: “So many choices … What’s a girl to do? Just say ‘no’?”

“Well, most good girls would say ‘no’.”

“But, you like your bad girl,” she responded in her seductive voice.

“I like a bitch!”

“ And I’m <i>YOUR</i> bitch, my geek! … Does he really want more? You know I’ll take care of him.”

“I’ll let ‘her’ rest tonight. … I love you.”

“I love you, too. … Good night,” she said as she laid her hand back on my chest.

With all of our sexual tension released, sleep came easily.
**********************************

 

[yukonnights]

Probably the internet is your best source on this. For what it's worth I found this;.

What is the difference between Prologue and Preface?

• Prologue is used in literature while preface is used in literature as well as in other subject areas such as in research.

• Prologue is placed before a novel or a drama starts. This gives an idea what to expect of the story. It is a part of the story.

• Preface also comes before the story. However, it is not a part of the story.

• Prologue tells you what you need to know about the story. Usually, it contains a general introduction to the characters that will help you understand the story. A writer might include this to clear any historical detail that is necessary to understand the plot. However, sometimes, writers include a prologue just to intrigue a reader. This is because such types of prologues include a very startling part of the story that makes the reader excited to know how all incidents in the story came to have such an effect.

• Preface is included by the writer, to tell about the writing of the book, how he or she got the idea, to thank people who helped him or her, etc. Preface is a writer’s direct address to the reader about the process of writing the book they are about to read.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Now I've written a Prolog with dialog which shows what I think is a good brief scene in their later swinger lifestyle, to introduce readers to the series.

Does anyone combine and repost their stories into the Novels/Novellas category to see how that works? (Most of my stories are short chapters of less than 8,000 words.)

Why bother calling it a "Prologue"? Isn't it just the first scene of a story?

The site doesn't allow duplicate stories, so it's best to figure out the best category up front, and stick all chapters in the same category.

 

[Lifestyle66]

Why bother calling it a "Prologue"? Isn't it just the first scene of a story?

.

The first scene in the story is why he's a loner geek. That's the very beginning of the timeline showing who the narrator is and how he thinks (as a loner.)

The prolog is to show this is about a swinger couple who,has a story to tell.

 

[ElectricBlue]

The first scene in the story is why he's a loner geek. That's the very beginning of the timeline showing who the narrator is and how he thinks (as a loner.)

The prolog is to show this is about a swinger couple who,has a story to tell.

Sounds like needless exposition to me. What's it got to do with the story being told?

 

[PennameWombat]

I’ll admit up front I don’t like prologues. But every one of my stories here has a preface.

It’s my copyright statement then fiction disclaimer, followed (usually) by a paragraph describing where the story fits overall into my universes. For instance, that some of the characters were introduced in a prior story and whether or not this is a ‘true’ sequel (you should read that other story first) or not (you don’t need to read that to appreciate this.) I also, often, include the “tags” that I attach to the story. I also might include certain kinds of trigger warnings (e.g., in my Winter Holidays 2020 entry I warned the story had very little explicit sex, so readers wanting non-stop cocks and tongues and fingers in asses and pussies might want to move along. The opposite of what I’d do on a mainstream site, where I’d mention it it had explicit sex. It’s still one of my highest rated.)

So, swingers. Why don’t you just let us discover the swinger specifics? Discover how your ‘loner geek’ transforms from a loner geek to a swinger? THAT is a worthy story. You can use Category (Group?) and Tags (swingers, swinging, sharing) to give us a clue.

I understand your concern about ‘too technical’. But, people who open this new story won’t be (just) the people who told you that. Take what your prologue has and incorporate into the story, instead of giving us an out-of-place scene. I’m not sure how this prologue addresses that concern anyway. I’ve no prejudgment on your writing.

In any case, a prologue usually does world-building. It lays out prerequisite information that might be too dry or unwieldy to incorporate. You have something that’s more of a trailer, I guess. In SF&F it’s often stuff like “the evil Lord came and darkness fell over the land.” Yeah. Annoying. Stuff that should be revealed to us as the characters live (IMHO) under that darkness, how it affects their lives, etc. Going back to my Winter Holidays 2020 entry (link in sig, if you care), I could’ve written a prologue. “Five hundred years ago, a failing starship found a double planet, one almost solely deserts, the other almost solely ocean. Humans, modified to be mermaids and mermen, have thrived on the ocean planet. They have myths that a new starship will come.”

Oh, gahd! Why would I want to spoil the revelations of my story like that? Instead, I just throw you in as my main character is leading their annual Children’s Christmas Concert. There are plenty of hints that they’re merpeople descended from humans from Earth, but THEY do NOT think of themselves that way. They’re PEOPLE. They understand legs, Kringles have legs. But Kringles aren’t exactly People. By the end, you learn all of that stuff through the events of the story.

P.S. I’m not an English nor Lit major. I have an MS in computer science, have a bunch of patents in technical areas and still work in a high-tech field. Analyse what folks have told you. A hint. Read your story aloud to yourself, especially the dialogue parts. It’ll help in making it sound more natural.

 

[rescatooor]

I have very little to add here. But I think there is nothing wrong with having a prologue, if one wishes to.

My experience with prologues in contemporary literature is that they usually make a break from linearity of the narrative. It's not automatically assumed that this is really where "our story" starts, which means that it could relate events from the future or the past or even an alternate reality, I suppose. It's often used as a flash forward, though. Seeing as you might want to let your readers know that this story is about swinger lifestyle, it could be a good idea to have a prologue.

Preface is, as people have said, optional, and it could be attached to later editions. Prefaces are written by the author in his own voice. Introductions are usually written by real life authors and academics who aren't the author of the book. Prologues are usually written in the voice of a narrator or a character.

The book I'm reading right now has a prologue that is practically a preface written by the fictional narrator of the novel. The line can get very murky.

Oh, and the order is:

Introduction(s), Preface, Prologue.

 

[SimonDoom]

I recommend against combining chapters of previously published stories into a long story for the Novel category. It won't get read as much if you do that, because that category draws light traffic.

With fiction, one doesn't have to fret about prefaces or prologues, what to call them, etc. Just jump into the story. I scanned the first page of LifeStyle Ch. 01. My recommendation would be to get rid of everything that comes before the scene where he's on the Ham radio. Just start with that.

Mention that it's a Ham radio right at the beginning. I knew what you were doing in the story, but some readers won't, and you wait too long to explain what the character is doing.

Weave details about what a "geek" the narrator is throughout the story, rather than just coming out and saying it at the beginning.

Another tip: you switch, seemingly without realizing it, from present tense to past tense in your story. Control your tense. I recommend using past tense, especially because this is supposed to be a prequel to something you've already written. Be consistent with the tense of your story.

 

[Lifestyle66]

... So, swingers. Why don’t you just let us discover the swinger specifics? Discover how your ‘loner geek’ transforms from a loner geek to a swinger? THAT is a worthy story. You can use Category (Group?) and Tags (swingers, swinging, sharing) to give us a clue....

How the geek evolves is what my Lifestyle series is about. The most appropriate category would be "Loving Wives" for extramarital sex. I originally started with a LW series "Getting Started Ch. 01: Mentors" which quickly showed this was about swingers.

But, the LW category is brutal, with the haters quickly pouncing with 1 ratings and comments like "Disgusting!" on any story which isn't about "Burn the Bitch" revenge.

I'll probably stick with the "Erotic Couplings" category.

 

[Lifestyle66]

...Just jump into the story. I scanned the first page of LifeStyle Ch. 01. My recommendation would be to get rid of everything that comes before the scene where he's on the Ham radio. Just start with that.

Mention that it's a Ham radio right at the beginning. I knew what you were doing in the story, but some readers won't, and you wait too long to explain what the character is doing.

Weave details about what a "geek" the narrator is throughout the story, rather than just coming out and saying it at the beginning.

Another tip: you switch, seemingly without realizing it, from present tense to past tense in your story. Control your tense. I recommend using past tense, especially because this is supposed to be a prequel to something you've already written. Be consistent with the tense of your story.

Thanks for the review and pointers. My reason for asking about Prolog v Preface is due to that unwieldy preface I started with. I used that as a means of explaining my austere writing style. But, you're right in that I shouldn't need to do that. (It is what it is.)

The idea of replacing that Preface with a prolog is readers don't necessarily know what the on-going plot will be from those first three chapters. I might attract the wrong reader base with those, and turn off the ones who don't like it becoming a mostly swinger story with a wife who REALLY likes sex (You find that out in Lifestyle Ch03.) And those first three chapters won't attract readers who are looking for swingers and horny wives.

 

[jsmiam]

“Prologue”.

“Prologue”

So at the very least. Everyone does agree on one thing. Don’t write a “prolog.” Or a “prefac.” Or an “author’s not.” And what you’re describing is part of your “stor.”

Somebody had to say it. Less subtly than before.

 

[KeithD]

If you've decided to have both, I'd suggest the preface first and then the prologue. I've seen nothing definitive in the authorities about this beyond a preface given more as notes on the story and the prologue as giving story content leading into the story. On that basis, if you wanted to use both, I'd say preface first and then prologue.

 

[PennameWombat]

“Prologue”.

“Prologue”

So at the very least. Everyone does agree on one thing. Don’t write a “prolog.” Or a “prefac.” Or an “author’s not.” And what you’re describing is part of your “stor.”

Somebody had to say it. Less subtly than before.

Well, if you want to get pedantic, Merriam-Webster considers ‘prolog’ a variant, in other words, not common but not out of line.

Prologue Prolog.

Same with other American English dictionaries. From Dictionary.com:

prologue or pro·log [ proh-lawg, -log ]

 

[KeithD]

Yes, but the discussions I could pull up on each separately (I found no discussions comparing them), the discussions on prefaces stressed them being comments on the work by the author or an introducer and the discussions on prologues stressed them being part of the writing of the story--usually background for and additional content for the story itself.

 

[yukonnights]

FWIW, I agree with the majority opinion that what the OP shows as a prologue should just be included in the story.

 

[LAHomedog]

You could always write it as a cold opening. Then it's two mints in one. Part of the story and functions as a prologue.