Anyone ever seen a good reincarnation prologue?

#1
This is the top three things that google says a prologue needs

Quote:
Here are some:

  1. The prologue should always be an integral part of the novel, written in the same spirit and style. ...

  2. The prologue should read like a short story in every aspect, except for its ending. ...

  3. The prologue should start with a strong and intriguing hook as if it were the only beginning of the novel.


Now, in our reincarnation stories, we feel the need to have a prolog in every series.  We try and come up with some clever or funny death scene for the series showing what our character's life was like before they died.  Now I ask you, has that ever once been necessary?  What's stopping us from just starting right from the point of reincarnation?  

I've put mountains of thought into this and I shudder at the idea of reading a new reincarnation series because they all have the dreaded pointless prologue...  I know I can't write an interesting reincarnation prologue myself, I've tried twice now. 

What a lot of people often do is establish a background for their protagonists in their prologues, but even that...  You can do that in a paragraph in a proper chapter one rather than drag it out for a whole chapter...  

The problem I see is that in a reincarnation prologue, the information in them are always very detached from the main story.  It's information that will never come into play again for the rest of the series.  Maybe the protagonist draws on it a little, but a prologue is making a mountain out of a molehill.  

The only solution I can think of to this problem is to try and make the prologue more relevant to the main story, but that's a rather steep challenge in itself.  Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

RE: Anyone ever seen a good reincarnation prologue?

#2
I think the prologue of mushoku tensei is very well done. It shows what happens to a guy after he hits rock bottom. You can try reading it. You may like it like I do.


Well, my story is not reincarnation, it is a transported one type of thingy. Anyways, in my prologue, I have my mc blabber some type of crap that will all made sense as the story goes.

Some examples.

My MC mentions his love for his black hair because it's the sign of his asian heritage.

Later it was revealed that he is half american and that he has a big scar in his heart concerning his mom, which is a japanese.

But that line shows that he loves her, despite all that happened. There's many more hidden secrets in the prologue I did, but I hope my readers will be able to find them if they ever decide to reread.

RE: Anyone ever seen a good reincarnation prologue?

#3
But lets say "what if you skipped to chapter one, cut the prologue, then add in those little historical tidbits as small historical footnotes that help him out in future situations." would the prologue be missed in that case? Is it so deeply woven into your story that you can't just cut it out and move the important stuff to later chapters? Remember, as writers, it's better if we do things more efficiently. Dragging things out is exactly what we want to avoid.

In your example, couldn't he just say upon looking in the mirror
"My hair!" I stared in shock at my curly brown hair. I'd always taken pride in my pitch black hair—a sign of a real asian.

The idea is that in a normal story, you can't just cut out chapter five and throw people from chapter four to chapter six.

Prologues for a great deal of fictions aren't even needed.
http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Prologue-for-Your-Novel
This suggests that when you read your fictions first chapter, if the story feels rushed, then you probably need a prologue. It also suggests not to even make the protagonist the center point of the prologue.

This actually brings back a memory I had of a prologue I did like. Some book I forget it's name, started with a prologue about a horrible army led by a dragon, viciously crushing a human owned city. It didn't go anywhere near the protagonist until a few pages in. I think it really did help because you got a real sense of how brutal and evil this army was and it set the tone for the rest of the book. Tell me, does your prologue set the tone for your fiction? Does it put together the setting of the fiction?

I think the truth is that we've all been following the example that Re:Monster and Mushoku Tensei set and those are actually bad examples. There was no point to those prologues... Cut them out and introduce the small important details through flashbacks and the story comes together ten times faster.

RE: Anyone ever seen a good reincarnation prologue?

#4
Lol, all I'll add is, it's totally fine not to have a prologue. A prologue can be as short as a paragraph or something, as long as its relevant. Its up to the author. I just think that in those small prologues, especially in first person, is a good way to start giving a good mental image of the narrator.

A prologue can be a first chapter depending on its length. I think the only problem is that people misunderstood its purpose sometimes. Trust your guts. If you think its irrelevant to your story, then feel free lol. But i'll say it again, I think mushoku tensei's prologue is well done.

RE: Anyone ever seen a good reincarnation prologue?

#5
Re: Wolfman had an extremely entertaining prologue, although it had almost nothing to do with the story it was unique and brilliant. The 'prologue' wasn't used properly but it was thoroughly enjoyable and badass.

I was really depressed that such an amazing story style with its hilarious humour turned into a complete mess with a plot that was literally impossible to follow as it skipped huge plot points randomly as if I accidentally skipped 3 or 6 chapters.

Does enjoyable equate to a good prologue though?

RE: Anyone ever seen a good reincarnation prologue?

#6
Nah, I think a prologue is supposed to do one of two things

1) Introduce the protagonists background if his history plays a large part in the story. I think that's why Mushoku Tensei's was okay, a lot of people identified with the protagonist being a loser in his old life and reforming into a dependable man in his new life.

2) Introduce the main plot that your novel uses. This is the method I like best, it sets the mood and setting of a fiction. I'm actually rewriting my prologue in this style and I'm far happier with it than what I had.

In my experience, from synopsis writing to starting your fiction, I think you wanna introduce either the setting, the character, or the plot. Whatever you think is the most appealing part of your fiction.

RE: Anyone ever seen a good reincarnation prologue?

#8
I just wrote this as a replacement prologue for my fic "Toying with Demons". I'm curious what people think of it.

Quote:“For crimes unspeakable in nature and disregard for the suffering of others…” A gray-haired man sat in a large throne raised up several feet as he listened to a messenger reading from a scroll. “Crimes vast and uncountable. Rape! Slavery! Torture! We have found you guilty…” His eyelids flickered and his head kept nodding off as he listened to the messenger. “Your ways will be tolerated no longer. We will take measures against you. Your majesty, King Reginald, the council—”

“Ha!” Reginald couldn’t help but laugh at the mention of the council. His outburst spurred on a set of giggles from around the room. He quickly motioned for the messenger to continue.

“The council…” the messenger peaked around, watching for any more interruptions before continuing. “The council has elected that a gathering of the tribes is in order…”

Reginald rolled his eyes. Upon lifting his crown, he began massaging his temples. Coy smiles and hushed whispering came across those watching.

“Know this, we have not sent this message to inform you of a simple council gathering or a gathering of the tribes, we have already gathered and cast our votes.”

Reginald's eyes narrowed and his face tightened, but he remained in his seat. More giggles could be heard in the background.

“Through the might of thirty-eight tribes of the beast races, we declare war on the Kingdom of Mahk.” The hall went silent, and the messenger suddenly found every set of eyes in the room glaring down upon him.

After a moment of deathly silence, the messenger nervously said, “I’m sorry sir. That’s the end of the message.” Still under the gaze of the entire hall who’d frozen in silence, the messenger started backing away. “I’ll just stand over here your majesty.”

“You will do no such thing,” said a gaily decorated red-haired girl wearing a lavish blue silk dress. She approached from behind to grab the messenger's shoulder, pushing him forwards. “Father, what does this mean?”

“Do I need to explain it, my dear?” He continued staring at the messenger whose hands began trembling. “Clearly, their council has finally agreed to do something beyond sending us angry messages.”

She started approaching the throne. “But father—”

“I am not your father!” he screamed back as he slammed his fist into his armrest. The words seemed to echo throughout the room. Once again, the air seemed to fly out as people stared blankly back. “Not in this room.” He shook his head once before continuing, “No, in this room, at this time… You are but a hindrance…”

Tears fell down the girl's cheeks as she stared at King Reginald. Several of the surrounding people cringed as they watched. The messenger took this moment to hide back in the corner.

“Don’t expect fatherly compassion from me, not now.” He glanced at his daughter. “Picas!”

A tall and sturdy soldier standing next to the throne responded, “Yes, your majesty.”

“Gather the guard, I want every beast man slave liberated from these people at once.”

A younger man from the distant gallery came forward, “Your majesty, this is ludicrous. Slavery is already illegal in this country. Surely there must be some—”

“If this man speaks another word, cut his head off,” the king roared as silence returned to the room.

RE: Anyone ever seen a good reincarnation prologue?

#9
my thoughts about it, DarkD, is that most of it is fine except for a few things.

I'm not sure whether you meant for it to be like that, but I'm not exactly sure whose viewpoint the prologue is from.

There's nothing about the inner world there, as in the viewpoint character's thoughts. Once again, maybe you meant for it to be that way but it felt a bit empty somehow.

The first paragraph hooked me though, because I wasn't expecting the king to be the person that was referred to.
Dovie'andi se tovya sagain

RE: Anyone ever seen a good reincarnation prologue?

#10
Well, time for some shameless advertising.

The prologue of my first novel isn't that bad in my opinion. It still needs some tweaking but I’m in a very busy period right now so I don’t write that much.
It introduces the main character as well as an important part (or mechanic) of the main plot. Due to this, I can't remove it from the story.

If you are interested : http://www.royalroadl.com/fiction/2033

I’m always looking for some feedback so please leave some comments if you feel it's worth it.

RE: Anyone ever seen a good reincarnation prologue?

#11
Dagashi, I couldn't agree more with you.

Jayciv, I'm something of a detail oriented reviewer and I have trouble going forward when I don't like how you do something that came before. The synopsis describes no plot to the story at all, thus leaving me with the impression that it's like LMS where it survives on a very unique and interesting character.

If that's the case, then you need to start out with a very unique and interesting opening to your fiction highlighting your character's personality.

If that's not the case then you need to have a synopsis which describes the conflict and setting of your fiction's synopsis. Remember to use strong emotions in your synopsis.

I like to start out with a paragraph that shows off whatever my fictions strong point is going to be

Next I see you using passive descriptions
(ex he wore white clothes, brown shoes, sunglasses...)
these tend to be very bland to read about.

Change to active descriptions
(I shook in terror as I saw the emblem decorating his otherwise bland white shirt. I took a deep breath and felt like I was suffocating staring at it. His shoes tapped against the marble floors, echoing across the chamber, it felt like I was listening to the pendulum swing as my life counted down. )
The idea is to combine plot and character development into the description.

I'll look at it more later, but I don't feel like there's a hook to make the start of the fiction interesting. I have to go to work now.

RE: Anyone ever seen a good reincarnation prologue?

#12
Yeah, my style is lacking and I did not find a good first line yet. The whole first paragraphs need revamping, they lack a good hook. The synopsis isn’t descriptive enough, thanks for pointing that out.

Show don’t tell. I feel that I’m somewhat getting better at it but I still requires lot of practice. I know I’ll have to go back to the first chapters at some point since my writing evolved. I just don’t feel like my style is really defined yet so I’ll wait some more before modifying them.

I thought we were talking about content and not style.  I would not have posted here though some criticism is always good haha
Thanks for taking the time to comment it.


Then, back on topic.

In my opinion, there are two kinds of starts in classic reincarnation stories:  you are reborn in the same world or in another.

Unless you make him reincarnate in the same world, the prologue’s events will probably not matter much in his new home. It will most likely present characters that will not appear again.

If you want to introduce plot in it, there should be something significant he can bring with him. It should be something of utmost relevance in his new life, nor for him as a person but for the sake of the plot. My first answer was knowledge.
That’s what I went with in my story. It explains how my main character got this important information and his motivations. It’s vital for his next life and it’s the master key for his main objective.

If you choose a plot oriented prologue, you can introduce your character background and his personality without even thinking about it. They can be shown during the events. Two bird with one stone. Though, you could lose the focus on the story. I’m not sure.

It’s way easier to introduce plot if he is reborn in the same timeline or place.


About your prologue, I also like it but it think it lacks a bit of feeling or thoughts, like Dagashi mentioned. I can’t tell if the narrator is a third person omniscient or limited. I think you intended to go with limited but there’s no real clue of it.

I'm not sure what you are aiming for. Will he be reborn in the same world as a beastman or man? Or in another?

The daughter’s tears also seem a bit off to me, unless there is a reason unknown to the reader. If she is tall enough to grab the messenger by the shoulders, she should be in her mid or late teens. From her actions, she seems like a strong headed princess and was most likely raised in a court. Yet, she is openly crying. There is no backstory to explain this extreme reaction.

RE: Anyone ever seen a good reincarnation prologue?

#13
Yea I completely agree. I wasn't sure what perspective I wanted to write from when I wrote it, now I think I do, but I'm at work and can't do much. My idea was to actually have two daughters, and have the perspective of the second. Then she can inform you on the background a bit which should hopefully resolve the crying thing too. Amazing how much damage a lack of perspective can do.

The prologue I posted there isn't from the protagonists perspective, I was actually planning on jump straight into the fiction without any old life discussion at all. The idea here was to cover the plot and show how the war got started. Introduce the mentality of the nobles and create a sense of tension between the various world powers.

RE: Anyone ever seen a good reincarnation prologue?

#14
I’m just a newbie writer so take this with a grain of salt.

You went with the second case, the prologue happening in the same world. Well, it’s easier to make it interesting this way as the events will echo on the whole story. You can make it feel like a short story and be relevant. Those two points are actually the hardest part of writing a prologue for a reincarnation novel.

You’ll have to be careful not to go too deep in the PoV/girl’s mind. You might confuse the readers and break a link, unless the princess is a recurring figure/PoV in the story. But I don’t think changing PoV constantly is that good in a reincarnation story since the actual discovery of the world through the MC’s eyes plays an important part.
I think this is stated in the “Tips” section of the guide you posted in this thread.

Another important point is the nature of the character. If it’s just random guy Joe that is reincarnated yeah, it’s fine to not write about his past life in my opinion. Though, you might want to introduce a few things, like the MC’s skills, very early in the story, so it won’t feel like feel like convenient plot armor.

But if your main character has more than a few things that make him special, you might want to write the prologue about his past life.

RE: Anyone ever seen a good reincarnation prologue?

#15
Nah, I'm in favor of POV changes, just need to be careful how you do them. I think forgotten conqueror does them wrong for instance. He changes POV to the family members when there really isn't a reason to change to those POVs. A POV change is supposed to be about setting up something for your protagonists.

In my example I'm setting up the story arc for the first volume. I certainly don't plan on doing them a lot, but a POV change can help ease the reader into an alien environment.

EDIT

I think I just figured out how to do a before death prologue. The problem that we've been having is that in a before death prologue, our characters are omnipotent as to the facts. There's no mystery anywhere. Our protagonist wakes up, goes outside and dies some spectacular manner that the author has contrived...

So what if we change it so we don't have an omnipotent characters perspective. What if we make take the perspective of a little sister whose worried about her brother and his recent life style changes. Then we have that brother do a series of strange actions leading to his death.

The problem is that we may have to incorporate an extra POV character than and that POV character may not even be in the fantasy world we all love to write in...

RE: Anyone ever seen a good reincarnation prologue?

#16
I approached my prologue in a few chapters like an arc.

To summarize:

It follows a major character in first person to start with and introduces the location (middle eastern metropolis of Ruba) alongside some minor characters that will have roles to play later on. After that it switches to the POV of a minor character who wakes up in the wake of the circumstances caused by the major character before him.

After a couple developments it all culminates in an assault by the main antagonist, 'The Golem Legion' (introducing the cause of the world changing event) who lays siege on the city. The minor character watching the massive battle unfold before him loses all hope and falls onto his knees. The enemy penetrates the city walls, and all hope is lost. But the 'Golem Legion' abruptly stops as if frozen in time, completely unmoving.

Switching POV again this time to another major character (more like the second main character) its explained why this happened.

The prologue arc ends as the scene transitions to a Journal entry that the actual MC is reading. Coming to the present 20 years later in the process.  

--------------------
All of which is done in first person.

Does this work or is it too unorthodox?

P.S. Sorry for going off track since the thread asks for good reincarnation prologues whereas my prologue doesn't have any reincarnation themes...

RE: Anyone ever seen a good reincarnation prologue?

#18
I think the prologue for reincarnation stories is actually more important for chapter one. Because reincarnation stories are mostly people exploring the concept of 'restarting' everything like a game it basically serves as a new game +

This means the prologue serves as a few things. The first being that unlike 'transported' stories where the Protagonist already has a pretty established background you have the Protagonist with a blank slate in reincarnation stories relative to their new environment. What the prologue does is give the Protagonist an edge in terms of knowledge and sets goal and prejudices.

Unlike transported series the reincarnation Protagonists don't have people back at home waiting for their return or at least don't expect them to come back so they have a bit more freedom in deciding what they want to do with their new lives which are again based on the prologue; the Protagonists background.

Because the two lives are different the prologue and chapter one should serve as a dichotomy between those two lives. The reason why it isn't advisable to add the prologue into chapter one is because the pacing and mood is radically different.

RE: Anyone ever seen a good reincarnation prologue?

#19
The problem with that is, everything you just mentioned can be done in flashbacks. And short and to-the-point flashbacks are a lot more entertaining than the stuff I've been reading about. Even in Mushoku Tensei, I was rather disgusted with the in-depth descriptions of his past life. If he just flashed back on those, he could have been more selective about what he talked about and what he didn't.