Hi Liz,
Prologues are funny.
I’ve never written one, and I feel like when I read them, they’ve always been written after the novel is finished; the narrative has its arc, and the characters are already flushed out.
So why write one now? The narrative arc isn’t finished (or even in the least sketched out), and the characters Liz and Ross are just scraps, pasted and taped of curated images and shared texts that they’ve seen in each other’s minds.
The reason for this prologue becomes clear as the reader tries to finish Chapter One while adhering to the important rule it establishes of “obligation mitigation” in the opening paragraphs: At the time, the author didn’t realize while writing the proposal of an obligation-free meeting in the middle of November was that Time is and of itself an obligation …
So let’s sketch these characters out for a second let’s trace around everything we know about them on the page and if we’re lucky these initial sketches just might draw out details about Liz or Ross we otherwise may not have seen.
We’ll start with Ross; he’ll be the easiest.
Ross, for the longest time, considered himself to be a boy in a boy’s body until he grew into a man and then considered himself to be a boy in a man’s body, right up until a few years ago when he started to see himself as a man in a man’s body but with a boy still inside of his brain.
What does Ross love about himself?
- He talks a big talk.
- He makes grand statements and gestures.
What does Ross love the most about himself?
He backs that talk and those gestures up with action.
This is what we know about Ross. We all know he’s pretty pleased with himself, so let’s not waste any more time on him.
More importantly now, what is it that we know about Liz…