I have a plotting dilemma for my novel and any thoughts/input would be welcome - it might also generate some helpful advice for others too.

I have started the book (which is straightforward, non-genre fiction) with a prologue which details a shocking incident in the MC's childhood (he accidentally kills his younger sibling at an insolated swimming hole).

Then chapter one starts with the MC (25 years later, having spent a life drifting from one place to another and burdened by guilt) discovering the partially burnt body of a woman in woods just beyond a layby near a town where most of the novel's action will take place.

I just wonder if these two major set pieces are too close together and whether it would be better to let the MC settle into the town and then for him to find the body. What I want to avoid is opening the book with such a big drama that the reader gets put off when things settle down a bit or starting with such a big bang that it comes over as melodramatic and 'trying too hard'.

I guess this leads to a general point about whether it is best to separate out the key incidents of your book, or whether there are circumstances where putting things like this together is possible.

<Added>

I suppose I should have added that the childhood incident has greatly shaped the character of the MC as a loner, eager for punishment, detached from society etc, that's why I wanted it at the start.

However, I recognise that it might be interesting to develop it as a separate thread so that as you learn more about the MC you discover more about the events leading up to the incident that has shaped his adult life.

So many possibilities!!

Sibelius - obviously only you know what works for your novel but I think having that dramatic incident in the prologue could be very effective. It could create tension and intrigue and pull the reader into wanting to know how that event shapes the character's life. It creates narrative drive which is a phrase I've heard quite a bit from people in the industry (I should say I have no idea what it really means).

That narrative drive could pull the reader along into a chapter in which you do spend some time establishing how your character has been affected by that accident - how it effects his character - habits, relationships etcetera - that is and, by extension, his mental state.

And maybe bring up the dead body in the next chapter or so - depending on how long your chapters are, of course.

But there's no real reason not to have the dead body turn up soon after the recounting of the childhood accident. As long as you keep moving the story on - keeping up the narrative drive - it could work out fine.

I think Sammy's got a good point. Faced with that kind of dilemma in my own work I think I'd write the thing as it seemed to want to be at the moment, and make a note to decide it it works when I've finished the first draft and can judge the pace and structure of the whole thing. Certainly whether two violent things cheek-by-jowel works is largely to do with pacing and so on, and you'll only know if it works by doing it. But you won't regret writing the childhood scene as a whole, and finding out what it is, even if later you re-distribute the elements through the main story instead.

I think Sammy's right that something like this can set up intrigue and tension for the main story, but only as long as you keep up the tension: I've read (or rather, dipped into in the bookshop and not bought) too many books where something like this is a substitute for proper, structural tension all the way through: after the cracking start, the whole thing goes flabby.

Emma

Thanks both. I'm certainly conscious of narrative drive - as opposed to simple plot development - and that I don't want to start with a bang and continue for 200 pages with a whimper.

Sometimes you need to bounce these questions off other people to confirm what you already suspect. Perhaps I should do it more often.

Having said that any other opinions gratefully appreciated.

How about starting with finding the body in the woods? Then you could drip-feed in the details of the childhood incident that led to him being the adult he is. This gradual unfolding often works very well.

Dee

Or you could still start with a dramatic prologue of the incident you describe but not really giving away who it is or what. This can be particularly effective if using the child's point of view so that it has a different feel from the lead character. It can be thoughts and impressions but we don't necessarily know it is a brother or how this might have informed the main character or anything. The reader will suspect it is the same character or even know it, but the drama will be how this incident happened, the precise circumstances, how it affects the MC's life, how knowing the child was etc rather than just the plain facts of what happened.

Just a suggestion.

Thanks Dee and Snowbell.

Both attractive ideas. I think it probably will depend on how I feel I can handle it. Perhaps combining the two ideas and have a drip feed of incidents building up to the childhood accident, narrated by the MC in first person, while the rest of the book is in third person.

It's all fun and games isn't it...

Really interesting question. Maintaining narrative drive isn't easy - at least, I've found that it's one thing to come up with an initial "situation" or a shocker of a climactic scene or two, and quite another to weave narrative tension throughout the fabric of the story as a whole.

I think I'd echo Snowbell and Dee's suggestions in terms of offering a glimpse of one of the two major tragedies to begin with, and filling out the drama of this formative moment as you go (rather than hitting the reader with two major scenes right from the start, which could set a difficult precedent for the rest of the book).

Would be interested to see the results - best of luck with this!

Sibelius,

An interesting challenge. Sometimes when one has problems with plot development it can be helpful to consider how you might have handled this if you were writing for another medium - like film or radio.

The juxtapositioning of 'dramatic events' may well be very different when one introduces vision and/or just sound. This exercise will not only sharpen your 'thinking abilities' but may even reveal that a specific pattern matches what you wanted to achieve with your written words.

There are no 'right' answers... they are creative decisions, and only you can make these decisions... so write what you feel within yourself produces the best.

Len