Authors put a lot of thought into the beginnings and endings of the books we write. We want to hook you in the first paragraph or two. We want to draw you in and compel you to keep on reading.

 How do we do this?

That is a very good question, and I’m sure there have been hundreds of classes and workshops given to aspiring writers on this very subject.

 My take on it? I think we authors want to make you wonder who the hero or heroine is, and how they’re going to deal with whatever’s been thrown at them. We don’t usually give you a lot of “backstory” right away – that’s the information that you’re going to need in order to understand where the character is coming from. No, we’re going to dribble that information throughout the first couple of chapters (not pages!). Because nothing is more boring than reading through someone’s past history. Besides, we can hit you with some aspect of the character’s backstory when it’ll be really compelling.

 For example, maybe the hero had a harsh nanny or tutor. The author isn’t going to simply tell you that – we want you to understand what that part of his life was like by showing you how he reacts to the same kind of harshness in another situation. Or perhaps he has a terrible fear of something … the reader might know about it, but he’s reluctant to reveal it to the heroine.  The reader understands his conflict, but the heroine is blithely ignorant of it – until she gains a greater understanding of him and his character.

 So we want to hook you in the beginning of the book with something so compelling, you can’t help but keep reading. Maybe that will work best in a prologue. In a good prologue, the author can suck you into the story with a few pages that describe an earlier event, and then the reader has an idea about what’s at stake before the story even begins.

 In my October book, Taken by the Laird, I wrote a prologue that takes place in St. George’s Church in Mayfair – the fashionable place for weddings in the early nineteenth century. Only the villains appear in the prologue, and they’re waiting for the heroine (the intended bride) to appear. They show their true colors during that one scene, and it becomes clear why the heroine has slipped away and fled London during the night, just before her wedding.

In romance, a happy ending is essential.  And it’s not just that the hero and heroine get together. We like all the loose ends to be tied up satisfactorily. There is usually more than one plot thread running through every book, and most readers want to see them resolved. They want the villain to get his just desserts, and the hero and heroine to be well on their way to perpetual bliss. 

However, the book might be part of a series. The murderer might not always be caught, or the gang dispersed, or the ghost destroyed…Maybe there’s a serial killer who wasn’t caught and will make his appearance in future books. Even so, this hero and heroine are happy and secure. They don’t have to worry about that killer any more (although the next H & H are going to be in for it when the next book is released!) 

Sometimes we write an epilogue. When there’s a sequel coming, the epilogue can foreshadow troubles to come. If it’s not part of a series, it can give the reader a taste of what happens with the hero and heroine after the dust has settled, after their issues have been resolved and they’ve made their commitment to each other. Maybe it covers the action that occurs right after the story, or it can be years later. 

Taken by the Laird has an epilogue, and it takes place in St. George’s Church, right where the prologue was set. The main characters are the hero and heroine, although it is not their wedding. Even so, it gave me the purest feeling of satisfaction to make the prologue and epilogue resonate together, I’m not sure how many readers will notice. And that doesn’t really matter. The epilogue ties up every question that was raised in the book and answers it to the reader’s satisfaction. I hope.  

What do you all think of prologues and epilogues? Like them? Hate them? Which kind do you like and dislike?