Mi's Writing Classroom: Lesson 7 [Plot Process] Prologue (Part 1)

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The author of this article まろ is the author of the light novel “Southern Cross”. He hopes to use his own experience to help more friends write good stories. Thank you for authorizing the “Content Hacker” website to reprint it. Thank you hereby.

The importance of the beginning of the story not only serves as the initial introduction to the whole play, but most importantly, it lays the initial foreshadowing and echoes the ending.

Recently, netizens have been asking me about “how to write good novels”. Therefore, I organized my experience in writing light novels into 34 themes, divided into three stages: [Preparation Assignment], [Plot Process] and [Writing Management].

Whether you want to write a novel, a biography, or a business history, these articles can help. No matter what your writing level is, I will help you complete a work in the two stages of [preparation] and [plot flow]!

This unit quotes the unique insights of Bangbangtang Creative Marketing. I would like to express my gratitude to Teacher Elton for building a bridge between written communication and psychology.

A good prologue should quickly synchronize the situation with the reader, provide necessary information, and appropriately hint at the direction of the story.

haven’t seen you for a long time! Welcome back to the [Writing Classroom] unit! Lesson 7 [Prologue] is the first lesson in the [Plot Process] stage, and it is also the beginning of our actual construction of the story. Please study with me! Before proceeding, it is recommended that you check from “まろ’s writing classroom tag” whether you have read the content of lessons one to six. If you don’t want to create a fantasy story, you can skip Lesson 5 (Part 1).

After entering the practical course, you will need more practice, which is indispensable! After publishing “Want to write a story? Or want to try story marketing? [Writing Classroom] The column is your good partner! 》(Link)After that, I got responses from some friends. The sentence that impressed me the most was “I think your course design is very good and complete, but I’m still worried that I won’t be able to learn it.” In fact, if you feel that the 34 themes I proposed are “very complete”, it means that you can use these 34 themes to analyze a certain play in your memory. But analysis is one thing, creation is another, right?

Throughout the [plot process] stage, I will analyze the first season (episodes 1 to 4) of my own work “Southern Cross” and conduct a short story exercise. Please be sure to follow along and practice! Then let’s get started! !

_Midsummer. The blue night that had just arrived was too late to take away the scorching heat in the wind. The wind chimes and the chirping of cicadas are silent, releasing a sense of laziness in the air. The boy was taking a nap in the Japanese-style wooden corridor, leaning against the wall and the low cabinet in the corner. At this time, Aoi’s phone rang. _

The first line of the opening line of “Southern Cross” is an empty scene, explaining the season and climate at the time in the shortest possible length to present the overall atmosphere. Although there is not much statement about the scene, the sense of life seems to be modern. The above is the most superficial purpose.

Have you ever wondered why there are so many fairy tales where the first sentence is “a long time ago”? Because the author is “synchronizing” with you. To be more precise, it is through “synchronized life experience” to achieve the purpose of quickly entering the story situation.

Therefore, in this opening scene, I synchronize you with a typical summer experience and put the boy, our protagonist, in a virtual situation constructed from your memories. Of course, this is the safest way to write it, and it cannot be called very unique. But it is the most important basic skill that you must learn.

_“Wow!” The boy who stood up in a hurry fell down. “I…my feet are actually numb! How long have I been waiting for?!” The boy’s incredible whine and phone ringing echoed throughout the small two-story building. _

This short paragraph establishes the dull and stupid image of the protagonist. Also, by waiting until his feet were numb, it hinted at his hesitancy and dedication.

_“Ah…Hello, Sahara family. Ayuya? Yes, I’m waiting for your call…eh?” The boy who answered the phone immediately used a friendly and cheerful tone and expression, but was suddenly stunned. “Is that so… Sure enough, it still doesn’t work? It doesn’t matter. Let’s hang out together when you come back to town!” The young man couldn’t hide his lonely expression, but he still managed to smile.

“Well, I will go to the festival, and I will snatch all the snacks you like! Then I will take pictures of you eating them! Envy! Wow hahahahaha!!” He laughed exaggeratedly, as if telling the girl on the other end of the phone, “It’s okay, don’t worry, I will be happy alone.” _

According to the book “Let the Hero Save the Cat First” (https://www.books.com.tw/products/0010659803?utm_source=vista&utm_medium=ap-books&utm_content=recommend&utm_campaign=ap-201807), this paragraph is the “first challenge” that the protagonist encounters. The challenge is small, as mundane as rescuing a cat. But we can learn from the fact that even if he feels disappointed, he will still consider the other person’s feelings and even make jokes to comfort the other person. At this point, we have been “hinted” to the protagonist’s most important trait - gentleness. In order to make the protagonist more humane, he has an expression that cannot hide his loneliness, which also “synchronizes” with our own life experience.

You may have noticed the two important points of “synchronization” and “hint”. Basically, any sentence is synchronicity or implication, and all our articles are composed of synchronization and implication. The main function of synchronization is to hook the reader’s life memory and make your statement have a direct and strong connection with him or her; while the main function of suggestion is to indirectly persuade the reader to believe in the point of view you convey.

“It is better to stand up and act than to sit down and talk.” This proverb is a good explanation. Instead of using a lot of adjectives to describe how gentle your protagonist is, use an event that your readers have experienced to describe how your protagonist reacts.

The distribution of synchronization and suggestion will have an impact on the rhythm of the plot. We will talk about this later in [Lesson 9: Plot Rhythm].

_“Well, bye…” “Beep…beep…beep…beep…beep…” The boy who calmed down as the conversation ended was reluctant to put down the microphone in his hand. The only sound in the room was the beeping sound coming from the microphone.

“Before the summer vacation ends, I want to have unforgettable memories together, but I still can’t say it.” The young man smiled bitterly and could only hang up the phone. The air cooled down quietly, and the wind and time flowed quietly. Together with the unspeakable thoughts, they drifted to the other end of the corridor. _

At this time, we get the second trait of the protagonist - cowardice. This is the first foreshadowing of the whole story, implying that “unforgettable memories” will definitely happen to him before the summer vacation ends. The prologue serves as the beginning of the whole story, and even in a broad sense, the beginning of each section and chapter is also a foreshadowing, but the degree of hinting is different. (If you forget the definitions of sections, chapters, and chapters, please see [Lesson 6: Narrative Methods and Storyboards (Part 1)])

Foreshadowing means deliberately placing clues to give the reader a hint of what is about to happen. Therefore, the foreshadowing must be deliberate enough to be “somewhat conspicuous and arousing suspicion”, otherwise it will just be a mere hint. We will explain it in detail in [Lesson 12: Foreshadowing].

_That’s the door of Sawara’s house. Outside the frosted glass, many figures were walking around. Today was the summer festival, and most of the townspeople would go there. For young people in the town, it is a day second only to Valentine’s Day, Christmas and White Day. There is a rumored urban legend that young lovers go to the shrine on the slope to ring bells and pray on this day. If they make the same wish by coincidence, the two of them will be happy. _

It wasn’t until this narrative that I saw through the perspective of the protagonist turning his head to look at the door, making it clear that his world view is the same as ours. There is a small foreshadowing in this paragraph (there is a rumor… to get happiness), but it is not very important. The key point is “Don’t rush to state the world view at the beginning, but follow the protagonist’s vision into the world view.”

_“Let me think about it, she seems to always leave town during holidays and weekends. Who is she going to visit? Last year’s festival was the same, and the year before that, and the year before that…” When he reached the third finger, the boy’s expression stopped. ”…At least she always said that she just wanted to go to the festival with me, Satsuki and me.” Recalling this sentence, the young man finally smiled. _

Why do you think he smiles? Don’t look down yet, give it a try for a few minutes.

Because he found a glimmer of hope from the severe failure experience. To put it bluntly, at this moment, the protagonist likes his childhood sweetheart Ayuha, but he can’t say it out loud. Ah…why emphasize “at this moment”? Because in this story, the protagonist will be attracted by another new girl who appears on the scene. This is the real main axis of this story - the reunion between the protagonists Sahara and Yizhi.

‘After spring, if we all get admitted to the university in town, then we can go to the festival together again. 』

_It’s just that the girl’s grades are very good, which is a world of difference compared to the boys. Maybe a boy will be the last to enter a university in the town, but a girl will probably be admitted to a top university in the city that is envied by everyone. Then it is natural to have a boyfriend who will work in a first-class company in the future, which is better than an ordinary teenager living in a small house. _

_Sighed, the boy still managed to put on a smile. _

“I’m going out───”

This section is the opening of the branch plot, even earlier than the opening of the main plot. Rather than describing what an outstanding girl Ayuha is, it is more important to contrast how ordinary a boy the protagonist is. The protagonist’s slowness, gentleness, mediocrity and low self-esteem will become the most important cornerstone of the main story to prove the premise of this story─

Can the ordinary boy Zuo Yuan Tetsu, through his own efforts, defeat the equally gentle and rich and handsome god-level rival A Guang and become the only one for the heroine Yizhi?

In this seemingly harmless opening, I described the stalemate in the relationship between the protagonist and his childhood sweetheart Ayuha, and revealed a glimmer of hope. But the cruel thing is that the protagonist’s dedication is about to be tested.

To convince your readers, you don’t just show your protagonist’s positive qualities, you also have to test him rigorously to convince your readers. Zuo Yuan’s dedication means that Yizhi, who comes to reunite with him, will be very painful at first. But being devoted is not a bad thing, we can agree that this is the dilemma we are about to face. OK. This is explained in detail on pages 1 to 3 of “Southern Cross”. Well, really, we’re only on page three (laughing). This is the opening within the opening, the prologue within the prologue, and in the next lesson [Determining the Main Direction of the Prologue (Middle)], we will quickly take a bird’s-eye view of the important sections from pages 4 to 42 to let you understand how they constitute the prologue of the entire story─“Southern Cross” Chapter 1.

In the [plot flow] stage, I will use my own light novel “Southern Cross” as a teaching material. If you want to study in depth, you can collect this novel book and look at every sentence with the attitude of “Why does Yu write like this?”, and you will grow faster.

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You can visit Blog (link) or [Kingstone Online Bookstore (link)](https://www.kingstone.com.tw/book/boo k_page.asp?kmcode=2018611603983&lid=search&actid=wise) to purchase this book, or refer to the version of Online Serial (Link). Our next course progress will explain all the content of the first chapter, which is pages 4 to 42 of the novel book. I hope you can preview it first.

It’s hard to imagine that so many ideas can be conveyed in just three pages, isn’t it? That’s the beauty of stories. Storytelling is not about convincing people with reason, but about throwing various straight balls, curve balls, and changing balls at readers, sometimes directly, sometimes implicitly, to convey the author’s ideas. Okay, let’s see you next time at [Determining the main direction of the prologue (middle)] (click to read)!

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Further reading

• Misaki’s Writing Classroom: Lesson 7 [Plot Process] Prologue (Part 2)
• Misaki’s Writing Classroom: Lesson 7 [Plot Process] Prologue (Part 2)
• Want to write a story? Or want to try story marketing? [Writing Classroom] The column is your good partner!

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