This is my idea for the new prolog to the novel. Jessica thinks that I need to give people a warning to let them know that the writing style is a little strange… because it was written by an alien… so I came up with this. I don’t know if this clears things up or makes it worse, and I haven’t really edited it fully. So tell me what you think…
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Prologue
I would like to take credit for writing this story, but the truth is that I did not. I realize that by placing my name on it I seem to be taking credit for its authorship, and I do apologize for that. In my own defense I feel justified in claiming some ownership because in a way, this story is about me. Oh, it isn’t about the me that is writing these words in this time and place, but if I am not mistaken, the hero of this story is another me from another reality.
I realize how confusing this must be to you. It certainly confused me when I first began to try to understand it all. And the story itself, not just the details surrounding it, is strange and a little mystifying.
For one thing, it seems to have been written by an alien. And as if that wasn’t difficult enough to take in, the alien in question has a tendency to ramble on and then suddenly veer from the course of his own narrative to go shooting off in some completely new direction. He also has a penchant for leaving important details out and then coming back to them at a later time, at least when he isn’t going into incredible depth of detail over some seemingly insignificant bit of information.
If you can manage to make it past these idiosyncrasies the story is absolutely incredible. Moreover, I believe that every word of it is true.
Perhaps I should begin at the beginning.
The manuscript containing this story showed up on my front porch about a year and a half ago. Someone dropped it off, rang the doorbell, and then disappeared. It arrived wrapped in a large leather pouch. I am assuming that the pouch was some type of leather, although unlike any that I have ever seen For one thing, it was a deep, rich purple color. I don’t mean that it was dyed or otherwise colored purple. I mean the skin of whatever beast the strangely textured hide came from was actually purple.
The paper on which the story was written was likewise otherworldly, and I do not use that word lightly. The paper, if paper it was, was a bright, shiny white and was thinner than any tracing paper, and yet I could not tear it with my bare hands. It could be cut with sharp scissors, but it would not burn even when held in the flame of a candle, nor would it be dirtied by the soot of the smoke.
The words themselves, in English, were written by hand. But as I have stated, I have come to believe that the hand that wrote them was not the hand of a human being. The ink used was red, and glowed with a faint inner light. You can, in point of fact, read them in a completely darkened room.
As you read the story you will come to understand that the narrator is describing events that he actually witnessed and yet he takes no active part and the participants in the story seem to be unaware of him. I am convinced that the being who wrote these words did indeed observe all the events that transpired without being a part of them, if that makes any sense at all.
Of course I thought this was all some elaborate hoax when I received the package, a practical joke being played on me by some particularly clever friend. But I rapidly understood, as the miraculous properties of the ink and paper made themselves known to me, that this was not the answer to this mystery.
Once I began to read the words themselves, scrawled in a beautifully flowing script, I ceased to worry about the origins of the documents and became instead enthralled by the story itself. Oh, the style of the storytelling can be trying but once you get past that, the story begins to sweep you along. You are floating on a raft in a river of words, and you begin to wonder what strange places this magical river will meander to next. Yes, you get delayed by swirling currents or sidetracked into small tributaries, but even these diversions from your journey offer panoramic vistas or unexpected delights. They add to the adventure rather than detract from it, and you never know when something that you learned during one of these interludes will become important later in your voyage.
The story is like a river in one other way. As it progresses it becomes deeper and wider and swifter in its passage. The journey becomes ever more exciting as you pass through rapids and dodge jutting rocks. And if, as I believe, it all actually happened, or will happen, or is happening, then there is hope for all of us. And I don’t just mean all of us here on this planet.
I found this hope in the hero of the story who happens to share my first name, and if he is real, a great deal more than that. Oh, on the face of it he is a most unlikely hero. He is over 50 years of age. He works as a custodian on an alien space station and is in no way important or even special. He isn’t particularly strong or brave or clever or smart. He is, when you get right down to it, quite reluctant to take on the role of hero, and yet take it on he does despite his feelings. And in a strange way that is the most heroic thing about him.
He is lazy, sarcastic, irreverent, irritable, stubborn, self-centered and quirky. But he can be funny and charming, loyal and even brave when it is required. But he also refuses to take himself too seriously, and this goes a long way towards making up for his less than stellar qualities. He may well be, as I said, the most unlikely hero ever born of our species, and yet somehow that just seems to make him more human.
It slowly dawned on me, as I began to read about this other Arthur, that he was in fact me. There are facts in the story that only someone who knows me intimately could possibly know. Many of the facts are just a little bit wrong, the details just a little bit different, but the similarities are overwhelming. This is me. But another me from another reality, another dimension.
I realize this is all hard to believe. I know that it requires you to accept as fact that there are endless otherwheres and otherwhens and countless other yous out there. I was forced just then to use words that do not exist to try to get you to accept the existence of places that do exist but that you can not see or touch. If you cannot bring yourself to see the truth in all this, I cannot blame you. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to believe either.
But once I got past all that, and I accepted the fact that we are not alone, that the universe is populated with a multitude of other beings, and that this isn’t the only universe, I began to realize that being alone on our planet is much worse than being a part of a much larger family. And not only you, but each and every one of those beings out there around us also has their own endless version of themselves in other universes, universes quite like ours and universes so different that we would recognize not one bit of them.
It is that very endlessness that gives me hope. Because endlessness, by definition, never ends. And that means that we will never end, no matter what befalls us in this reality that is all that we know.
So believe or not as you choose, but the aliens will find us sooner or later. They will come and most of them will be friendly. And if some of them are not friendly, just know that somewhere out there is a man named Arthur who has a way of keeping bad things from happening.
A. H. Browne
*Author’s note*
I am fairly sure that I am not the only me to get a copy of this manuscript. That other me, the one around which this story centers, now has the ability to cross between realities. I think that he is giving the story to as many other hims, or us’s, as he can in his spare time. I am not entirely sure of his motives. It might be his way of telling us that momentous events are coming our way. But I suspect that the main reason he is doing it is that he just thinks it’s funny.
Pouring My Art Out 
You had me until “scrawled in a beautifully flowing script”. 🙂
Is that not grammatically correct or just… hey wait a minute.
Sorry, it’s the content editor in me.
You are not content with my content?
You’re full of it. Content, I mean. 🙂
So what was wrong with that sentence? I really want to know… and good one, by the way.
Well, generally speaking, when someone scrawls, it’s neither beautiful or flowing. It’s sloppy and haphazard at best.
I can accept that… because I think I do that…
*nor
Oh… another one???
Wait, do you not like a nor I threw in, or are you editing your last comment…???
Editing my last comment.
Really? Because I am sure I used a nor in that prologue somewhere.
A well placed nor is a true sign of a sophisticated writer.
It was not my first nor, nor will it be my last.
Oooooh, a DOUBLE nor! I’m impressed!
It is neither here nor there, hither nor yon, day nor night, dusk nor dawn… That rhymed and had four nors.
Don’t get cocky. (And I know, that opens things up for a world of responses, but do try for the high road.)
Oh, you take the low road, and I’ll take the high road, and I’ll be in Scotland before ye!
scrawl
[skrawl]
verb (used with object)
1.to write or draw in a sprawling, awkward manner: He scrawled his name hastily across the blackboard.
verb (used without object)
2. to write awkwardly, carelessly, or illegibly.
noun
3. awkward, careless, or illegible handwriting.
4. something scrawled, as a letter or a note.
You have made your case…
Arthur, I liked this quite a bit. It is your book, you are self-publishing, and the beauty of that is that you can do whatever you want. Your prologue can be as short or as long as you want it to be.
If you would care to shorten this, I can see a few easy changes that might have a good impact. Drop everything at the beginning, and start at this point: “The manuscript containing this story showed up on my front porch …. ”
Drop this paragraph completely: “He is lazy, sarcastic, irreverent, irritable, stubborn, self-centered … ” Your readers will enjoy discovering all of this about the hero as they read.
Making those two changes will result in a shorter prologue, but still have a good overall punch of information.
Take my suggestions with a grain of salt though, because I freely admit to bristling when someone once suggested I change *one word* in an opening paragraph. Remember, it’s your book, and you can do whatever you want.
This is brilliant… obviously you are not just another pretty cartoon face… Thanks so much. I will run it by my ‘publicist/editor/manager/ in both forms.
Wow… that really was not only good editing, but you explained it to me so that even I could understand it, and it made me think it would be better even with less of my own words.
Thank you for giving my thoughts a whirl. I’m always hesitant to suggest anything when It comes to the work of another. I find that many people want to offer suggestions based on how they would write, or how they think.
I try to look at work from a consumer standpoint. If I was reading this … if I bought this … what would be most pleasing to me as a reader. The line where the manuscript shows up on the front porch was the first line that 100% grabbed my attention.
This paragraph: “I found this hope in the hero of the story who happens to share my first name …” gives enough information about the hero to allow for removal of the next paragraph, which will allow the reader to enjoy finding these things out on his own.
What a neat premise, and I know I’m going to like your book, Arthur. And I’m still sayin’ — you can do whatever you want.
I tend to write what I like and then not worry about how it is taken. I mean this in a good way. I don’t write down to my readers. I assume they are smart and will get it. But I do like to let them discover it for themselves.
Ouch. I’m sitting on the fence. I LOVE this. But I’m not sure where it goes. At the end of the first section, it is nearly perfect just as written. It would be the perfect tease to make purchasing the following sections almost impossible to resist. As an introduction, it is indeed much too long. But I do agree with Jess that something of this sort would be excellent and very helpful, if not in fact actually a draw into the story when used at the beginning. Let me think about it.
It is really just a warning to people that the silly alien who wrote this story is a little vague on the rules of the English language. And to get them used to the fact that there are many universes besides this one. And that the aliens might be on their way.
I’m with Moosey on this; there is information in the prologue that doesn’t seem integral to the story.
Do you read your work aloud to yourself to get a sense of the flow? It’s a good tool for editing.
Sometimes the writer’s affection for a particular phrase or bit of information does not add to the story. When I have to edit something I’m particularly attached to I save for a future story.
In terms of describing what the reader will find in the novel, your prologue functions well and provides background.
I liked the idea of letting the reader discover that the narrator was an alien on their own. You just realize it after a few chapters. I could use this prolog at thye end of the novel or not at all. But Jess thinks its important… of course she hasn’t gotten aound to reading it yet…
Then this is an epilogue (after) which puts it in a completely different context. If it’s an epilogue then I don’t believe it will be necessary to edit much since it contributes to the reader’s final impression. There now you must feel a lot better!
Unless Jess likes it and thinks I need to use it first… I could go either way. If this scares people off they aren’t ready for the novel anyway.
I’m glad I left this on your porch.
wait… what??? Is it a flaming bag of poop???
Wait… I get it… the porch… the leather pouch… I am such a dumb ass.
So you are me??? Awesome. I knew It.
I think this is a great idea. The only thing I’d recommend is making it a bit shorter. As some people will read this and think “Wow this seems very interesting” others will read it and think “This seems really complicated” and not bother. I’d say shorten it a bit and people will have less reason to complain. Keep in mind, if you give people an excuse not to do something they always will.
I refuse to talk down to my readers. I mean, I see your point, and it is a good one, but if they can’t make it through this then they aren’t going to make it through the novel.
I love it!
I think it lets people know that it is going to be weird, and sort of lines up the story without giving too much away… and it is sort of funny… thanks Joe.
You are ridiculous 🙂
Does that mean it works or doesn’t work…???…
It FITS perfectly.
I get it… very clever. Thanks.