Writer's Fallout Shelter

To be honest prologue shouldn't be used as a "last time on ___ ....". If the story is a sequel it is unneccessary. If the story is the first or a stand-alone then how can it possibly be a synopsis a previous tale?

You're absolutely right. It shouldn't happen, but it does. A lot.

As for for the "how", it doesn't matter if it's the first book or the fifith. The problem occurs when a writer attempts to set the stage for the current story by introducing an overlaod of backstory in a prologue, it comes across as a lazy info dump. Usually, the "last time I was..." prologue vehicle is used to set up (semi-)related events in later portions of the story. That's not to say backstory can't be intro'd in a prologue, but it requires skillful manipulation to make it work correctly.

According to conversations with a couple of agents and a former publisher at Bantam Books, about half of the manuscripts they see today are first installment s of projected series. Many new writers, according to those sources, attempt to introduce back-story in the prologue via the "last time I was on... in, around, behind, on top of, etc..." device. More often than not, it fails.

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