Which side wins: a prologue that sets up the whole world, or jumping straight into action?

I had a beta reader tell me my first 30 pages were 'boring info dump' because I explained magic rules before the fight scene started. So I cut the prologue and dropped halfway into a chase, and suddenly people said it was gripping. But then 3 other readers said they felt lost without that background. Where's the real balance for a fantasy novel set in a city like Seattle?

2 comments

2 Comments

white.grant17d ago

Honestly, I did the same thing. Cut my prologue and never looked back.

william40717d ago

Did you ever read that bit from Stephen King in On Writing where he says you gotta kill your darlings and cut the setup? I tried that with my own fantasy story set in Portland, just threw readers right into a magic duel on a rainy street, and it worked way better than the five pages of system explanation I had before. The trick I found is you can slip in the rules through action and dialogue, like having someone shout "Don't let the rain touch your focus stone!" during the fight, which teaches the magic rule without stopping the story.