Color me confused and/or slightly grumpy.

[chase_acow]

Okay, so what is with all the epilogues in the Big Bangs this year? In a couple I've seen they tend to start a second after the last part ended and don't actually round any of the story up. They're not stylistically different from the rest of the piece either.

Is there a point besides the author trying to be "literary" or something? Which I find ironic because most of the agents and publishing sites I've been looking at seem to gag at the mere sight of a prologue or epilogue.

I don't have enough time or desire to read everything posted. Seeing 1) twice as many LJ posts as necessary for the word count and/or 2) an epilogue makes me awful leary and more likely to pass on reading a story. That's just my two cents though, and I'm sure that other people feel the exact opposite. I just wondered what other people thought about it.

I'm going back to my big bang as quick as I finish up my remix assignment today. I'm kinda looking forward to it being over.

Comments

[amalthia]

I'm not getting the Big Bangs this year either. I think epilogues are only to be used for example if the story jumps ahead 5 or 20 years to show a brief glimpse of the characters either dead or happily living together with kids or something. As it is, a lot of the big bangs feel unfinished and the epilogues aren't actually wrapping the story up.

[chase_acow]

I think you hit the nail on the head there. Maybe it just because there are so many stories and new authors this time around. Of course, I just might have a different process than others. I just figured that I'd write the story until it was finished, and then I'd stop. Epilogues seem to muddy the water.

[rhianona]

I only ever use epilogues if I want to jump ahead in time to either show a bit of the future and how thing are handled... or to jump start the sequel. Prologues are used by me to set things up. I'm doing that for my SGA big bang.

maybe people figure it's a long fic so they need to have an epilogue?

[domtheknight]

Huh. I agree with you about epilogues but I hadn't noticed it in any of the fics this year.

On the other hand, I've only read fics which were either highly rec'd or written by people whose stories I've read and loved before, because I'm low on time right now.

[chase_acow]

I don't know why the sudden influx of epilogue. I think that I can see it if the main story ends in a cliffhanger. Then it kinda feels more like a cut scene after the credits of a movie. The only time I haven't really been annoyed by a prologue was the Lord of the Rings. Too many times it just feels like an info dump and that bogs me down.

[rhianona]

No, I definitely get where you're coming from. I can think of a handful of fics... maybe - where it works. For the most part, it's done poorly.

[chase_acow]

I'm being a lot more selective now. I will not make myself keep reading if I feel like I'm wasting my time. I wish I could find some awesome new stuff, but it'll have to wait until August looks like.