Apr 12, 2025
Your story has potential! But one thing is that it's a bit hard to get invested from the beginning when it's mostly exposition.
Putting background information in the prologue is fine. But I'd recommend changing up chapter one. This is technically the first impression readers have of your world.
An easy way would be to have the chapter open with describing exactly what Rowan did to anger the king (as opposed to narrating it distantly in the prologue).
An example;
A man stepped boldly from the crowd, eyes dark with righteous fury. "You are no king of mine!"
A hush fell over the crowd, nobles and peasants alike gasping and whispering to one another. King Alaric, high on his throne, turned a deep shade of red. "Who dares speak so of their king?!"
Etc, etc. It's a stylistic choice. But when the story is presented as pure narration, it's hard to follow along (especially given that it's a lot about... Taxation and political upheaval. Which can be very dry concepts if not properly tempered by engaging interactions.
