I’ve seen several posts on forums warning against using prologues. Personally, I don’t mind them as long as they serve a purpose. Since many of the suspense novels I’ve read include them, I decided to analyze what makes a prologue a useful tool rather than a useless appendage.
A good prologue provides information that can’t be included elsewhere as effectively. It shouldn’t turn into an information dump, but it can give essential facts regarding something that occurred in the past. (For more help on back story, click here.) It can even be written in the future, by a character that relates past events in the following chapters.
It can be useful in fantasy or science fiction where the setting is too complex to introduce gradually. Readers might get confused or bored if all the world building occurs within the first few chapters, leaving them wondering what the actual story is about. A short prologue, showing some occurrence that illustrates the setting, society, or other essential element, can clarify what type of world the main story takes place in.
Prologues give the author the chance to start a story at two different points. There may be an event that is separate, but critical to the reader’s understanding of the plot. For example, a murder may have taken place when the main character was a child, but the story itself is about that person as an adult. Or, the prologue may be written from a secondary character’s point of view, with the following chapters told from the protagonist’s viewpoint. Sometimes this is useful to show a villain planning something that will occur later; the characters don’t know about it, but the reader can anticipate what is going to happen and recognize clues throughout the book.
When a prologue is essential to the story, make sure it has a hook of its own and is clearly distinct from the first chapter. Keep it short and interesting. You can leave it open-ended, but it has to have any loose ends tied up somewhere in the novel. If the plot is understandable without a prologue, one should not be used.
Can you think of other times a prologue might be useful? Do you read them, or skip them?
Edit October 22, 2009: I found an interesting post by Agent Nathan Bransford on when to use prologues. Click here for his advice.
Edit February 4, 2010: Agent Kristin Nelson posted about why she doesn’t like prologues today on her blog. Click here to read.
Edit March 23, 2010: Agent Scott Eagan posted today about prologues, especially in romantic suspense (my genre). Definitely not including one in my novel. Click here to read.
Sometimes I read them, sometimes I don’t. If it’s a mystery, then you better read the prologue, as they tend to be major set up pieces for the whole. I think it’s funny how we are constantly told DON’T DO A PROLOGUE, but if you check out a bookstore more books probably have them than don’t – particularly in gene fiction. Literary, or mainstream, fiction seems to do without them.
It just goes to show there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to writing. You just have to find what works on a case by case basis.
~jon
I agree. Nearly every book I’ve read this year, other than the ones I review for Thomas Nelson, is in the suspense genre as that’s what I’m working on. The majority of them have prologues. I’m still not sure if I’ll use one or not. At this point I think I’ll go without and see what my agent prefers (yes, I’m thinking positive today 🙂 )
Carol
I just got back from the bookstore where I did a little testing. I randomly pulled 19 titles off the shelves to see if they used prologues or not. Most were new release hardback SF&F, a few paperback mysteries, and one new release trade paperback from the front of the store. It came out about 50/50 – ten without and nine with. Go figure.
~jon
You make a good point about clarifying the world of the story in the prologue. I wrote something similar this week since I’ve been struggling with whether to include a prologue. I think it is an easy enough change to make later on, though, to shift it to chapter 1 or leave it out altogether. Nice post! I’m going to link to it.
Ivy
Ivy, thanks for the link. Your blog post on prologues makes good points, too. I’ll be back to read more of your posts at Follow Your Gnose later.
Carol
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I have a question: Should you use a prologue in the first book of a series, if the questions it raises isn’t answered until the last book of the series? I’ve been considering removing the prologue from the first book, and adding it to the last book instead.
It’s a fantasy series, btw. Anyway, thanks for this great post and the wonderful follow-up postings about other articles to check out. I’ll have to visit this blog more often! Have a great day, and happy writing!
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Reblogged this on Minion Central and commented:
This is essential reading.
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Prologues are always something that give me trouble. When reading I always read the prologue (or start it) though I don’t pay it as much attention as the official ‘chapters’, The Host (Stephenie Meyer) is the first example that comes to mind. The Host is a really really good book, one of my favourites, but the prologue is something that doesn’t grip you from the get go, I struggled to get into the book for this reason but when I skipped the prologue I soon became hooked. After I’d finished the book however, I went back and read the prologue again and it was infinitely more interesting and I understood exactly why it was needed. It provides important background information for the basis of the novel, but it’s written from a different perspective to the rest of the book so could not have been used as a chapter 1 neither could it have been incorporated within the rest of the book as it gave a new perspective on the main protagonist. When writing, I always tend to write a prologue, just to set the scene for myself and most of the time I will end up merging into the rest of the story-line. They’re very useful when if you need to include background information, especially in fantasy/sci-fi works where the world is completely original and unknown to the reader, in this case a prologue gives the reader the history if they need it and they know where it is if they need to refer to at any point i the novel (Tolkien’s books are a good example of this). It’s also useful when adding an omniscient perspective or overview to the novel.
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