Length of prologue/chapter - Writers Forum

karax · 10-31-2007, 01:40 PM

How many words should a good prologue have? And how many words should a chapter need?

I'm now seriously writing a novel for the first time and I'm worrying I keep it too short

Taxiday · 10-31-2007, 05:42 PM

To my knowledge, there's no set number!
You write what you think covers the main point you're trying to get across. Some can be short and others long
I remember one book where a chapter was comprised of a single paragraph!

Sniper McGee · 10-31-2007, 06:05 PM

I agree. I've written prologues/chapters that are just a paragraph long and i've written some that could be considered books in of themselves.

-Bryce out

RomanticRose · 10-31-2007, 10:27 PM

Use the mini skirt rule -- long enough to cover the subject or convey the needed information; short enough to maintain interest.

Mike C · 11-01-2007, 02:19 AM

A good prologue should have no words.

Non Serviam · 11-01-2007, 04:22 AM

It's true that the shortest chapters consist of a single punctuation mark, and the longest consist of a whole book (Terry Pratchett famously doesn't use chapter breaks except in children's books).

More conventionally, chapters tend to be between 3,000 words and about 8,000 words long.

Prologues aren't always necessary. Writers tend to be the kind of people who read prologues in books, so writers often don't realise exactly how few other people read them... expect over half your audience to skip anything labelled "prologue".

There's a particular problem with the fantasy genre, where prologues are slowly becoming the normal way of beginning a novel, and writers are producing them as a matter of fashion or form rather than as a part of the story. This has led to some really atrocious prologues being published in fantasy.

Mike C · 11-01-2007, 04:27 AM

Indeed. I learned many years ago that 'prologue' was synonymous with 'incredibly boring infodump' and consequently either ignore them, or given the choice, won't buy the book in the first place. They're a lazy convention (for the most part) for writers who can't tell a story properly or want to bog the reader down in trivia.

Destroyer · 11-01-2007, 05:51 AM

Pratchett has done in his later books (Going Postal and onwards)

Generally I just use the prologue to get the readers hooked on the book with some important event. The infodump generally comes halfway through the book.

Mike C · 11-01-2007, 07:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Destroyer

Generally I just use the prologue to get the readers hooked on the book with some important event.

Then you risk losing readers, because many like myself skip the prologue. getting readers hooked is what chaper 1 should be about.

Falken · 11-01-2007, 08:37 AM

I think it's very dependent on what the prologue does in your work, like in my behemoth novel project the prologue is 8 A4 pages long. But really it's vital because the prologue explains a lot you need to know for the rest of the story to become good, this is because of a vast time skip. So a prologue can by how short or how long it needs to be, but as Mike C said you should really think so the length becomes just perfect for you work so you don't loose the readers interest there.

Mr Sci Fi · 11-01-2007, 09:51 AM

A good prologue should be able to be skipped by the reader and still allow him to understand what is going on in the story.

Using this method, you can nix the prologue altogether. Prologues are only interesting if the reader sees events through the eyes of the POV character, and if that's the case you can just change "Prologue" to "Chapter 1."

If you NEED a prologue in order for the reader to understand the story, then you have failed as a writer.

Faustling · 11-01-2007, 09:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RomanticRose

Use the mini skirt rule -- long enough to cover the subject or convey the needed information; short enough to maintain interest.

This is the best name for a rule ever. Regarding the topic at hand I rarely use neither prolouges nor chapters myself and like some of the others I've come to despise the info-dump-prolouge. Stay far away from that one.

RomanticRose · 11-01-2007, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faustling

This is the best name for a rule ever. Regarding the topic at hand I rarely use neither prolouges nor chapters myself and like some of the others I've come to despise the info-dump-prolouge. Stay far away from that one.

Thank you very much. I have to give credit to my college public speaking teacher for that one.

I don't use prologues or chapters when I am in the process of writing. Once it is done, the chapter divisions announce themselves pretty well. At least that is the way it works for me.

Rahvin · 11-01-2007, 03:24 PM

In my experience, a chapter/prologue should be however long it takes for you to say what it has to say. To use my story on here as an example, the prologue is less than a thousand words long (about a page and a half in Word), while Chapter 1 is about 9,000 words long. Chapter 1 had a lot to say, while the prologue only had to introduce two characters.

And I've seen info-dump prologues done well. They can work...

Falken · 11-01-2007, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Sci Fi

A good prologue should be able to be skipped by the reader and still allow him to understand what is going on in the story.

Using this method, you can nix the prologue altogether. Prologues are only interesting if the reader sees events through the eyes of the POV character, and if that's the case you can just change "Prologue" to "Chapter 1."

If you NEED a prologue in order for the reader to understand the story, then you have failed as a writer.

Yeah I guess you are right here, maybe my Prologue should be Chapter 1, my current Prologue introduces the history of a organisations rise that has the central role in the story. It's not a thing you tell in 1000 words or less, but maybe this should be Chapter 1?

You can read my story without the history bit, but from my own perspective I would just find it confusing to read something with no background information on what this is.
But I always seen the Prolouge in a book as a part of the whole, and not something i'm can just skip because why would it even be written if it's just an appendix?