Thread: Prologues.

What are members thoughts on Prologues in Novels?

Are they a legitimate method of introduction, or are they a lazy Pre-Chapter 1?

The reason I ask is, I was thinking of having a prologue of sorts in my WIP to intoduce my fictitious British intelligence and law enforcement agency.

I've looked a some press pack releases of some real British agencies, such as SOCA, and I modelled a fictitious press release in a simmilar format, and I was thinking of using that as an introduction of sorts, but does that qualify as a prologue?

As an example:

From the ISIS Press Release Pack.

ISIS (Intelligence and Security Investigative Service)

The Intelligence and Security Investigative Service (ISIS) is an Intelligence and Law Enforcement Executive Non-Departmental Public Body in the United Kingdom which has full operational independence from the British Government.

Whilst the Home Secretary sets the Service's priorities, appoints its leadership (A Director-General), and provides funding, the Service independently determines how to best execute their mission.

That mission being, 'To gather and act upon intelligence in order to prevent crimes or acts which threaten the National Security of 'The Realm' (The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, its Protectorates and Territories)'.

ISIS officers are generally recruited from other Intelligence and Law Enforcement agencies within the United Kingdom (based on specific required skill sets), such as; The Territorial Police Forces (eg. The Metropolitan Police, Strathclyde Police, The Police Service of Northern Ireland, etc), The Special Police Forces (Ministry of Defence Police, Serious Organised Crime Agency, British Transport Police, Civil Nuclear Constabulary), The Service Police (Royal Military Police, RAF Police, Royal Navy Police), The Security Service (MI5), The Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), and Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).

ISIS has a broad range of powers within its remit including those to; gather intelligence, investigate, arrest and detain.

It must be made clear that whilst ISIS officers are attested as Constables in all geographic areas of the 'The Realm', ISIS is not a Police Force, and can only execute its powers in cases relating to its mission remit.

All ISIS field officers are trained in the use of firearms, and are routinely armed in action of their duties. Field Officers are issued, as standard, with SIG Sauer P229R semi-automatic sidearms. ISIS officers adhere to and comply with current standard Home Office procedures relating to the use of firearms by Police Officers.

Further details can be found via the ISIS website: www. isis.gov.uk

Start a book -- especially a thriller/crime novel -- with an info dump (which is precisely what you've outlined above) and most people will toss it to one side. A prologue, contrary to popular usage, is not a place to throw in back-story or bombard a reader with the minutiae of a particular facet of your novel. Properly used, they present a timeline not concomitant to the main story but relevant nonetheless. Say, to stay in the mould of thrillers, a car bomb which killed the wife of your main character six months before the main story. That sort of thing.

Don't info-dump on page one. Start your novel with a bang and weave in back-story later on. You could have, say in chapter five, an official "eyes only" document faxed to one of your MCs detailing all of the above.

I get your point, but a press pack is hardly likely to be 'Eyes Only'.

Maybe I wasn't very clear in my post above (which is probably my fault).

I'm not planning a prologue as such. I plan to start the narrative with Chapter 1, and the murder of my protagonists best friend in a drive by shooting.

I just thought it would be useful, prior to Chapter 1 to have a one page introduction to the group which employs the protagonist by way of a press pack release from ISIS to allow readers to have an idea about the type of work my protagonist carries out, as ISIS is a fictitious organisation.

That's fine, but you don't want that as your opener. No reason why you can't weave that it somewhere in chapter two or three. If it's a press release, have a newspaper clipping with the headline: LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENT JOINS I.S.I.S.! Then, you can insert all the information you want in the article.

A lot of people will tell you not to use prologues. One of the reasons why is because readers invariably skip them. They see them as an add-on and skip straight to chapter one. You need to keep that in mind. No point in detailing ISIS in the prologue if only ten percent of your readers ever read it.

Is the proposed prologue necessary for the reader to understand the action/events in chapter one?

Sometimes prologues are proper and beneficial, but if the information can be woven into the storyline at relevant times, the reader will have something to anchor the infomation to, rather than have to remember back from page one.

Terry

I always skip prologues. Having said that, don't call it a prologue, and I'll probably read it. Sam's comments on info-dumpery most definitely apply though.

They can be useful. And what you're talking about isn't really a prologue per se, I would say. I'd consider it more of a tag or teaser, like a novelist opening the book with some verses of poetry or lyrics or a dictionary entry or some such.

I'd say it's a workable way to go. There's no reason to call it a prologue.

I had a bunch of agents and their usual batch of undergrad reader geeks go nuts over a prologue in my second novel...two long, not really a prologue, yada yada.
I changed "PROLOGUE" to "GUADALAJARA 1986" or some such and never got shit for it again.

I think some sort of profound or poetic prologue is fine if that's the style of the book. But anything resembling an info dump/background stuff is lazy writing in my opinion. The actual story should give all this at a pace suited to the story.

I usually read books after my wife has read them, so I will ask her, "Do I need/want to read the prologue?"

My problem with prologues is they tend to give away information that I would prefer not to know. Then again sometimes they enhance the reading, such as a prologue to tell me that the book is based on a true event, or tell me a bit about the inspiration for the writing of the book.

Yours I'm not sure. It may be too dry to begin your novel, but it seems like it should go in there somewhere.

I have a hard enough time forcing myself to read introductions, prefaces, and such in non-fiction. I don't write them either, something else publishers have just had to learn to live with. Let one of those college kids write something to stick on the front if your not comfortable starting cold with chapter one.

Lin's idea of calling it something else is good. That I would read. 'Prologue' I would not.

I have never understood the weirdness about prologues.

People buy a book, then decide not to read part of what the writer thought was part of what he was writing. But might read it if it was called something other than one particular word?

I don't get it.

An autobiography I ghosted a few years ago was a source of frustration because of its introduction. A person starting on page one and reading through to page - hold on a second while I check - page 369 would have the complete story of the subject's life up to the time the book was written. But the publisher insisted there had to be an introduction. So the job was farmed out to someone who wrote a lot of meaningless, boring, inaccurate drivel. I doubt that anyone reading that introduction would have been interested in going on to read the book. That introduction was dropped in the second edition and replaced with a very short preface written by the subject himself with a little help from me.

That is why I will spend money for a book and not read some of what's between the covers. If it's important, it's in the book proper. If it's not important enough to be there then it's not vital to the book.

Often when I've finished a book I'll go back and read the acknowledgements. These can be revealing.

Throw it in there, don't call it a "prologue" (especially since it is not), and leave it out of your query package. You can argue with your editor about keeping it later.