Thread: Prologues

Hi

What does everyone think of prologues? Personally I always hate reading the prologue to a book, it's like the author wants to delay the start of the story.

Anyway what exactly are they used for? Is it to set the mood or tone of the story, to give the reader an idea of the kind of book they are about to read?

I love prologues, actually; but only if it's good. I think a good prologue should give both insight and a taste of what the book will be like. It gives the opportunity to view the story from a broader angle, and foresight things that might come later. A good prologue sets a mood that a first chapter won't. A prologue in a horror story will scream "this will get bad" at you, and as you read the first chapter, you wonder "hey, when is this going to get serious?".

The prologue to my novel introduces a significant character who will be brought back into the book very late. I used the prologue to hint at his backstory so I would not have to do so later when the pace of the book is at it's peak. It also allowed me to 'hook' the reader with a promise of something significant and strange.

Hmm. I really can't recall reading a book with a prologue. That's helpful isn't it?

I have what many consider to be a bad habit. I don't read prologues. I open the book at chapter one and start reading.

I have a prologue to open my novel. I consider it to be an introduction to the book and, as an extension, the entire series.

Generally I don't care for them (prologues). I've found that normally just starting at chapter 1 is just fine to understand what's going on.

I added a prologue to my novel because the story begins in a universe that is likely quite alien to a significant portion of readers. Maybe it is kind of like when the curtain comes up on a play: you get some sense of context: place, time, and in the case of my book, the theme which is 'enlightenment'. The reader or the playgoer gets a feel or sense of relatedness to the work before the action starts. So I'd say a prologue is far from necessary but can enrich the reader's appreciation for what happens in the story.

I also skip over prologues. I do not understand what is better put in a prologue and not in chapter 1. I once started a book with a short foreword to explain a few things that the reader would need to know before they got into the story. The feedback I got was "Don't tell the reader that it will be a complicated read. They will put the book back on the shelf and never get hooked in chapter 1."

Originally Posted by C.M. Aaron

I also skip over prologues. I do not understand what is better put in a prologue and not in chapter 1. I once started a book with a short foreword to explain a few things that the reader would need to know before they got into the story. The feedback I got was "Don't tell the reader that it will be a complicated read. They will put the book back on the shelf and never get hooked in chapter 1."

The response you got is more towards exposition than a prologue or a forward. It's always a danger to force-feed your reader information right at the beginning of a novel. That's why they won't get hooked at the beginning.

As to a prologue being an unnecesary read, that's up to the reader. I can tell you this though, if you skip my prologue and start at the beginning of chapter one, you'll would probably find yourself a little confused by chapter two! Anyone who's taken a look at it will know what I mean!

Well, I rarely read a book on a whim -- it's usually on recommendation or based on something I've read etc., so even though I can't recall having read a book with a prologue, I really can't imagine skipping it. I would consider it part of the book -- so that seems kind of odd to me. But I don't think I'd hold it to a lower standard or give the author a pass if it didn't hold my attention.

JR's is a well done fiction prologue. It does what he says, setting wise, plus it has its own hooks and its own story and still sits at that perfect remove from the story proper. It also gives him a chance to blow up the voice in an engaging way that couldn't happen so rapidly in the initial main story development. This is probably the most important thing a prologue should do, establish the voice, make it enthralling. People who skip prologues might want to have a look at his to see what they could be missing. On the other hand, there's nothing worse than a bad prologue, except it lets you know it's okay to stop reading altogether.

Originally Posted by Terry D

The prologue to my novel introduces a significant character who will be brought back into the book very late. I used the prologue to hint at his backstory so I would not have to do so later when the pace of the book is at it's peak. It also allowed me to 'hook' the reader with a promise of something significant and strange.

Thanks. That is what I was thinking a prologue should do. I have written one for my book and what you say here is exactly what I imagine it should do.

Originally Posted by powerskris

I can tell you this though, if you skip my prologue and start at the beginning of chapter one, you'll would probably find yourself a little confused by chapter two!

In that case, it should probably be chapter one, and not a prologue. Lots of readers skip prologues on the assumption that if it was important it would be in chapter one.

Originally Posted by Robdemanc

Hi

What does everyone think of prologues? Personally I always hate reading the prologue to a book, it's like the author wants to delay the start of the story.

Anyway what exactly are they used for? Is it to set the mood or tone of the story, to give the reader an idea of the kind of book they are about to read?

A Prologue is too often misapplied and confused with a Foreword (eg, "to give the reader an idea of the kind of book they are about to read"), or an Introduction (eg, "to set the mood or tone of the story"); common among new unpublished writers are opening chapters incorrectly labelled as "Prologue"; common among reviewing editors, manuscripts beginning with an incorrectly applied "Prologue" are tossed aside without further review.

A prologue (or epilogue or interlogue) is not part of the story; it is separated from the story in both time and narrative style, and if they involve characters who appear in the main story, the main story characters are distinctly changed in time (often time-frozen or time-jumped, near death, undead, or otherwise immortal).

A prologue is a device to introduce a detail or context which would not appear in the main story, because it contains historical or cultural information which is either so well known it is taken for granted among the active characters (but not the readers), or detailed historical information which is unknown to the active characters ("lost in the mists of time").

Examples of prologues include the loss of the Ring some thousands of years, and its later claim (via murder) by Smeagol about 500 years before the main story begins (Lord of the Rings); and the crimes of Imhotep which led to his rather nasty not-quite-execution (The Mummy).

Other more contemporary prologues (and interlogues and epilogues) have been presented as newscasts or documentaries, the discovery of a book or diary or letters, or a later-in-life or deathbed scene involving confessions or reminiscences - these last are the most closely involved with the body of the story, but the scenes themselves remain quite separate in time and narrative style.