Prologue

jeseymour · Nov 13, 2011

Prologues. Dead or not? Just got home from Crime Bake, where Michael Palmer says he still uses them and they do have a purpose. I could really use one for my manuscript (which needs to be longer, according to the editor I pitched to.) I didn't ask her thoughts on prologues, unfortunately. So, has anybody read anything new lately with a prologue?

DeleyanLee · Nov 13, 2011

It's the same as always: Prologues have a use. If you use it appropriately, then it works. If you don't, it sucks and you shouldn't use it. Like any other option for putting together a book.

Some readers will read them. Some readers won't.

After that, it's all :popcorn:

sheadakota · Nov 13, 2011

I can never understand why you wouldn't read a prologue. That just baffles me.

DocBrown · Nov 13, 2011

Me too. In fact, a prologue barely registers on my radar. In my mind, it's just a fancy name for chapter zero.

Eggle · Nov 13, 2011

I think prologues can give the reader an interesting angle on the setup. That frees you up to focus on the real story from ch 1 onwards

sheadakota · Nov 13, 2011

But the prologue is part of the REAL story- is it not? I mean how can it not be? This is what I do not understand.

jeseymour · Nov 14, 2011

In the case I'm thinking of, my reason for making it a prologue is that it is something that happened 20 years ago. It sets up the current story. It is also action packed, but it is backstory. It's important, but it doesn't fit the narrative.

ironmikezero · Nov 14, 2011

jeseymour said:
In the case I'm thinking of, my reason for making it a prologue is that it is something that happened 20 years ago. It sets up the current story. It is also action packed, but it is backstory. It's important, but it doesn't fit the narrative.

I think that's a perfectly good reason to use one. It sets a tone, hints at an element of motivation, and suggests an unresolved issue. Done well, it's a hook unto itself.

Jamesaritchie · Nov 14, 2011

If a prologue can be chapter one, it should be chapter one. A real prologue is always backstory, action that sets up the present story, but that isn't actually part of current action.

I don't think anyone with any sense at all skips a prologue. It's more something some writers, not readers, do just to show they're too sophisticated to read them, or some such silliness.

Many do believe that a prologue also calls for an epilogue.

cbenoi1 · Nov 14, 2011

There are alternatives to prologues.

> it is something that happened 20 years ago.

If the characters in the main storyline are in it, then it could be a flashback.

> It's important, but it doesn't fit the narrative.

A prologue is needed when a piece of information crucial to the story is set in a completely different context and timeline. Example: Templar knights hide a religious artefact, and a present-day character stumbles onto a clue to its location. Even this can be inserted in its own chapter just prior to when the information is needed. So it becomes a chapter like the other ones.

> I can never understand why you wouldn't read a prologue.

Many prologues in published works are just boring infodumps so some readers got into the habit of skipping them by name. Heck, call it Chapter 1 and get on with it.

Besides, calling it a prologue or Chapter 1 is something to be decided with the agent / editor. Not something to sweat bullets over.

-cb

jeseymour · Nov 14, 2011

cbenoi1 said:
There are alternatives to prologues.

Besides, calling it a prologue or Chapter 1 is something to be decided with the agent / editor. Not something to sweat bullets over.

-cb

Be nice to have that option. I don't.

cbenoi1 · Nov 14, 2011

> Be nice to have that option. I don't.

Would it be so damaging to your manuscript to call your prologue "Chapter 1"?

-cb

tarak · Nov 14, 2011

jeseymour - you haven't written it yet, correct? At the very least, it might be a good exercise to determine whether it should stay as a prologue, or if you can sprinkle the information throughout.

mccardey · Nov 14, 2011

A prologue isn't the same as Chapter One, though; or it shouldn't be.

I love a good prologue. It's like a little grounding fact between you and the story.

ETA: I read an astounding novel recently that had a preamble and a coda - which worked achingly well as part of the whole experience...

nibris · Nov 14, 2011

Are you going to be all campy about it and have a separate page titled Prologue? I always thought that was kind of tacky and what's the point? Essentially a prologue is just a good grabber that gets the reader intrigued enough to want to continue reading. There's nothing wrong with that simply being a "chapter 0", so to speak. I just read a book called Hidden Empire in which the first chapter is a precursor to everything that happens in the rest of the story, but it was just listed as chapter 1. Regardless of what you call it, it's pertinent to the story, so I don't see why it should have a separate title

mccardey · Nov 14, 2011

nibris said:
Are you going to be all campy about it and have a separate page titled Prologue? I always thought that was kind of tacky

Well, I guess you won me over with that argument. I'd hate to be tacky. Or, god forbid, campy ...

Architectus · Nov 20, 2011

I usually never read prologues, and thus don't write them.

Prologue

jeseymour

DeleyanLee

Writing Anarchist

sheadakota

part of the human equation

DocBrown

Hopes to one day write for food.

Eggle

Write or Wrong

sheadakota

part of the human equation

jeseymour

ironmikezero

practical experience, FTW

Jamesaritchie

cbenoi1

jeseymour

cbenoi1

tarak

for certain qualities of "sane"

mccardey

nibris

mccardey

Architectus