Have you ever skipped a prologue when starting to read a book?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Beach Bunny

The Provocative One
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 5, 2008
Messages
3,146
Reaction score
2,971
Location
Where angels fear to tread
To be honest, I've always read the prologue of a book. Until a few years ago, I didn't know there were people in the world who didn't read them and would automatically skip the prologue and start with Chapter 1. I was totally mystified as to why anyone would do this. Then I read a few really poorly written ones ..... All of them were in the Fantasy genre ... sigh .... Okay, now I understand why people skip them. :(

It happens in other genres as well, it just seems that the masters at writing really bad info-dump prologues write fantasy. And yes, as a reader, you would be pretty safe in skipping the prologue and starting with Chapter 1 in those stories. :(

So, read the prologue or not? Include one or not? Up until a few years ago, I would have said definitely "yes." Now, it depends somewhat on the genre of the book. I read the first few paragraphs. If it is an info-dump, then I skip it. :Shrug:
 

fullbookjacket

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 13, 2008
Messages
276
Reaction score
29
Location
Florida
I figure the prologue is included for a reason, especially for a novel. Therefore, I read it.

Prologues in non-fiction books often seem to be merely the rambling of some academic's self-important thoughts. When I read Mark Twain's "The Innocents Abroad" recently, the prologue was a 15-page exposition by some English professor telling me what Twain was trying to tell me. I wouldn't have minded so much if it was a 3-page effort.
 

mscelina

Teh doommobile, drivin' rite by you
Requiescat In Pace
Registered
Joined
Jan 18, 2007
Messages
20,006
Reaction score
5,352
Location
Going shopping with Soccer Mom and Bubastes for fu
If I write a prologue, it's for a specific reason. My novel is my play and I am its director. The readers are my audience. I use the prologue to set the stage, to relay the one event that instigated the action of the story. I set the mood, establish the narrative voice and jump start the plot. My readers can begin reading on the first page of chapter one if they so choose--that is their option.

But one doesn't go to the play to see only the second act. I read every word of a book because that's how the writer intended it to be read. A prologue is not an accident. It's the threshold of the story. Why ignore it?
 

Darzian

To-to-to-ron-to
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Messages
2,070
Reaction score
1,123
Location
Canada
Toothpaste summed it up nicely.
 

fullbookjacket

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 13, 2008
Messages
276
Reaction score
29
Location
Florida
Or maybe a prologue for non-fiction is rightly called an "introduction." I don't know. Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck...
 

Toothpaste

THE RECKLESS RESCUE is out now!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 18, 2006
Messages
8,745
Reaction score
3,096
Location
Toronto, Canada
Website
www.adriennekress.com
If I write a prologue, it's for a specific reason. My novel is my play and I am its director. The readers are my audience. I use the prologue to set the stage, to relay the one event that instigated the action of the story. I set the mood, establish the narrative voice and jump start the plot. My readers can begin reading on the first page of chapter one if they so choose--that is their option.

But one doesn't go to the play to see only the second act. I read every word of a book because that's how the writer intended it to be read. A prologue is not an accident. It's the threshold of the story. Why ignore it?

Ah but different art forms have their different constraints. So yes, as an audience member I am "forced" to watch your play from the beginning. But I am still free to choose what I wish to watch. You may want me watching the main acting centre stage, you may have spent weeks setting the scene, working with the actors on emotional memory, made the lighting just so, but if I so desire I will watch the girl in the background who isn't a part of the scene at all just being used as an extra to demonstrate the scene takes place on a busy street. You can't as a director come up to me and whisper "Um could you please watch the main action as opposed to the extras in the background please?"

I maintain that it is well and good for us as authors to create what we want and hope that our audiences see what we want them to. But it is not our right, nor is it entirely under our control. I suppose there is nothing wrong with feeling frustrated that readers don't do what we want them to, but it is out of our control and I'm not entirely sure what the point of debating it is except maybe to vent our frustrations.

I still think the energy is better spent elsewhere, but of course if it helps then who am I to judge.
 

mscelina

Teh doommobile, drivin' rite by you
Requiescat In Pace
Registered
Joined
Jan 18, 2007
Messages
20,006
Reaction score
5,352
Location
Going shopping with Soccer Mom and Bubastes for fu
LOL--trust me: I don't always write a prologue. The ones I do write are there for a reason--they're brief, action, and essential to the establishment of the main story line.

But as a reader I feel obligated *personally* to read what the author has written. That doesn't mean that the prologue is always necessary or essential to the forward progress of the plot. I'd like to think that the ones I have are but *shrug* I could be deluding myself.
 

Carmy

Banned
Joined
Dec 8, 2005
Messages
1,654
Reaction score
119
As Perka said: Never.

Sometimes Prologues are necessary to set the scene, if you're transported the reader to another time or another place.
 

Mad Queen

California Mountain Snake
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 5, 2008
Messages
676
Reaction score
122
Someone I know has a book by Jorge Luis Borges called Prologues with a Prologue of Prologues. I wonder what some people would do if forced to read it.
 

jennifer75

SupahStah!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
2,558
Reaction score
3,228
Location
So Cal
Thanks, Woodsie. So the question then seems to hover: would it be safer to make it chapter one? Insurance?

Maybe use it as the first scene in chapter one, then make an obvious scene break and continue on with the rest..... ?
 

CheshireCat

Mostly purring. Mostly.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 27, 2007
Messages
1,842
Reaction score
661
Location
Mostly inside my own head.
I was going to stay out of it this time. *sighs*

Why on earth would I skip something the writer considered a part of his or her story? If it's boring I might skim, but skip?


I skip them. There was a film once - in fact it's been doing the rounds again on TV recently - about a bunch of people who chase hurricanes. There is a prologue which is set in the MC's childhood and shows how her father was blown away in a hurricane. I didn't "get it" until I had seen the film three times. I kept thinking "who was that little girl supposed to be and why did they bother including that scene, other than to show that hurricanes can be life threatening?"
Maybe I'm just thick. :Shrug:

It wasn't hurricanes, it was tornadoes. The movie is "Twister." And, honestly, that very brief "prologue" was pretty clear, especially since the little girl's name is used. And it told the viewer an awful lot about the demons driving her.

But who am I to criticize; I miss things all the time. :Shrug:

I never skip prologues, and I always find it mystifying (and infuriating) when people do. Just because some "writers" misuse the prologue doesn't mean everyone does. My prologues are actual CHAPTERS with actual PLOT which is IMPORTANT TO THE STORY, so when people skip them, it's like skipping one of the chapters. In fact that's exactly what it is. (And reading it out of order carries the same risks--the rest of the story might not make immediate sense, just like skipping Chapter 1.) So it makes no sense to me. Would you skip reading Chapter 10, too? Or the last chapter? Or--*gasp*--the epilogue? (Which, in my works, is ALSO a chapter of the story!)


This emoticon sums it all up nicely. :rant:

I've been at this too long to get that furious, but I am mystified by readers who don't consider a prologue part of the story.

Even more mystified by writers who claim to believe that.

Never. Not once. I do not understand this possibility.

Nor do I. I have, as I've said, skimmed prologues I discovered were badly done in whatever sense, but never arbitrarily decided that a prologue was not part of the story and was, therefore, not worthy of my time as a reader.

ETA: Just so everybody is clear, an agent or editor is NOT going to skip your prologue in material you send in. They may later suggest you drop it, or incorporate it into Chapter One if need be, but they'll consider it part of your story as submitted.
 
Last edited:

Chrisla

practical experience, FTW
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 9, 2008
Messages
1,247
Reaction score
49
Location
Northern California
ETA: Just so everybody is clear, an agent or editor is NOT going to skip your prologue in material you send in. They may later suggest you drop it, or incorporate it into Chapter One if need be, but they'll consider it part of your story as submitted.

But I notice that several agents request that prologues not be included in the first three chapters the writer sends. If the prologue is an integral part of the story, won't that diminish the chapters the agent is willing to read?

Note: I'm one of those people who read the prologue/introduction and epilogue. If I like the writer enough to buy the book, I assume everything he/she has written is there for a purpose.
 

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
43,746
Reaction score
8,652
Location
Los Angeles
Website
www.amazon.com
If it's a short prologue (1 page or so) I'll read it. If it's a longer prologue, I'll read the first page to see if it grabs me or if it's just backstory/set up. I treat prologue the same way I treat first chapters... if not, I will jump directly to chapter 1. I'm very impatient. :)

That said, I'm amazed by how many writers (well-published writers) who misuse prologues. Either the prologues should be Chapter 1, or they're completely unnecessary. Sometimes I wonder if they believed a prologue would make their stories sound "grander" than they really were. Or something.
 

CheshireCat

Mostly purring. Mostly.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 27, 2007
Messages
1,842
Reaction score
661
Location
Mostly inside my own head.
But I notice that several agents request that prologues not be included in the first three chapters the writer sends. If the prologue is an integral part of the story, won't that diminish the chapters the agent is willing to read?

I'm assuming these agents have seen a few too many badly-written prologues.

Follow their rules if you're submitting to them.

For myself, I'd question any agent unwilling to read my work as I produced it, no matter what arbitrary conclusions they'd come to regarding prologues.

But I'm lucky enough to not be agent-hunting, so I can afford to be hyper-critical.

:Shrug:
 

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
43,746
Reaction score
8,652
Location
Los Angeles
Website
www.amazon.com
Agents are super-readers. The fact is, you can't dictate how your readers read your book, no matter how much you hate the fact that they skip things. So, if an agent doesn't want prologues, they have their reasons, and it's wise to follow their guidelines.

It doesn't mean you shouldn't write a prologue, but just with everything else that goes into a novel, you really must ask why. Why is the prologue there? Why is it relevant? Why is it interesting and riveting to read? Why would your readers not skip it?
 

fullbookjacket

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 13, 2008
Messages
276
Reaction score
29
Location
Florida
Ah, "Twister." What a crappy movie. It would have been much better if it had ended right after the prologue.
 

SPMiller

Prodigiously Hanged
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 30, 2008
Messages
11,525
Reaction score
1,988
Age
41
Location
Dallas
Website
seanpatrickmiller.com
It may just be that people think differently about the purpose of a prolog. I'm primarily a fantasy reader, so that colors my opinions in ways that people who read other genres don't understand.

When I think of the word prolog, I think of material that happens outside the normal flow of the narrative. For example, a prolog might depict a scene far removed in time and/or place from where the story actually begins in chapter one. Often, these prologs show characters who may not show up until much later in the narrative, if at all.

No one needs to know that information up front. The writer can add it at the point at which it becomes relevant within the natural progression of the narrative.

That's why I tend to skip prologs.
 

CheshireCat

Mostly purring. Mostly.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 27, 2007
Messages
1,842
Reaction score
661
Location
Mostly inside my own head.
Ah, "Twister." What a crappy movie. It would have been much better if it had ended right after the prologue.

Generally speaking, I love summer blockbusters and disaster movies. I don't expect much of them except that they entertain me, and most do that.

But then, I have lowbrow tastes and write commercial fiction. ;)
 

narnia

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 6, 2007
Messages
1,054
Reaction score
139
Location
under my bed
I'm the type who opens a book and flips through the first pages, looking for the start of the book. If I see the word "prologue", I begin the book there.

How about you?

I love to read. I discovered that I was cursed with this dreaded disorder at a very early age. By the middle of fourth grade I was reading beyond a sixth grade level.

Sigh. It's a challenge, I know, to go through life with this dreaded affliction. It invades and infects every facet of my life. When my eyes land on any sort of text, whether it be a cereal box, a newpaper, a road sign, a menu, or *gasp*, a prologue, I am forced to read those printed letters strung together to form words.

So yes, I do read prologues.

And in my soon to be finished novel, I have a prologue! Granted, it is intended to be commercial fiction, paranormal suspense to be exact, hopefully designed to scare and entertain, so perhaps it is not worthy of respect and admiration (did I mention I was a hack and proud? :)).

On a more serious note, I too never knew that there was such an issue with this thing called a prologue. I have never considered skipping one, and like any text in any part of a novel if I find it a bit boring I may skim. But skip on principle because it is denoted a 'prologue'? Never.

To me that would be like saying, I read a mystery or two once upon a time but I figured out who dunnit before the end so I will never again read another mystery.

Granted, once your little duckling goes out into the world you have no control over how it is read, so there's that. But to never consider including one because you've read some bad ones is a little bit of a cop-out (no disrespect intended to anyone here, I loves you all!!! :e2arms:) Try this approach - consider it a challenge to include a prologue in one of your works that will be lauded as brilliant and inspire hundreds of authors to emulate your genius! :D

The prologue of my current wip has a title - 'Six Months Earlier'. Now, I know it probably won't fool all those eagle-eyed prologue avoiders out there, but it's there for a reason, no it won't be more acceptable to call it 'Chapter 1", and no, I can't fold the contents into other chapters. So when my novel gets published, I hope you anti-prologue-ers will give it a chance, but if you don't, you've paid your money and it's yours to do with as you will.

Sign me, not so much a prologue advocate but a cover-to-cover reader.
 

Dawnstorm

punny user title, here
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 18, 2007
Messages
2,752
Reaction score
449
Location
Austria
I'm assuming these agents have seen a few too many badly-written prologues.

Follow their rules if you're submitting to them.

Actually, I think there's a different reason for agents to ask for the first three chapters excluding the prologue. The purpose of the sample chapters is to get a feeling for the book, right? And a prologue is often written in a different style, and may not be representative of the book. While I know nothing about agents, I'd think that's a more likely reason than that they dislike prologues. (The info in the prologue will be in the synopsis, I suppose.)
 

Bartholomew

Comic guy
Kind Benefactor
Poetry Book Collaborator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 2, 2006
Messages
8,507
Reaction score
1,956
Location
Kansas! Again.
I've skipped entire chapters, and only gone back to read them in the end. Especially when it switches POVs between two characters. I like surprises, and the way most novels are written, I have to introduce them into the story myself.
 

MagicMan

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 15, 2008
Messages
778
Reaction score
158
Location
Canada
I do not read them. I even put back books with a prologue to search for another that does not have a prologue. Sad but true.

Smiles
Bob

PS: I operate bookstores and have 40,000 titles available. So I tend to pick books that catch me with the first couple of sentences. I don't read jackets either.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.