Do prologues work or not?

Phantasmagoria said:

I'm always baffled by the prologue-hatred when I encounter it, and aghast when people say they don't read prologues. To me that's like skipping Chapter 1 in a book without a prologue (not that I think a prologue and a first chapter are the same thing, as was being discussed upthread!!). I mean, I figure if a writer starts a story someplace, that's where I need to begin reading, and if I don't, I miss vital stuff. I just assume that I'm in the hands of a competent writer who wouldn't put unimportant stuff in the book at all, especially not in such a crucial place.

I haven't been proven wrong yet re: prologues, but maybe I'm just missing all the books where they don't work as well. (Full disclosure, I've been known to use them when need be.)

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I think it's a matter of whether it works for your story or not. Until this thread came up, I never really gave prologues or epilogues much thought.

I self published my first novel through Amazon. When prepping my story for upload I read a mess of how-to books about formatting, and what to avoid.. and one how-to author strongly advised against them because, according to him, the kindle reader would sometimes skip the prologue and automatically start at chapter 1. So, in my book so I used my first and final chapters as a prologue and epilogue (setting mood and reference). After publishing, I learned that Amazon doesn't have a problem with these sorts of entry and exit structures. What's done is done though, so live and learn I guess.

My current WIP is in response to questions of my early readers that asked, "what happened next?", so it will be a sequel to the first. I've never done a series book before and am struggling a bit to bridge the two works. If a reader picks up my second book without reading the first I don't want him to get lost, but if they have read the first book I don't want too much redundancy. I'm discovering that series books pose an interesting problem.

indianroads said:

I think it's a matter of whether it works for your story or not. Until this thread came up, I never really gave prologues or epilogues much thought.

I self published my first novel through Amazon. When prepping my story for upload I read a mess of how-to books about formatting, and what to avoid.. and one how-to author strongly advised against them because, according to him, the kindle reader would sometimes skip the prologue and automatically start at chapter 1. So, in my book so I used my first and final chapters as a prologue and epilogue (setting mood and reference). After publishing, I learned that Amazon doesn't have a problem with these sorts of entry and exit structures. What's done is done though, so live and learn I guess.

My current WIP is in response to questions of my early readers that asked, "what happened next?", so it will be a sequel to the first. I've never done a series book before and am struggling a bit to bridge the two works. If a reader picks up my second book without reading the first I don't want him to get lost, but if they have read the first book I don't want too much redundancy. I'm discovering that series books pose an interesting problem.

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I agree that prologues are a matter of if it works or not. It just always seemed odd to me that people have such strong feelings about this one element of storytelling which... can be used well or ill, like any element!

I also totally get it re: series books posing interesting problems lol... I'm about to start querying for the first book in a 4-book series and having done these four books (all in rough draft form at least, first one considerably more polished) the sorts of things I learned and struggled with... Of course I had to take on a project that was really a single sprawling story chopped into smaller books a la Lord of the Rings, instead of the easier-sell "standalone with series potential" etc. Who knows if I'll get representation for it, but I'm proud of it and I've come so far via writing it. (I will self-publish if I can't get an agent, or if I get an agent via another work now in progress, and they still don't want this story; I think it's worth putting out there. Self-pubbing isn't my first choice if only because I feel like I'd need to be so much more of a businesswoman than I am to make it work!)

Of course, with my setup I didn't have to deal with how to bridge two books that really did stand alone in and of themselves, so I still don't know how well I'd handle *that* if I ever have to (likely, since I write fantasy and love to linger in my created worlds). Good luck with your current WIP!

Phantasmagoria said:

I agree that prologues are a matter of if it works or not. It just always seemed odd to me that people have such strong feelings about this one element of storytelling which... can be used well or ill, like any element!

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At the risk of annoying some folks, I think the explanation is that there's a hidden "guide to spotting newbies" that editors have developed over the years. These are writing techniques or habits that might be fine if handled well by a seasoned writer, but which usually mean that the writer does have many writing miles under his or her wheels. This sometimes allows the editor to insta-reject a MS within the first para or two.

Let's start with these:

• purple prose
• starting a novel with characters waking up from a dream
• too many flashbacks
• info dumps
• a first person character looking at themselves in a mirror
• prologues and epilogues
• too many POVs
• prophecies
• a plot which is too close to a famous book. No more boy wizards, okay?
• experimental writing
• saidisms
• lack of tension

And probably many more.

Sure, none of these are bad per se. We can all point to famous books which broke one or more of these rules. The first Harry Potter is full of saidisms. Lots of books have prologues. Star Wars has a prophecy. Ulysses has experimental writing. But all of these are clues to tell the editor that the rest of the book is probably not going to be good enough.

Why do you think that airline pilots are nearly always smartly dressed? Because first impressions matter. We're all going to be pretty nervous if we see the pilot in scruffy clothes, with hair mussed up and shoelaces untied. That might suggest that the pilot isn't very experienced.

Or when the teenage dentist peers into your mouth and squeals with delight. "Oooh, I've never seen one of those before! You'll be my first ..."

Prologues aren't necessarily bad. They are just a signal that we might be getting into a taxi driven by someone who hasn't yet passed their driving test. And I'm really sorry if you're 99% of the way through a book stuffed full of dreams, mirrors, multiple POVs, prologues, epilogues, prophecies and purple prose. I don't make the rules. I just report them.

Once! said:

Prologues aren't necessarily bad. They are just a signal that we might be getting into a taxi driven by someone who hasn't yet passed their driving test. And I'm really sorry if you're 99% of the way through a book stuffed full of dreams, mirrors, multiple POVs, prologues, epilogues, prophecies and purple prose. I don't make the rules. I just report them.

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okay you win, this is totally true and also hilarious. (particularly for me because I do actually use multiple POVs, prologues, and prophecies as elements in some of my works and I get the danger of using these elements) (also- give me purple prose over Hemingway-style bare-bones writing any day; but I digress!)