What is the point of a prologue

I've found to something that is important the story for reader know, but yet doesn't fit into the rest of story. So, maybe an event happened long in past from where the of the story takes place, but you don't just want character talk about it. Also, maybe your POV is 1st person, but you want to show an event that the character want involved in. In those cases, a prologue would be a useful way to inform the reader without artificial doing it in the book.

It can be forestory. For instance, one of my unfinished novels dealt with star crossed lovers. They met and fell in love in first century Ireland and were murdered, which becomes a cycle throughout the ages between the prologue and chapter one, which picks up in 19th Montana and finally resolved.

In my current WIP I use a prologue to introduce my MCs in six titled sections. The reader learns a bit about the character, the main plot, and subplot, but not too much of either. I've had to learn to stay away from too much backstory, which bogs the pace, and too much forestory, which dilutes the mystery.

Prologues don't always work and I think that is why some people are wary of them. I once read a NYT bestseller's that was nothing more than the incoherent ravings of a maniac.

I always thought a prologue is a prelude to the whole book in some way. Like the premise, not always though. As others have said it can be different things. Maybe a really important piece to the story that needs to be said to the reader right away.

Prologues are often used to set up the plot when doing so means deviating from the main timeline or POV. Whether it's labeled as a prologue or as chapter 1 is really just a stylistic thing. I've read books where the first chapter functioned as a prologue but wasn't called that.

POTATO91: Maryn's post nails it. At least from the point of view of somebody whose WIP has a prologue, and I claim it hits the first three of the five bullets.

Maryn said:

Writers like prologues a lot more than readers do. Consider these guidelines for prologues that can work if done well:

• The prologue takes place well before the main story or far away from the setting of the rest of the story. Example: The king buries his beloved daughter with a charm which brings harm to anyone who disturbs her grave.
• The prologue is from the point of view of a character the reader will not meet again. Example: The killer stalks, kills, and disposes of the body of his victim, then goes about his usual business.
• The prologue's events set the story in motion only upon discovery at another time or place. Example: A tablet explaining time travel is buried deep in the sea, waiting for a time when science and engineering advances both allow its retrieval and suggest mankind is ready for this.
• The prologue is really the ending, making the rest of the novel a flashback which is crafted in such a way that knowing the ending not only doesn't spoil the story but gives it a depth the reader can appreciate only because she knows how it plays out. Example: A distraught mother visits her adult son's grave. (Later, the book reveals she killed him before he could assassinate a world leader.)
• The prologue is vital to the story but in a way that is not apparent right away. Example: The little girl next store plays all by herself with whatever she can find in the yard. Only later does the reader learn she's a ghost few people can see.

It's absolutely vital that the prologue be both short and powerful--and that the first chapter that immediately follows it also has a strong hook to keep the reader going.

Maryn, who gathered this info from many sources

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Maryn said that an appropriate prologue can add 'depth'(I've heard others use 'richness'). For my WIP, the specific thing that I wanted my prologue to do was to give a short (200-ish words) historical (40 years before modern-day story) context. If readers did read the prologue, they would be able to correctly interpret some events that the MC is not yet able to. If readers did not read the prologue, the modern day story is still self-consistent, and the readers will get the correct interpretation only when the MC is up to speed, and reveals it.