Can a prologue be too short?

Your prologue can be one sentence. Or even one word.

A prologue can never be too short for me!

As usual, it's content that matters, not length.

I've read chapters around this length, so you're good.

All three of my books have prologues. One is about 800 words, one about 3,000, and one about 1,500. They each serve the same purpose for their stories.

Like Bufty says, it's the content that matters. Beware the reviled infodump prologue, but otherwise revise and tighten as you would any other chapter.

Who decides whether it's "too short" or not? You, as the writer, are the only one who knows how long it should be.

No.

Looking at the thread for suggestions because in the 27 years I've been writing, I have never written a prologue. I guess I just don't understand how they work.

maggiee19 said:

Looking at the thread for suggestions because in the 27 years I've been writing, I have never written a prologue. I guess I just don't understand how they work.

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My opinion? Not all stories call for a prologue, so I can't imagine it's an issue that you don't write them.

I use them for a specific purpose, and I don't use them every time.

My SF novel next year has a prologue, but I treated it almost exactly like the opening of a James Bond movie, as a tease to the rest of the book. It's essentially an action sequence in the teen years of the main character that shows what she was like, her sheer destructive power even as a surly teenager, and sets some of the ground rules for what a cyberpunk 22nd century would be like with magic functioning alongside it. It's basically an action-y way to introduce the world so I don't have to have any world-buildy lectures later. Tanks getting hit by teen mages hurling lightning goes over better than exposition talking about it.

I don't think 422 words is inappropriate for a prologue at all. I know we mostly look at the number next to the word count at the bottom of whatever word processor we're using, but the reader tends to measure length by page count, not word count. Estimates for a well-formatted book usually put the words per page somewhere between 250-300, sometimes as high as 350 if you want to save paper. So if your prologue is about a page and a half-ish, are you okay with it? I'd certainly be okay with it.

The length of a prologue is not important at all. It's as long or short as it needs to be.

I like reading books with prologues because I find they are nice way to ease me into a novel.

All my novels have prologues, but I think it's probably a crutch to ease me into the story. Nest time I'm shooting for 422 words. Or fewer.

maggiee19 said:

Looking at the thread for suggestions because in the 27 years I've been writing, I have never written a prologue. I guess I just don't understand how they work.

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If I understand correctly, the way it works is: if you have something you need to say or show, that the reader really needs, but that you can't possibly say or show in Chapter 1 or 2 (maybe because it can't be shown in the POV you're using, maybe because it happens super long ago or faraway and, again, you can't just have your POV character hear about it for some reason) that's when you write a prologue. But you make it as snappy as you can, b/c it's not the actual story, and what the reader wants is the actual story.

SwallowFeather said:

If I understand correctly, the way it works is: if you have something you need to say or show, that the reader really needs, but that you can't possibly say or show in Chapter 1 or 2 (maybe because it can't be shown in the POV you're using, maybe because it happens super long ago or faraway and, again, you can't just have your POV character hear about it for some reason) that's when you write a prologue. But you make it as snappy as you can, b/c it's not the actual story, and what the reader wants is the actual story.

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I can't say as I agree with your phrasing, but as a prologue writer, I wouldn't, would I?

I tend to take a lot of narrative inspiration from movies, so my prologues tend to be like film prologues: teaser scenes with a relationship to the main narrative that isn't revealed until later in the story. They're sort of pre-inciting incidents. You don't need to know them for Chapter 1 or Chapter 2; their significance is revealed much further along. (I always write mystery, one way or another, so that's part of it, too.)

They are, in fact, part of the "actual story," although the reader might not understand how until later in the book. I can't take them out. It's a bit like Jenga: the whole thing would fall apart without them.

I had a prologue, learned the rule to ditch the prologue and so I did, queried a bunch of agents and one said my work needed a prologue, wrote a new prologue, changed that prologue, kept querying, an agent said she never reps books with prologues, ripped out my hair, and finally settled on my third prologue, which more people like than dislike. One person still said she feels it's missing a prologue, and the one she wants is the original prologue I wrote.

The one I'm using now is ~650 words and mostly dialogue between the main character and an important dead character, years before Chapter 1 starts. Doesn't read as an info dump, but does tease a few 'what's cool about this world' and establishes a relationship. Again, mostly dialog, and short.

2 cents.

I never heard any feedback on my prologue back when I queried in 2013, but that doesn't mean it didn't hurt me with some agents. It was later R&R'd into a totally different prologue. I still liked the first one, but it didn't fit anymore.

My purpose in writing a prologue is to give the reader an entertaining, coherent scene that makes them think "wait - what??" and keeps them curious. Then I sail off into other stuff, and drop hints here and there until it's time for the reveal.

I enjoy myself. YMMV, of course.

lizmonster said:

I can't say as I agree with your phrasing, but as a prologue writer, I wouldn't, would I?

I tend to take a lot of narrative inspiration from movies, so my prologues tend to be like film prologues: teaser scenes with a relationship to the main narrative that isn't revealed until later in the story. They're sort of pre-inciting incidents. You don't need to know them for Chapter 1 or Chapter 2; their significance is revealed much further along. (I always write mystery, one way or another, so that's part of it, too.)

They are, in fact, part of the "actual story," although the reader might not understand how until later in the book. I can't take them out. It's a bit like Jenga: the whole thing would fall apart without them.

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LOL, well, I didn't mean to sound curt. Actually I almost confessed to having cheated once myself: one of my first scenes didn't work as part of Chapter 1, so I simply labeled it "Prologue" and stuck it before Chapter 1. It wasn't what you're describing, the relationship to the main narrative was abundantly clear. It really was cheating, but my editor didn't stop me, so I did it.

What I mean by "the actual story" is basically that whole "protagonist has a goal/desire, will they get it?" "protagonist has a big problem, will they solve it?" hook that's meant to be in Chapter 1 and pull us into Chapter 2. If your teaser scenes are intriguing enough I'm sure they obviate the potential issues, but the danger (especially for the inexperienced author) is that the reader will 1) see that there isn't a hook in the prologue and get too bored to continue or 2) see that there is a hook in the prologue and get frustrated that it's not followed up and now in Chapter 1 they have to start over with a new hook.

SwallowFeather said:

If I understand correctly, the way it works is: if you have something you need to say or show, that the reader really needs, but that you can't possibly say or show in Chapter 1 or 2 (maybe because it can't be shown in the POV you're using, maybe because it happens super long ago or faraway and, again, you can't just have your POV character hear about it for some reason) that's when you write a prologue. But you make it as snappy as you can, b/c it's not the actual story, and what the reader wants is the actual story.

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A prologue can be included merely because the author likes it and believes it adds something to, or improves, the story as a whole. When I consider using a prologue, I don't think of it in terms restrictions or qualifications. I just decide if it works or not. (It might not, but, hey, it's not a life & death decision)

In my opinion, there is too much angst over this issue, which is just another of the thousands of writing decisions that go into producing a book or story.

SwallowFeather said:

If your teaser scenes are intriguing enough I'm sure they obviate the potential issues, but the danger (especially for the inexperienced author) is that the reader will 1) see that there isn't a hook in the prologue and get too bored to continue or 2) see that there is a hook in the prologue and get frustrated that it's not followed up and now in Chapter 1 they have to start over with a new hook.

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Yeah, I agree: a prologue can be a dicey thing to play with if you haven't done it much. I do think, though, that people won't know when it does and doesn't work if they don't give it a shot when the mood strikes. But I'm kind of a "paint outside the lines" thinker when it comes to learning your own writing style.