Prologue vs. flashback

MadAlice said:

Forgive me if this has been posted before. I've seen lots of posts about prologues and lots about flashbacks, but I wonder which everyone prefers. I had some gears start turning on an idea and I wonder. If a story really starts at Point A, except for one event that occurred at A minus 10/30/etc. years that kind of set everything in motion, would you rather a prologue, or learn about it later. I know every story is different, but I was just wondering what sort of way you'd prefer to read a story. (Sorry my example isn't more detailed, but It's really a general question).

I think myself I'd like to see details woven in in the first few chapters rather than read it in a prologue. Depending on the particular story, of course.

Click to expand...

My personal preference is to keep flashbacks out of the narrative altogether, when possible. I find them jarring to the flow unless they're self-contained. So a prologue works well for me. (So would the kind of flashback that's a few paragraphs at the beginning of a chapter for a number of chapters, leading toward the event that set it in motion– if it's the kind of story that calls for it!)

I see it done well both ways. Sometimes if it's a single, really great scene that establishes character, a prologue works. Other times, maybe what you need to convey in the flashback is information that doesn't become relevant or have the same emotional impact until partway through the story.

Speaking as an editor, ditch prologues. You have at most 2 pages to grab a reader and a prologue will work against you, especially in genre fiction. Start the story as late as possible when something interesting is going on. Weave in prologue stuff later.

Speaking as a reader, ditch prologues. I don't have the patience to bother with them.

I'm a reader who doesn't like prologues: somehow having a labelled piece of real estate encourages writers to add much more than necessary: history of the elves, geological foundations of the kingdom, what happened 10 generations back.
Unless you can keep your prologue really short, I would go with a short flashback. If it's just one (although important) scene, it can surely be tucked in somewhere, or, the important bits sprinkled through.

My stories are filled with flashbacks, and I've seen plenty of good writing filled with them. Still I can imagine some contexts where a prologue would be fine and even the standard (historical, epic, fantasy, even westerns). Sometimes, the prologue can BE the hook for the reader.

Ain't no right or wrong. Just what works and what doesn't.

One year for National Novel Writing Month, I'd tried slipping in a flashback. Over 35,000 words later, I'd never finished the manuscript. Plus I've never written a prologue out of personal choice; don't feel one way or the other about them. So I guess I'm not the person to ask.

I would much prefer to read a flashback than a prologue. In theory, by the time we get to the part of the story where we flash back, we already care about the characters and know a little bit about the story so the scene will have more impact. Of course, like anything, this can be done less than well.

Prologues and flashbacks are like everything else in writing: it's all down to the execution and judging what works where & when. Personally I prefer prologues which are cryptic and only make sense much later on in the story but that's just a personal preference.

As someone else mentioned already there are plenty of successful books that have prologues and/or flashbacks. A lot of people suggest to stay away from prologues as they can be a tricky beast to get right and are often misused but in writing there is no absolute, so if you can do it right no reason why you shouldn't.

Gillhoughly said:

Speaking as an editor, ditch prologues. You have at most 2 pages to grab a reader and a prologue will work against you, especially in genre fiction. Start the story as late as possible when something interesting is going on. Weave in prologue stuff later.

Click to expand...

Elle. said:

Prologues and flashbacks are like everything else in writing: it's all down to the execution and judging what works where & when. Personally I prefer prologues which are cryptic and only make sense much later on in the story but that's just a personal preference.


As someone else mentioned already there are plenty of successful books that have prologues and/or flashbacks. A lot of people suggest to stay away from prologues as they can be a tricky beast to get right and are often misused but in writing there is no absolute, so if you can do it right no reason why you shouldn't.

Click to expand...

What these guys said ^

Prologue could be a better choice than flashback depending on the details of your particular story, but it's def not easy to write a good one.

My opinion re prologues (because opinion is all I got):

Do you need a prologue? Try very very hard not to, the readers often pick up the backstory better than you realize without being spoon fed.

If you must, make it short, consider not labeling it, don't call attention to the fact it's a prologue because the reader might take that as an invitation to skip it.

Make it interesting. It needs to be as interesting as chapter one.


Re flashbacks: I'm biased because I have them in my book. They need to be part of the story, interesting and they need to be page turners as much as the regular story. One thing I didn't do is leave them hanging page turners like I did in the current time line chapters. But they are written hopefully in a way the reader will forgive me for taking them out of the story.

No matter how you write these, some readers have strong biases against both. But sometimes it's the best way to tell the story.

I love prologue. It's like a little secret whispered between the book and the reader.

It entirely depends on the needs of the story. It's not an either/or thing either.

I don't automatically skip prologues, but they need to grab me and pull me into the story. Prologues can take many different formats, including flashbacks from the main character, or showing something that happened some time before the main story started. They can also be from a different narrative viewpoint than the rest of the story, though it can backfire to get a reader hooked on a given character or voice, only to have it disappear at the start of ch. 1.

Flashbacks can happen at any place in a story, and there can be more than one. Again, they can work very well or they can feel like an annoying intrusion, depending on their purpose and on how they are executed.

Roxxsmom said:

I don't automatically skip prologues,

Click to expand...

I'm not angry, Roxx - I'm just very disappointed.

Every time you skip a 'logue,
An angel drowns a little dog.


And that's all I'm saying.

mccardey said:

I'm not angry, Roxx - I'm just very disappointed.

Every time you skip a 'logue,
An angel drowns a little dog.


And that's all I'm saying.

Click to expand...

And if you write a prologue full,
That pup becomes a big pit bull!

And that's my final word. I think.

Preference? Why not both?

The stories I write (and read) are chock-full of flashbacks, from earlier that morning to twenty years ago - a mix of woven into the narrative and self-contained in their own scenes. I can't even imagine writing something completely linear. And it's not a 'technique' I use consciously, except for when I'm setting up foreshadowing/reveals etc - it's just how the words come out. Life constantly references the past so so do my stories, I guess?

I love prologues too - again, both writing and reading them.

I mean, as long as any style/structure/artistic choice serves a story, I'm in.

Gillhoughly said:

Speaking as an editor, ditch prologues. You have at most 2 pages to grab a reader and a prologue will work against you, especially in genre fiction. Start the story as late as possible when something interesting is going on. Weave in prologue stuff later.

Speaking as a reader, ditch prologues. I don't have the patience to bother with them.

Click to expand...

As a reader, I detest flashbacks because for me they often break the rhythm of the story. The worst I read was from an Anne Rice novel; the flashback went on for several chapters and I eventually gave up and never finished the book.

Prologues, if uses as an event or action that leads to another event or situation are fine with me. They can be tipping points, which occur away from the main character (and are unknown to him) and set the entire plot in motion and provide background to the story. However, just like any hook it has to get right to the action and throw not only the story but the reader off balance enough that they want to keep reading to find out what happens next.

It seems to me that a flashback might be a problem for a reader who wants a clear linear progression of the plot, and in that case, a prologue could do the heavy lifting all at once. But I still love flashbacks. I think they can do things in a long narrative that prologues can't, such as what sparks the flashback and what that says about the character.

MadAlice said:

Forgive me if this has been posted before. I've seen lots of posts about prologues and lots about flashbacks, but I wonder which everyone prefers. I had some gears start turning on an idea and I wonder. If a story really starts at Point A, except for one event that occurred at A minus 10/30/etc. years that kind of set everything in motion, would you rather a prologue, or learn about it later. I know every story is different, but I was just wondering what sort of way you'd prefer to read a story. (Sorry my example isn't more detailed, but It's really a general question).

I think myself I'd like to see details woven in in the first few chapters rather than read it in a prologue. Depending on the particular story, of course.

Click to expand...

I don't personally care. Sometimes it works better to know something going into the story. Sometimes it works better to find it out later. Or to get it in bits and pieces throughout. There's no one correct way; it's whatever

mccardey said:

I love prologue. It's like a little secret whispered between the book and the reader.

Click to expand...

I like that kind of prologue, too.

indianroads said:

As a reader, I detest flashbacks because for me they often break the rhythm of the story. The worst I read was from an Anne Rice novel; the flashback went on for several chapters and I eventually gave up and never finished the book.

Click to expand...

I don't normally mind flashbacks, but clearly the timing matters, the material it covers matters, and one that runs too long can give you the feeling you've wandered down the wrong corridor and will never find your way back.

Most problematic, though (IMO, anyway), are those flashbacks that take you back only as far as yesterday, or last week, or even just this morning. Done once, OK. Done frequently? Well...

I recently read a book where the author was in the habit of taking two steps forward and one step back with the story, over and over and over. Sometimes the time gap was years, but often it was a day or two, or even just a few hours. It was as if she couldn't tell the story in a straight line but had to keep doubling back to fill in gaps. And since it happened so frequently, and with quick and often subtle cues for the transitions, I sometimes found myself in a flashback thinking it was the present story, because I'd completely lost track of which phase the story was in. And then the story time would lurch forward again, and I'd realize I'd been in a flashback and get very annoyed at constantly being pulled back and forth. I don't recall this writer ever doing this before. I hope it was a one-time experiment.

If the background info makes for a great story on its own, go with a prologue. If not, work it into the narrative as briefly and efficiently as you can. I would avoid the flashback if at all possible.

I love prologues, particularly of the "short story that communicates a secret about the world" kind that mccardey alluded to. I don't know how prologues got a reputation on AW of being dry or boring when most of the examples that come to my mind are full of action, mystery, and suspense. In SFF fiction especially, prologues are an excellent opportunity to reveal a part of the world vital to the story or its themes that cannot so fluidly be worked into the perspective of the main POV character(s)—or to foreshadow important events of the future. They are quite often the most exciting part of the story until the climax.

That said, I think flashbacks can be used effectively too. They tend to have a similar yet distinct function in elucidating snippets of POV character detail that wouldn't be appropriate places to start the narrative in their own right.

PostHuman said:

What these guys said ^

Prologue could be a better choice than flashback depending on the details of your particular story, but it's def not easy to write a good one.

Click to expand...

This is going to vary person to person, I think. I find prologues much easier to handle conceptually because they're essentially just short stories, which lots of fiction writers have practice with. Flashbacks require a bit more finesse to work into the "present" narrative flow without feeling forced—at least for me, anyway. I don't have as solid a grasp on them yet as a tool.