![]() Keep in mind what it can do, positive and negative, to your novel. Understand what prologue brings to a story. Make it accomplish your purpose without interfering with the flow and impact of the full story. If you need or insist upon a prologue, make it a great one. ![]() Prologues can serve a purpose, but they can also detract from a story, especially from the impact of the story’s opening pages. Is the prologue too slow and uninvolving for a true story opening ĭoes the prologue detract from your true opening? Is the information from the prologue so important that the reader must keep it in mind as he reads the story, juggling the revelations from the prologue with the unfolding drama from the current story line (and being discouraged from, distracted from, sinking fully into that current story) If the reader didn’t read the prologue, would he still enjoy and understand the story Ĭan the information in the prologue be introduced in the main story itself, through dialogue or action or thought ![]() This is not to say that you can’t have a prologue to serve as an introduction. Don’t give him incidentals at the opening. Remember that once a reader has a book in hand, he wants to read the story. Readers really don’t need to know everything that writers know about their characters and their lives in order to enjoy a book.Ī bad prologue, one that doesn’t lure the reader in, can serve instead to hold him away. Or prologues might have gone out of style because writers abused them, piling on any and everything as a means of getting the reader’s attention or because they thought readers need to know a lot more about the past than they truly need to know to enjoy a story.Ī big info dump, even in a prologue, is still a big info dump. Readers want to know the now of a character’s life, not what happened to his grandfather 60 years ago. I’m guessing here, but I’d say the reason is because readers want to jump right into the meat of a story and a prologue is a frustrating delay. Prologues are out of vogue for the most part. You could also use a flashback later in the narrative or convey the past through dialogue or character thought.Ī prologue can be told in a different voice than the rest of the story or be presented by a different viewpoint character.Ī prologue is often boring and often looked upon without fondness by readers. If you want to draw attention to events that happened before the current story time, you can highlight those events via prologue. Of course, a writer can achieve all these things without a prologue.Ī prologue stands out. ![]() ![]() Prologue is the section of a novel that comes before the true beginning of the story (pro logos, before the words). It can consist of a few lines or be as long as a chapter (though if you’re going to write a chapter, consider making it a real chapter rather than a prologue).Ī prologue often sets up the story, giving readers a view of events that happened earlier, even years earlier, in the characters’ lives.Ī prologue can provide background, reveal what’s happened to get the characters to the current moment, establish the tone of the work, or introduce the theme. Let’s define prologue before looking at the pros and cons. Yes, you can always drop or add a prologue after you’ve written the first draft, but you might want to think about the pluses and minuses before you begin writing. One you should ask yourself before beginning your story. Include a prologue or jump straight into the story, that is the question. Jby Fiction Editor Beth Hill last modified August 10, 2014 ![]()
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