Prologues are tricky creatures. I’ve been asked about them several times lately, so I thought I’d pool the resources and advice I’ve found all in one convenient place.
Suspense writer Brandilyn Collins has some great advice on prologues:
If you think you need a prologue in order to get your story moving, don’t use one. Find the weaknesses in your first chapter(s) and fix them instead. You’ll hear many state the “necessity” rule: “Don’t use a prologue unless the story absolutely requires it.” That’s the wrong approach. Far too many authors will argue their story does require a prologue. I advocate the opposite: Don’t even consider using a prologue until your first chapter is a strong opening on its own. Most of the time, when you’ve accomplished that, the temptation to add a prologue goes away.
I strongly recommend reading her three part article. She covers the types of prologues, along with common pitfalls and exceptional circumstances.
Author Lital Talmore breaks the types of prologues down into their “job descriptions” in this useful article on Writing-World.Com, and includes examples of each of the four types of prologue done well.
Finally, author Marg McAlister discusses prologues in her article on when to use them and how to write them.
One thing to note if you read all of these articles (and I hope that you do), is that they all stress a few key points:
* The prologue is the beginning of your story. It can’t be just an info dump; it needs to have the same sort of grab that a first sentence would have. If it doesn’t, a reader isn’t going to wade through a bunch of exposition to find the start of the story. The prologue needs to give the reader a reason to care about it, and a reason to keep reading. It needs to build that urgency, not delay it.
* If there is a way to insert the information the prologue provides into the actual text instead, you should do so. Do you “need” the prologue to set that information up? If so, it may be an indication that your first chapter is weak.
* A gripping, intriguing prologue can be a great way to set a mood and get the reader invested. Done well, it can paint a backdrop for your story, provide suspense for your plot or insight into your main character. But it has to “hook” a reader, not catch them up to speed.
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A way to say it might be that a good prologue raises questions rather than answers them.
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