An argument for a Prologue

[Aurora]

I'm not saying infodump in your prologue. For God's sake, don't infodump. Ever.

I'm glad someone else said this. Never.

 

[Malik]

There are infodumps and infodumps. It's possible to write an infodump as a story in and of itself, and the result can be a nesting of the stories in your novel like Matroyshka dolls; stories inside stories inside stories. It's been pointed out in this thread that if you use humor, it works even better, but the key is the same whether you make it humorous or not: you have to make it something that the reader wants to read.

An infodump is a poorly-told story inside your story.

 

[Mythopoet]

I know others who feel the same way about Rothfuss. Name of the Wind actually held my interest all the way through. Haven’t read the rest of the books yet.

I really liked Name of the Wind. It was Wise Man's Fear that made me hate him.


As to the issue of prologues. I don't see writing dry worldbuilding in a prologue as any better than dumping it during the narrative. The problem here is that the author isn't good at writing worldbuilding information into the story. It has nothing to do with the merits or lack thereof of a prologue. I don't think that "worldbuilding upfront" is a good use of a prologue.

 

[Steerpike]

I really liked Name of the Wind. It was Wise Man's Fear that made me hate him.


As to the issue of prologues. I don't see writing dry worldbuilding in a prologue as any better than dumping it during the narrative. The problem here is that the author isn't good at writing worldbuilding information into the story. It has nothing to do with the merits or lack thereof of a prologue. I don't think that "worldbuilding upfront" is a good use of a prologue.

Yes. With new writers in particular a prologue can be a cover for lack of skill, though of course skilled writers use them as well.

Guess I will have to think about whether I want to read more Rothfuss.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Yup, that really encourages me struggle my way through Name of the Wind, LOL. But hey, less I read, the more I write anyhow.

I really liked Name of the Wind. It was Wise Man's Fear that made me hate him.


As to the issue of prologues. I don't see writing dry worldbuilding in a prologue as any better than dumping it during the narrative. The problem here is that the author isn't good at writing worldbuilding information into the story. It has nothing to do with the merits or lack thereof of a prologue. I don't think that "worldbuilding upfront" is a good use of a prologue.

 

[R Snyder]

Yeah, what I'd do is skip forward and if at some point I'd decided to read the book, I'd go check out the prologue, LOL. Rothfuss is boring in this way in exponential degrees, heh heh.

Since I paid for it, I'll at least try to read it.

There's a recommendation for a book.

 

[Helen]

First, I will preface this: It is often best not to have a traditional worldbuilding prologue (not speaking of chapter prologues, like GRRM has) in the novel, the info is best twined through the book proper.

I read the "sample" of The Warded Man a couple times thinking about buying it, mainly as a possible comp for my WIP. So, I broke down and bought it, and right after the sample Brett goes into the age old story teller giving us the history of the world setup, in this case, the demon corelings and their relationship with humans.

My eyes just glaze over. I would rather the author just hit me with a prologue up front than stop the story to tell me a story. It would take fewer words and get it over with. Then, no need to break my flow in the story while reading later.

So, if the writer decides they can't weave in the history in small doses, which do you prefer? Obvious info dumps framed as story tellers, or whatever, or a quick, succinct prologue?

I don't mind. As long as it's done well. Again, all down to good execution.

 

[Russ]

Guess I will have to think about whether I want to read more Rothfuss.

I totally agree with MP on Wise Man's Fear. As a writer I think Rothfuss is gifted, but he wasted that gift in WMF.

But now I have to buy the third book to see if he can get back to NOW level, because I know he has the talent to do it. Hopefully he just had an off book.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I often use prologues to avoid the infodump. So in my latest I needed to get a number of points about the world, the character and the plot explained before I started on the chapter / plot of the book. Specifically I needed to explain that 1) The MC was a prince 2) that he's also an outcast 3) that he's outcast because he's afflicted with magic, 4) that magic is acquired by picking up magical stones and they mark an individual and 5) that he has probably the most heartless mother in the known universe.

I realised (after my editor explained it to me in words of one - often rude - syllable) that I couldn't have that in chapter one. Not because it was boring which is the definition I think of an infodump - but because it stole from the action of the initial chapter. In essence you can't break up a battle scene to explain the world history. So I created a prologue set twenty years earlier, where the MC as a young boy picks up the affliction, showing not telling the process of being afflicted and explaining through his fears, the consequences of it. I think it worked quite well as the reader knows the world - enough anyway - to simply enjoy the battle scene. And because it was an action scene, it couldn't be a dry history / world build lesson - ie infodump. So far no one seems to be complaing as the reviews are positive mostly and the only two star one I got was for daring to put a pistol in an epic fantasy!

I think prologues can be very useful for this sort of thing. And I think you also need to consider the genre when deciding if you should create one. Epic fantasy which I write a lot of, can benefit enormously from them, simply because its a genre where you have a relatively large world build to deal with. Urban fantasy doesn't have this need mostly, since the world is already the one readers are familiar with - with a few tweaks. You can launch straight into the action, reasonably confident that your readers know what's happening.

As an aside I seem to recall reading a long time ago, books that had two and three prologues. Can't remember which books they were, but they would all have been either epic fantasy or far flung space opera.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Russ]

Hi,

I often use prologues to avoid the infodump. So in my latest I needed to get a number of points about the world, the character and the plot explained before I started on the chapter / plot of the book. Specifically I needed to explain that 1) The MC was a prince 2) that he's also an outcast 3) that he's outcast because he's afflicted with magic, 4) that magic is acquired by picking up magical stones and they mark an individual and 5) that he has probably the most heartless mother in the known universe.

I realised (after my editor explained it to me in words of one - often rude - syllable) that I couldn't have that in chapter one. Not because it was boring which is the definition I think of an infodump - but because it stole from the action of the initial chapter. In essence you can't break up a battle scene to explain the world history. So I created a prologue set twenty years earlier, where the MC as a young boy picks up the affliction, showing not telling the process of being afflicted and explaining through his fears, the consequences of it. I think it worked quite well as the reader knows the world - enough anyway - to simply enjoy the battle scene. And because it was an action scene, it couldn't be a dry history / world build lesson - ie infodump. So far no one seems to be complaing as the reviews are positive mostly and the only two star one I got was for daring to put a pistol in an epic fantasy!

I think prologues can be very useful for this sort of thing. And I think you also need to consider the genre when deciding if you should create one. Epic fantasy which I write a lot of, can benefit enormously from them, simply because its a genre where you have a relatively large world build to deal with. Urban fantasy doesn't have this need mostly, since the world is already the one readers are familiar with - with a few tweaks. You can launch straight into the action, reasonably confident that your readers know what's happening.

As an aside I seem to recall reading a long time ago, books that had two and three prologues. Can't remember which books they were, but they would all have been either epic fantasy or far flung space opera.

Cheers, Greg.

To me, an admitted prologue skeptic, this is the classic situation when a prologue is needed. I have posted on this here before, but one of the times a prologue is needed is when the initiating event is temporally distance from the call to action or the beginning of the story proper. Good choices there Greg.