Should we bother with prologues?

[Steerpike]

This is just me but I just don't like prologues, and don't see any benefit. I am character driven, and the things put in prologues just get skipped or they attach me to a character that isn't relevant to the story. The events can always be related to the reader later.

Sent from my Blade using Forum Runner

I'm with you. I've put books back on the shelf in the story on more than one occasion because it had a prologue, and I don't like them. I like the book to start where the story starts, and a "pro" "logue" seems to me to be at least an indicator that the author realizes very well where the story starts but has decided to subject us to some other material for a number of pages before getting to it

 

[zizban]

I'm with you. I've put books back on the shelf in the story on more than one occasion because it had a prologue, and I don't like them. I like the book to start where the story starts, and a "pro" "logue" seems to me to be at least an indicator that the author realizes very well where the story starts but has decided to subject us to some other material for a number of pages before getting to it

Harsh crowd!

Prologue are like any other literary device: it's a tool and it has it's uses.

 

[Wormtongue]

The anti-prologue bias puzzles me. But then again, so does the anti-series bias.

I don't think every book needs a prologue. Some do. Not every book should be a series. Some should.

I take each on it's merits.

 

[Telcontar]

I agree that most prologues are not 'necessary' to the story. Hopefully it does add to the story somehow. I'm pondering this fairly closely because I also have a story for which I plan to include a prologue. The real question is this: Does it ADD to the story? Does reading the prologue enhance the rest of the story for the reader?

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

If a prologue is entertaining and well-written, then the fact that it has the word "Prologue" before it should be meaningless.

 

[Steerpike]

If the use of the term "prologue" is meaningless in any given instance, then it may as well be called Chapter 1.

Many prologues I've come across could have been eliminated and the work thereby improved, a few of them were well done and may just as well have been the first chapter.

 

[Steerpike]

I don't think every book needs a prologue. Some do. Not every book should be a series. Some should.

I'm not sure I've come across a book that needs a prologue. Some manage to make a prologue work, but I can't think of any where I was left thinking the book wouldn't have worked with the prologue.

 

[Merc]

I've found problems both reading and writing prologues. The first stint where I really set out to write everything that was on my mind, and the story that I've now given life to(a meager unpaid life, but hey, they just haven't found a home yet) began in what is now book 2, and the prologue turned into a monster I became unable to control, evolving into book 1. At first, I was like, a paragraph is all I'll need, and not vital to the reader, then I extended... and extended. Reading prologue's I usually go back when the book is done, out of curiosity more than anything else.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

If the use of the term "prologue" is meaningless in any given instance, then it may as well be called Chapter 1.

Many prologues I've come across could have been eliminated and the work thereby improved, a few of them were well done and may just as well have been the first chapter.

If the prologue introduces you to the world, shows you some action occurring that is not directly about the main characters but informs your understanding of what happens later, and (again) is well-written and interesting, then why is it a problem? If it's badly written, then the book probably is too. I find it hard to believe that there are any significant number of good books worth reading that have bad prologues worth skipping.

 

[Steerpike]

If the prologue introduces you to the world, shows you some action occurring that is not directly about the main characters but informs your understanding of what happens later, and (again) is well-written and interesting, then why is it a problem? If it's badly written, then the book probably is too. I find it hard to believe that there are any significant number of good books worth reading that have bad prologues worth skipping.

If it really does all of those things, then I don't have a problem with it in theory. My aversion to prologues is that the ones I come tend to be unnecessary to a later understanding. The author has just basically used them to convey a lot of back story, which is poor form in my view, and not something I'm generally interested in reading. I'm more likely to go ahead and get something with a prologue if it is very short so that we get on to the main story pretty quickly, but all other things being equal, if I am considering two books I'm much more like to put the one with the prologue back on the shelf.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

If it really does all of those things, then I don't have a problem with it in theory. My aversion to prologues is that the ones I come tend to be unnecessary to a later understanding. The author has just basically used them to convey a lot of back story, which is poor form in my view, and not something I'm generally interested in reading. I'm more likely to go ahead and get something with a prologue if it is very short so that we get on to the main story pretty quickly, but all other things being equal, if I am considering two books I'm much more like to put the one with the prologue back on the shelf.

Oh, well, yeah, that makes sense. I was coming at it from the perspective of usually having books recommended to me by a trusted source (parents, wife, friends) or if it's something that a lot of people recommend and very few people denigrate (e.g. Twilight has a lot of fans, but also a lot of people despise it; versus A Game of Thrones about which I had heard many good things and had never really heard anything negative, so I decided to read it a couple of years ago).

I don't usually pick books off the shelf and try to figure out if they're any good that way, but if that is what one does, then it certainly could make sense to use the presence of a prologue as a deciding factor.

 

[Steerpike]

I don't usually pick books off the shelf and try to figure out if they're any good that way, but if that is what one does, then it certainly could make sense to use the presence of a prologue as a deciding factor.

I buy a lot of books I've never heard of, from authors I've never heard of. Usually just read a page or two. I don't read the blurbs. If someone I know and share the same tastes with recommends a book to me, then a prologue wouldn't put me off. There are so many books to choose from at the store, and in addition to authors I know I like to buy from completely new writers (or new to me), so it just helps in the decision process. I can think of some really good prologues, but they are rare. One that comes to mind is the prologue to Tigana, by Guy Gavriel Kay. If I'm remembering correctly, I really liked that one.

 

[Havok]

i think prologues could be used as a quick "mood setter". Just to give a hint of the tone of the tale, or to give the reader a hint that something dark and brooding is in the making, which in it self is a mood setter

 

[Steerpike]

i think prologues could be used as a quick "mood setter". Just to give a hint of the tone of the tale, or to give the reader a hint that something dark and brooding is in the making, which in it self is a mood setter

True, but why not set the mood with Chapter 1 instead?

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

True, but why not set the mood with Chapter 1 instead?

Setting the stage with something that is peripheral to (but related to) the main action is a mechanism that has worked well thousands of times. I don't know why it works, but it does. I would think the burden would fall on those who don't like prologues to justify why they should never be used.

 

[Jess A]

My novel's prologue outlines an event set in the past.

This may merely be my personal preference. It might seem cliche to some, but I do not care. It serves my novel.

 

[Steerpike]

I don't think prologues can never be used effectively. In my experience, they are ineffective more often than they are effective. If the only reason for providing one is to set a mood, I do think that is a mistake, but others are welcome to disagree

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

It's not usually the only reason. It's also used to establish some backstory, or introduce us to secondary, peripheral, or villain characters so that some event or threat is lurking in the back of our minds as we read the rest of it.

Spoiler: A Game of Thrones

A Game of Thrones begins with three brothers of the Night's Watch being attacked by Others. We don't see the Others again until about three-quarters of the way through the book, although their existence is discussed before then. AGoT is actually quite remarkable in that the supernatural element is almost entirely absent from the first book, except for the Others and when the dragons show up at the end.

I mean, I agree, if all you're doing with the prologue is setting the mood, then your prologue had better be no longer than a page or two. But I really can't say that I've come across a lot of prologues that do that.

 

[Steerpike]

I believe you can look at some stellar works, such as Game of Thrones or Tigana, which I mentioned earlier, and realize that yeah, these guys really know what they're doing. On the other hand, I hated Robert Jordan's prologues.

But for your average mid-list author, or unpublished author who is still learning the ropes and/or trying to make a go of it, I see more that doesn't work for me than does.

So I will not say NEVER use a prologue, but it has reached the point for me where seeing one in a book that I just grab off the shelf (a book I'm not already looking for; just browsing for a new purchase) really increases the odds I'll put it back. For that matter, so does the fact that the book is part of an unfinished series, though I may make a note to come back when the series is done.

 

[Reaver]

But for your average mid-list author, or unpublished author who is still learning the ropes and/or trying to make a go of it, I see more that doesn't work for me than does.

So I will not say NEVER use a prologue, but it has reached the point for me where seeing one in a book that I just grab off the shelf (a book I'm not already looking for; just browsing for a new purchase) really increases the odds I'll put it back. For that matter, so does the fact that the book is part of an unfinished series, though I may make a note to come back when the series is done.

Damn! This is helpful, but at the same time vexing. Are you saying that instead of a prologue, one should set everything up in the first chapter?