Writing Prolouges!

I think that 90% of fantasy books start with prologues. Maybe more. A lot of people probably think you need a prologue for your story. That it’s pivotal and you can’t do without one. But on the other hand, there are people who won’t even both reading it. Because a lot of the time they’re written poorly and are vastly unneeded. And neither of these are really true, but we’re going to discuss the idea in a bit more depth since I have... mixed feelings on the topic.

What is a Prologue?

It’s like a one shot or one scene mini story right before the book officially starts, but it affects the plot directly. It needs to be important. Or there’s no reason for it to be there. Now when I say important, I don’t just mean: “oh it’s has character backstory so it’s important!” or “Oh it explains the world so it’s important!”. But it’s not that simple. You’re telling instead of showing. You’re telling the reader that they need to basically study this information before the actual story starts. What the heck? I’m here to read a book! Not do homework! If people need a prologue to understand your story, then that means you didn’t explain it well enough in the book. Which is a problem. And if you decide to curb this by making it so they can choose to read it or not and it won’t affect the story, then why is it there? If the info in the prologue is so important, then why isn’t it mentioned in the actual story itself? This is why there are a lot of people who just flat out skip them. Now that might seem super shocking to some of you.

“What? People do that? Who skips prologues??? Why would they not read every part of the book in its entirety?”

Because it’s usually exposition. And you can tell this often by just the first few sentences. Especially if it happens hundreds of years in advance. Then it’s assumed to be a history lesson. And another thing authors don’t always take into :

We have short attention spans.

There’s a common misconception that a prologue makes the story look more professional or better. That’s not true at all. Slapping a prologue on your book doesn’t automatically make it better, just because the classics did it. Trying to copy what the classics of your time did, doesn’t make your work a classic to the people right now. Expectations are far higher and much different now. Different readers, a different modern influence, and a different way books are written. If the readers wanted to read a classic, they’d pick up a classic. The age of books is different and modern now, so using the same types of writing tactics isn’t always going to work. Actually it can make it worse.

Questions to ask

You should first determine wether or not you even need one in the first place. First question is: “Do you need one?” Most likely no. There’s no rule saying you need one. Legitimately think of what would happen if you didn’t have a prologue. Would your book be hard to understand? Well that’s not due to there being no prologue. That’s due to your writing and story being hard to understand.

Next thing to ask is “is it an info dump?” Because if it is, then don’t include it. You don’t want long text book explanation right at the start of your book. That’s the kind of impression that turns people away. To get more info on how to spot info dumps check out this other post that goes into a bit more depth. Click here!

If you’re going to write about some important history or something, show it unfolding. Don’t just list out stuff that happened. Or if you want to describe the laws of the world you could start off on a fight to show how magic works. Or heck, start the prologue on a trial or debate to show how laws are handled. Basically SHOW don’t TELL.

Next is “how long is it?” Prologues are supposed to be relatively short. It’s maybe one or two events that kick off the story. And that shouldn’t require chapters worth of explanation to get the point across. Prologues really should try to be shorter than your average chapter.

Now if you’ve answered all those questions and still are hell bent on using a prologue, then I have a bit more food for thought:

If you’re just going to reveal the information in it later, why have the prologue? The prologue having important information doesn’t make it necessary if you’re going to tell the reader in the story later anyways. Because... what’s the purpose? If your reader can’t understand the story without the info in the prologue, why not just put that info in the actual story? It’s often a sign of weak world building if the prologue is only there to explain things that you’ll just find out later. Because plain old explanation is not what the prologues are for. That’s not what they’re meant for. They’re meant to foreshadow or build suspense. But since many authors are not aware of this, that’s why so many turn out so poorly. Because they use them to explain facts and literally nothing else.

Ways it’s done

There are several ways to write these that don’t necessarily need to be stories with action or dialogue. It could be a will or a letter. Or some important document that the story hinges on. Another way is a unique perspective. Meaning you’ll never hear that same perspective again. That person is dead or dies at the end of said prologue. This is often done years in advance for full effect. Like a war ending or starting. Or THE PROLOGUE WAS THE END ALL ALONG. The whole book was a flashback. You were fooled. But in my opinion, the best way to use a prologue is to be a red herring. The prologue... wasn’t the full story. Like if you show someone being arrested for murder at the beginning, but then you find out they were framed and the main character was the murderer all along and used them as a scape goat!

Another reason why prologues aren’t encouraged is because they’re often repeated in the story to the characters when we’re already aware. This is usually because the protagonist more often than not, isn’t aware of the prologue and someone has to tell them these events during the storyline. And frankly it said the impact of any type of reveal factor if nothing is added to it that we didn’t already know.

I also see prologues used as a “generate interest” button. But if the story itself isn’t interesting, the prologue WONT save it.

Prologues should have a purpose other than “explaining this thing”. It should have some kind of impact later on. I’ll use RWBY for this example:

In the very first episode we have someone narrating the prologue and explaining the world. (I know it’s a show but it still works in book form.) The narrator had a distinct voice and it was clear that she was the one telling the story. Then in volume three we find out the story was being narrated by THE MAIN VILLAN. The story was being told by the villain the entire time and we never knew because she doesn’t even have an identity until that reveal. And the fact she’s telling the story adds to how scarily powerful and knowledgeable she is. Because we were seeing the world through the villains eyes instead of the heroes. That’s GOOD use of a prologue. Because it’s more than just explaining things. But most authors don’t use it this way. It’s simply there because they think they need to have one. When in reality a lot of books really don’t. Prologues are more than just “information you need for the story to make sense.” And I feel like because so many well received old books had them, newer authors misunderstand that it wasn’t the fact it had a prologue that made it a classic. The information it gave wasn’t what made it important. It was how it was used. And once we have a better understanding of tools we have available to us for writing.... well that’s just more well written books to read now, isn’t it?

And that concludes the writing prologues post! I hope you found it helpful. Be sure to stay tuned for the next installment and see you next time fellow adventurers!

#adventureclub