Author’s Note: I don’t know why this conversation keeps coming up and, more importantly, why people are always arguing about it. I’m under the delusion that writers should write their books how they want and for the audience they are looking to capture. Whatever that means for you, do that. Everyone else can deal with it, or they can CHOOSE not to read your book. Pretty simple, right? Apparently not. Let’s dive into the madness that is Prologues.
So, there are topics that come up pretty frequently in the writing community that often seem to spark controversial takes that are, let’s say, silly arguments, if not outright ridiculous stances. The presence of including or not including a Prologue is one that pops up with a frequency that I simply don’t understand.
Personally, I always read the prologues, and I often enjoy them, even if they are problematic for reasons I’ll outline below. In my opinion, if a writer writes something, it’s probably necessary in one capacity or another. Sure, it can lead to a disappointing finish to the story, and I’ll talk about why that is a little bit below, but I still want the info. It’s there for a reason, so I might as well read it, right?
First, I want to set the tone for what a prologue is, and then we can dive deeper into it. According to Merriam-Webster, a prologue is “the preface or introduction to a literary work.” Seems pretty simple, right? The prologue is the thing the author uses to introduce the story when it’s not already given in a foreword or some other such part at the beginning of the book.
So why is this so controversial? Lots of reasons.
The first, and probably the biggest reason, is because it became a trend for authors to use this for what we call ‘info dumping,’ or ‘background presenting.’ This is where they give you several pages at the beginning of the story to throw the absolute most amount of information they can at you about either the setting, a character, or a backstory that gets you into the headspace of the overall work. This can be a lot for a reader to take in when they are just starting to immerse themselves in your work. Generally, readers don’t like infodumps, for obvious reasons, and throwing them in your face right from the beginning is one of the fastest reasons to make a reader DNF (Did Not Finish) your work. Because of this, many readers will simply skip over the prologue of a story altogether. I’m not saying you should, but it’s what some people do.
So why do writers do this if people don’t like it? Again, lots of reasons, but sometimes I think it’s because they don’t know any other way. There is so much information in their head about this story, this world they’ve created, that they need you to know it too in order for it to make sense. Some writers aren’t as eloquent when interspersing lore throughout their stories, so they need to give it to you the only way they know how. Just throwing it at you. I’m not saying this is a good thing, or necessarily a bad one, but it happens.
Another common reason people don’t like prologues is that they can start off with one of the most hated tropes out there, the dream trope. There are different variations on this, but having the prologue be a dream of some sort to signify a coming event is predictable. It’s a slap in the face for a reader who enjoys figuring out the plot and the anticipation of the climax. If we already know what happens, it isn’t always as much fun to watch it play out. There are exceptions to this rule, and I’m sure I’ve read books I liked that included this, but this isn’t often done well. The other thing to keep in mind when delving into ‘dream tropes’ is not veering too far into the ‘it was all just a dream’ scenario, which this prologue type can mirror. If by the end of the story your prologue doesn’t actually come to fruition, it can feel like pointless reading just for the sake of including it. And if it does play out the way the audience was anticipating or excited for, and it turns out it was all just a dream, get ready for the pitchforks and torches. It will not earn you good ratings.
But what about when the prologue does serve a greater purpose?
Writing a good prologue doesn’t have to be as hard as people make it out to be. Generally, if you can remove the prologue and it doesn't impact the story, it probably shouldn’t be there at all, or that’s what conventional wisdom would have us believe. If you can condense it down and include it somewhere else in your work, that’s probably going to sit better with more people. But there are cases where the prologue enhances the story and sets the tone, even if it isn’t strictly necessary.
Flashbacks or ‘past scenes’ can be completely appropriate for a prologue, giving your audience a glimpse into a character, setting, or event, without info-dumping everything they need right away. If this event has a profound impact on a character, it can tell us things that help us understand the character better, or at least prepare us for the tone of the book. Sure, you can probably put this into the book somewhere else and get the same result, but sometimes it just makes sense to throw it at the beginning for context, and it can have a profound impact on the climax if we have this ahead of time.
On the heels of this are flashforwards or ‘future scenes,’ which, when done well, can do the same thing and not give away the plot. In this type, a character is off-scene doing something that comes into play later. And I’m not talking about when this ends up being the spoiler to the climax. I’m talking about the subtle foreshadowing that some authors specialize in that gives you a tease of the character in some innocuous scene, but you later realize it was an extremely important step forward either for the plot or for the character.
The other major type of prologue I’ve seen done is when you have a dual POV story, and the prologue is from the opposite POV of the opening chapter. This can take on any of the above forms, or it can function in another way. Sometimes it's background of one of the characters, sometimes it’s from their past and foreshadowing a future event. There are some that glimpse into the future and the story backtracks off into a ‘how we got here’ without giving away the most important parts, and sometimes it’s just a leading event from the second main POV that leads into the story. All of these can and do work well when given the proper care.
For me, a prologue should give you something in the story. It either functions to give you plot, background, character insight, tonal influences, or it’s something that makes a profound statement on the overall theme of the work. In any of these cases, it can be executed well or disastrously, and that’s all up to the writer and how they present it. I love reading prologues, and I’ve written several into some of my stories. I’d like to think that none of them are redundant and somehow enhance the story, at least a little. I’m sure not everyone would agree on that, but it’s my take.
I said at the beginning that you should write your story the way you want to tell it. And that’s always going to be my take on the matter. Stories have been used as a form of entertainment since the beginning of man. We use them to unleash our creativity and share some of our deepest thoughts with others.
Writing for other people is always the dream of a writer, but writing for yourself should always be what you strive for. Tell the story you want to tell, if for no other reason than you have to get it out of your head. If that means it has a prologue to effectively communicate the idea, then put it in there. You will NEVER please everyone. There will always be readers who hate and skip over prologues. It’s just who they are as people. But then there will be readers like me, who thrive on any and all information that you feel is important to your story.
So, ignore the haters. Embrace what you feel is right. In the end, what’s a prologue anyway but an extension of your story, a beginning before the beginning? Food for thought.
