Prologues

I'm not sure on this one, I think if you begin to tell another story instead of enhancing or adding to the background of the main, it is too long. I have read some long ones, but I can't remember one over half a dozen pages. There probably isn't a set length, if you need to tell it then write it, but watch that you don't start something it will take another novel to finish.
S

My method is to take the total length (or intended length) of the manuscript and divide it by 20 to find out the length of the Prologue. For example, a 300 page novel would have a Prologue that is about 15 pages long.

P.S. I sometimes write a few pages more than what I figure, but that's probably okay as long as you don't end up with 80 pages of Prologue .

One thing to bear in mind is that there are readers out there who either skip prologues or skim them thinking (wrongly) that the book-proper starts with chapter 1.

For my money I would not abuse the concept of a prolgoue, keep it short, and attention-grabby but don't let it overstay its welcome.

Garpy said:

One thing to bear in mind is that there are readers out there who either skip prologues or skim them thinking (wrongly) that the book-proper starts with chapter 1.

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Right, there are people that don't even read the Prologue.

When I read a book that has a Prologue, I sometimes skip it as well and then go back to it after I have read the rest of the book.

I think a prologue's often a false start for a book. Sometimes you see them where Chapter One starts off in the wrong place, is slow to get moving, and the nervous author has decided that they need something more interesting right up front. For my money, it's often better to find a more interesting place to get into the story and skip the prologue entirely.

Titus Raylake said:

My method is to take the total length (or intended length) of the manuscript and divide it by 20 to find out the length of the Prologue. For example, a 300 page novel would have a Prologue that is about 15 pages long.

P.S. I sometimes write a few pages more than what I figure, but that's probably okay as long as you don't end up with 80 pages of Prologue .

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Frankly, this is insane.

I have a prologue that's just one paragraph long - it's more of a quick scene setter than everything else. And while I'm not 100% sure I'll leave it in the final draft, I do think it fits the story.

You first have to answer the question - do I need a Prologue at all? And, Titus, to have it a predetermined length is absurd.

I agree with what a lot of the others have said. Many people completely skip the prologue.

I have one completed fantasy novel that has a 3-4 page prologue. It was originally in the middle of another chapter, but it was an info dump. I took out the dump and the story flowed better, but that information really was needed, so I put it in a prologue.

I would never dream to have a prologue with every book or to have it at a certain length every time.

Prologues should be cut. Many people don't read them, and for good reason. Too often they're murky, pointless, and unrewarding.

You know how a baseball pitcher will go through a bunch of meaningless mound-scratching hat-settling ball-and-glove-testing behaviors before settling down to the business of throwing the ball? Most prologues are like that. It's amazing how often they can simply be deleted, with no further rewriting required.

Even if your particular prologue is more worthy of notice, it's still going to be ignored by readers who've lost patience with prologues in general. Take that bit and recycle it into the main book.

The expendable intro, prologue, or opening paragraph turns up in many other kinds of writing. Academic essays and major business reports are particularly prone to them. I consider it part of my normal proofing and rewriting process to experimentally delete my first paragraph and see how the piece reads without it. If the first paragraph needs to be there, I try deleting the first sentence. It's good practice.

Where does the action start?

Length is subjective. Do what is correct for your story. If the action starts in the prologue, then make that your first chapter. If there isn't any action in the prologue that moves the story forward, you should consider axing it. Or possibly integrating it into other scenes in the book.

While I don't understand the sentiment of it, most people skip prologues. I assume that if an author has provided prose for me I should read it. However, when this thread surfaces, more than half the board members admit to skipping them. Then again I skip infodumps, so it definitely is a matter of taste

Ask yourself this:
Does the prologue somehow move the story forward in a way that the rest of the novel cannot achieve on its own?
Does the beginning inform the end (will we as readers have come full circle with the storyline) with or without the prologue?
Can this be worked into some other place in the novel?


or as UJ advises, hold the gun up to the prologue's head and see if it can really defend itself.

I have a prologue in my current work that I feel is essential. It has action that directly relates to the climax of the book. The story then goes back to where the seed of the crisis was planted and works its way up to that 'breaking point' for the finale, completing the 'circle.' Yet one of my beta's has pointed out that though the overall story is good, the climax isn't as big a payoff as it could be, considering what was 'promised' by the prologue. I am sensing another draft in my book's near future.

I also think that if it must be there, calling the prologue a prologue might be a mistake, for the reasons stated above. Chapter numbers could be done away with altogether, or just call the prologue 'Chapter 1.'

PS -- and to more directly respond to the original post ... my prologue is 5 or 6 manuscript pages long out of about 380. (I don't have the ms in front of me.)

ChunkyC said:

I also think that if it must be there, calling the prologue a prologue might be a mistake, for the reasons stated above. Chapter numbers could be done away with altogether, or just call the prologue 'Chapter 1.'

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e.g. the first, fourth and latest Harry Potter books. They all begin on what could very well be called prologues, but don't have the curse of having the word printed above them.

For me, I only like prologues that relate to the story real soon. I don't want to read a prologue, then have to wait about 100 to 150 pages to find out how the main story and the prologue relate. It takes away the feel of riding along with the story. I say if you want a prologue, connect it to the story as soon as possible.

WannabeWriter said:

For me, I only like prologues that relate to the story real soon. I don't want to read a prologue, then have to wait about 100 to 150 pages to find out how the main story and the prologue relate. It takes away the feel of riding along with the story. I say if you want a prologue, connect it to the story as soon as possible.

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In my case, I created a caste of dragons. You know which dragons belong to which caste by their color(s). That information is important to the story, but it's not possible to weave it in without leaving an infodump. I tried several different ways. So read the prologue or skip it, eventually at least part of it will be read to know which dragons are in which castes. But that's just how it ended up working for me.

My view is that you need to start your story in medias res. So a prologue that doesn't connect with the main story quickly (something that happened 1000 years ago and/or doesn't have much to do with the main story until page 227) would beat the purpose of "in medias res." And in case someone does skip the prologue, it should not have any impact on their enjoyment of the main story. So if you find yourself dumping a lot of information, characters, etc. in a 20-page prologue, you'd better ask yourself: Why?


Obviously, there are exceptions. I am sure there are great stories out there with a prologue that has nothing to do with the main story, or it relates to an event that happens later in the book. Again, the question is: does it work?

I sort of see a prologue as a novel's version of a one-hour TV drama scene right at the beginning right before the opening credits and the show itself. It's sort of an attention grabber to suck you in. Personally, I think anything written in a prologue can be cleverly disposed throughout the novel. Not to say that it can't be done, I'm an advocate of the "write what you think works" school.

Having said that, I think a prologue should be shorter than your average chapter. If it's longer, why not just call it Chapter 1.

Also, I wonder if there's any connection between the popularity of TV dramas and the beginning of mainstream use of Prologues.

Maybe it's just that my Alzheimer's has kicked in again, but I could swear we had this same discussion a couple of months back. At first the anti-prologuers came on strong and almost overwhelmed the pro-prologuers. But the pros recovered, counterattacked, and almost waxed the antis, who then threw in the reserves and made one more all-out attack. Finally, though, the campaign ended pretty much in a draw. Apparently there was only a temporary cease-fire.

This whole prologue issue always reminds me of the Spinal Tap guitar amp that goes to eleven.


If your prologue is a critical opening salvo, then why not just call it chapter one?

my understanding of prologues was that they aren't even written until the manuscript has been finished and accepted for publication, and that they're just a li'l something extra to lend a deeper insight into the text, but totally not required reading (like the Forward, and the copyright page, and that blank page before chapter 1). It's fluff... padding... filler.

I skip prologues longer than a couple pages. It's been my experience (as a fan of novels) that most of these longer prologues were unnecessary, or pretentious, or the result of a lazy writer that didn't want to put "vital" info somewhere else in the novel, whether in chunks or in one big wad, elsewhere in the book.

Not that any of us is a lazy writer. But I bet if you tried harder you could sneak in that prologue bits at a time. Like if you had a character in your story who didn't know what was going on and became the "eyes of the reader"; a mechanism to bring out relevant info (like the stuff in your prologue) that every character in your story already knows. Except for this newcomer you create.

AncientEagle said:

Maybe it's just that my Alzheimer's has kicked in again, but I could swear we had this same discussion a couple of months back. At first the anti-prologuers came on strong and almost overwhelmed the pro-prologuers. But the pros recovered, counterattacked, and almost waxed the antis, who then threw in the reserves and made one more all-out attack. Finally, though, the campaign ended pretty much in a draw. Apparently there was only a temporary cease-fire.

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No Alzheimer's. Here it is:
Help! I’m being pursued by an angry prologue!