Prologues [2005 poll]

I generally do, but not always, so I put yes.

Yes, I read prologues, but then I read anything.
(Hey, I'd read Stephen King's grocery list if he were to publish it)

To me, this is like asking "do you read chapter 17?". If it wasn't supposed to be read, it wouldn't be in the book. Of course, I like to watch movies from the first opening credit to the last closing credit...doesn't everyone?

I notice that the answers "sometimes," "depends on the author," and "occassionally I go back after I've finished the book" aren't among the given choices.

I generally always do. It's a part of the book, and you never know if some little fact you need to know later on is in the prologue.

IMO books start at chapter 1. Nuff sed.

You've paid for it - why on earth would you NOT read it? Not reading the prologue just because it's a prologue is like not reading chapter five because it's chapter five. I mean, unless you found it boring once you started, in which case there's not likely to be much hope for the rest of the story anyway.

I usually use my prologues as a hook, rather than as an info-dump (why would anyone deliberately write an info dump, especially in the very first section of a book?). The only reason that I call it a prologue instead of Chapter One is that it usually takes place at some other time or place than the first chapter. I don't see why that would put anyone off.

My answer would've been most of the time. The exceptions are when it's clearly overlong and boring background history -- excerpts of books from the book's past, for example.

Think I'll go and tick yes.

Sometimes. But even when I do, I generally find I could have skipped it without missing anything.

Zolah said:

I usually use my prologues as a hook, rather than as an info-dump The only reason that I call it a prologue instead of Chapter One is that it usually takes place at some other time or place than the first chapter.

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Exactly what I was going to say!

Sometimes. I usually scan the prologue, and if I see that it's just an info dump or is not part of the story, I'd skip it and start with chapter 1. And 90% of the time, I won't miss a thing if I skip the prologue.

The author took the time to write it, I'll take the time to read it.

Zolah said:

You've paid for it - why on earth would you NOT read it?

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Exactly... because I paid for it, I do whatever I want. And if I don't want to waste my time reading the prologue, then I don't. If I don't want to read Chapter 17 which is a big info dump chapter, then I won't.

I think that's the problem with a lot of writers, that they think just because they write something, everybody should read everything they write. The reality is, you can't control what your readers/consumers do or not do. To a lot of people, "prologue" means "it's really not part of the story." Therefore, a lot of people don't read it.

Maddwriter said:

The author took the time to write it, I'll take the time to read it.

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If the writer took time to write a phone book, would you read the whole thing?

maestrowork said:

If the writer took time to write a phone book, would you read the whole thing?

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If I was stupid enough to pay for it, yeah I would.

It's my experience that SF novels (maybe Crichton?) have very scientific prologues that give you some insight into the thinking behind the main plot elements of that story. They're true prologues, and also the kind I don't read.
Prologues should be introductions to the story - something along the lines of "Hello, I hope you like this, here's a little more info in case you want it". Often I don't want it. If an author puts vital plot information into an introduction then that's their fault. I wouldn't go and tell an important part of the story on the inside dust-cover, nor in the appendix or even in one of the footnotes. They're the kind of things the author shouldn't expect you to read. If they want you to know something, they should put it somewhere between where their story starts and finishes.

scribbler1382 said:

If I was stupid enough to pay for it, yeah I would.

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I pay for magazines all the time. I don't read every article, advertisement, masthead, filler, letter to editor, etc. I know some people do -- just don't expect everyone does.

loquax said:

It's my experience that SF novels (maybe Crichton?) have very scientific prologues that give you some insight into the thinking behind the main plot elements of that story. They're true prologues, and also the kind I don't read.
Prologues should be introductions to the story - something along the lines of "Hello, I hope you like this, here's a little more info in case you want it". Often I don't want it. If an author puts vital plot information into an introduction then that's their fault. I wouldn't go and tell an important part of the story on the inside dust-cover, nor in the appendix or even in one of the footnotes. They're the kind of things the author shouldn't expect you to read. If they want you to know something, they should put it somewhere between where their story starts and finishes.

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All very good and well but what if a prologue starts with something that happens twenty odd years ago? You can't really start chapter one with 1985 and chapter two with 2005, can you?

I always read prologues myself, I don't see why I should skip them. I wouldn't skip the last chapter either, would I?
Just my two cents.

I always read prologues. If I didn't, I would be afraid I would miss something.

clotje said:

You can't really start chapter one with 1985 and chapter two with 2005, can you?

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Sure you can, if it's part of the story. Nobody said the main story has to be in the same time period...

maestrowork said:

I pay for magazines all the time. I don't read every article, advertisement, masthead, filler, letter to editor, etc. I know some people do -- just don't expect everyone does.

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I don't really see how you can compare a magazine (a collection of related items) to a novel (a single entity). If we were talking about a collection of short stories, I'd be right with you. But we're not.

Now, most of this may stem from a collection of authors who are wrongly or poorly using prologues. So just let me clarify that if I was reading a prologue and it revealed itself to be nothing more than an infodump, I'd probably stop and go on to Chapter One. Taking that further, if I bought another book by that author and it also had a prologue, I might be tempted to skip it, based on his past performance. But I certainly wouldn't extrapolate that to all prologues by all authors.

Let me also say that despite my personal take on this, if even a small percentage of the public has a penchant for skipping prologues, it would definitely make me think twice about including one. But then that begs another question: when do the habits of the public overstep an author's vision?

Now look what you did, Ray. I had this all figured out and you went and made me think.

Prologues are fantastc for what they are. Just because I don't read them doesn't mean they are worthless. I'm sure if I was a LOTR nut I would read "concerning hobbits", which is a kind of prologue.

And if the first part of your story is a quick paragraph from twenty years ago, it wouldn't hurt to put "twenty years later" at the start of the next. Even if it was a prologue you would still do it, else nobody would know. HP4 starts with a scene from an omniscient POV (where the rest is close third), describing things that happened decades ago. But it's not a prologue... it's important plot. Therefore it gets a chapter of its own.

I read them but I don't like them. If a prologue is worth reading--it may as well ber chapter 1.