Since the prologue discourse is going around again, I felt compelled to write up my thoughts on it. While I’ve read prologues I didn’t like or thought were unnecessary, I generally still believe that prologues serve a purpose, when they’re used correctly.
So what’s the point of a prologue?
Prologues are for when you have something you need to include that is out of sync with the rest of the novel. Perhaps it happens several months before the main events of the novel. Maybe it involves characters that aren’t the main POV characters, or even characters who are never seen or heard from again. I’ve seen people complain about prologues following characters that never pop up again, or die at the end of it, but sometimes events happen that you want the reader to know about but the POV character wasn’t there. I don’t have any issues with this personally, but it does get a lot of readers asking: why should I care? If you’re going to write a prologue, it has to be extra engaging.
Where do people go wrong?
The top complaints I’ve seen about prologues are they have info dumping or are just generally boring to read. The prologue needs to have a solid hook and a purpose. If I can skip it, as some readers claim they do, and not feel like I missed out on something, then it didn’t need to be there. It should include foreshadowing, world-building, or character development that for some reason can’t be worked into the first chapter(s) instead.
Prologue Examples
+ Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
I feel like Mistborn’s prologue accomplishes its goal rather well, although I do think it goes on a bit longer than it ought to. We get world-building (information about the skaa and noble attitudes toward them, and tidbits about the obligators and Steel Inquisitors) without it feeling like an info dump. This prologue is a way of showing us that nobles aren’t supposed to have children with skaa rather than simply stating it. The chapter also sets up very important superstitions surrounding the mists, which doesn’t come up against for several chapters, and I think introducing this early was a good call on Sanderson’s part. We also meet Kelsier and learn a little bit about him.
+ Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
This prologue follows a character that doesn’t show up again for a long time, and when we do see him he’s dead. Some people might dislike this, but I thought it was very well done. We get to see the incredible power of parem first hand, instead of simply hearing about it from Van Eck later on. We also get some world-building and information about Grisha and Kerch attitudes toward them, which is important for people (like me) who hadn’t read Shadow & Bone prior to starting Six of Crows.
– Shadow & Bone by Leigh Bardugo
While I enjoyed the prologue in Six of Crows, I have opposite feelings toward the one in Shadow & Bone. Part of it was a stylistic thing–it was written in 3rd person instead of 1st, even though Alina (the POV character through the rest of the book) was present, and referred to the main characters as “the boy” and “the girl” instead of their names. It also felt incredibly unnecessary. Everything we learned is neatly explained to us later, and I don’t think we benefitted much from actually seeing it. This is one of those prologues I could have skipped and gone on with my life without having missed anything.
– The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
This prologue just… confused me. I don’t know why it exists. I think it was the author’s attempt to drop us in the middle of the action and get us hooked so they could backtrack and give us history in the first three chapters. Personally, I think Chapter 1’s opening line (“Grace Somerfield was the first to die”) is a perfectly good hook.
The prologue takes place between Chapter 3 and Chapter 4, and there’s little indication that this is what happened. I found the gap between the exposition in Chapters 1-3 and the actual plot getting started in Chapter 4 confusing. I honestly feel like the story would have been better served starting with Chapter 1 and putting the prologue between Chapters 3 and 4 where it belongs. At the very least, they could have given us an indication that “hey we went back in time and this is the spot where we catch back up.”
How to decide if your book needs a prologue
I caution writers to really think about whether their prologue is needed. Will your story suffer if you don’t include it? Some readers will dislike seeing one, others might skip it entirely, though the fact that people do this still baffles me.
The bottom line: If you’re going to include a prologue, have a good reason and make it count.
Nicole Aisling - Author 