Prologue KIND Discussion

[Steve C]

It's the same as anything whatever label you put on it. Boring stuff is bad. Intriguing stuff is good. Does calling it chapter 1 stop it being a prologue? If it is boring it will turn people off. If it starts with a hook it will draw people in.

 

[Eva Ulian]

But are we, as writer-readers, less forgiving than average readers? Are agents less forgiving? I’ve never heard any of my family or friends say they skip prologues, and many of us are bookish people who talk about what we’re reading.

Oh yes Susan, I agree with you, bookish people revel in prologues... it's the non-bookish people who don't- and those are the people I'm trying to attract because the smaller percentage of bookish people are already spoken for.

 

[Rich.]

I adore an atmospheric prologue. It's a mood setter, like a piano chord.

I agree.

But I'm also inclined to agree, in a general way, with Pete's final point in his YouTube video 7 Reasons Not To Write A Prologue:

Prologues belong in the 19th century ... They are pretentious with a capital P ...​

But I'm also wary of being definitive about anything when it comes to how we should write.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

I am reading 'Devil's Day,' by Andrew Michael Hurley. He's done a semi-disguised prologue

'They etc etc.........' and this is definitely scene setting ahead of the main action, a numinous intonation, touching on an old story in the Lancashire village where the story's set.

The second chapter starts present day and he's switched to person person POV.

This prologue by any other name is 2 and a bit pages long. But he does not use the title heading 'prologue', nor does he use numbering for chapters. He names them.

It segues pretty seamlessly. Could he have managed without this prologue style device? I'm sure he could, but it would have meant back-feeding the legend, centred on an outbreak of disease that wiped out people and animals. Would that have been more effective? Can't say. Maybe. It's too hypothetical.

 

[Malaika]

I actually found (watching a Brandon Sanderson video). out a lot of times it is editors that ask for prologues in spec fic, after accepting an ms, because they want the book to have a sense of scale.

 

[Carol Rose]

I read prologues. They’re part of the book, after all. *shrugs* Some are better than others, just like the rest of the books. When they’re done right, they work. Elements of a book fall into and out of favor over the years/decades/centuries.

 

[Leonora]

I think, for what it's worth, that prologues are only a problem if they're there to disguise problems with the start of the novel - e.g. that it's too slow. I've been tempted to do this, when I really needed to revise my opening chapters instead. There are lots of great prologues out there!

 

[Malaika]

I think, for what it's worth, that prologues are only a problem if they're there to disguise problems with the start of the novel - e.g. that it's too slow. I've been tempted to do this, when I really needed to revise my opening chapters instead. There are lots of great prologues out there!

You hit the nail on the head with this. I keep being tempted to do it with my WIP and I asked myself this morning same question. Do you really need a prologue, or do you just need to make ch 1 better?