042: Should Your Novel Have a Prologue?
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Should your novel have a prologue?
Hi, friends. Glad you're here. Thanks for listening. Okay, I am probably, well, I may, I may ruffle some feathers with this episode. Normally, when I present an issue that in writing something related to writing where there's debate about it, often what I'll do in the podcast is I'll present both sides of the argument or all the sides of the argument. And then at the end of the episode, I'll tell you what I think about it, I'm gonna go ahead and just share my opinion as an editor on prologues. And then we'll dive into why I think that and kind of just talk about the issue generally. So based on my experience, as an editor, I would say that in 90% of cases prologues are unnecessary, and actually have a detrimental effect on a book. That's my professional opinion, which means in 10% of cases prologues are fine, and maybe add something to the story. So this isn't an absolute 100% of the time rule. I've just found, in my experience, working with writers reading a lot of manuscripts and a lot of different genres, that 90% of the time, the prologue is just unnecessary.
So let's dive into kind of why I think this. And not just me, a lot of people who are also on the side of like, just skip the prologue kind of believe this stuff as well. So they're the reason that in 90% of cases prologues don't work, is because there are a lot of mistakes that can be made with prologues that really negatively affect a readers first impression of the manuscript, it is fairly easy to have a prologue that veers into info dumping, if this is a new term for you. Info dumping, basically, is when a writer just lists out all kinds of information about the world, the characters, the story, the setting, whatever, instead of showing us all of those things sprinkled in gradually through the story, they're like, Okay, here's what happened in the history of this world. Here's the culture. Here's the setting, this is especially common in fantasy I found where there is a lot of world building, you have to introduce a new world, a new setting, and kind of get people up to speed with what's happening and what the magic system is, if there is one, that kind of thing.
But the problem with this is that it's just boring. I mean, I hate to say it, but it's just not exciting as a reader to open up the book. And on the first page, where you would normally be excited to dive into the story is just listing out a history of this planet, or this land, this kingdom, whatever it is. And then the next couple of pages are similar, just a listing of everything that happens. And it's like, the reader hasn't been given anything to latch on to yet they haven't met any characters, they haven't been given given anything to form a connection to or have a response to yet. They might as well just be reading like a textbook or something. So readers are not going to be invested in all of this information that you're giving them upfront, if they haven't been even introduced to like any characters or conflict or anything yet, what why do they care about all this stuff? Why did they care about the history of this world, they haven't even seen the world yet. So that's a really common mistake that prologues can have, and I know they if you are listening to this, and you have written science fiction or fantasy, I know that you spent a lot of time on world building, because you have to in those genres in particular. But, and it doesn't mean that your world isn't interesting, or that the magic system isn't cool that readers won't like really be into it. It's just you can't dump all of that information on the reader in the first couple of pages. It's just it's not a good way to go about it. You're going to lose people.
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So that's the biggest reason why prologues are kind of can be a strike against some writers is because they're just really info dumping. The other reason that prologues are sometimes really just unnecessary, is that the prologue will be almost a chapter length. And it's like, why doesn't Why isn't this just chapter one? If your prologue opens with one of the main characters or, you know, the main character in the story, doing something having conversations like, what why don't we just why don't you just make that chapter one? Why does it need to be prologue? That's another reason. There are, of course, exceptions like there are really good prologues out there, there are prologues that set the stage, you know, again, my belief is that in 90% of cases, they're not necessary. But in 10% of cases, they can add to the story. So here's what I think, when I see a good prologue, this is what good prologue does that that kind of 10% that I think, is really adding something to the story, good prologues tease the world, the characters, tease the story in some way that's really peeking the reader's curiosity. They are maybe providing a hint or a clue about what's to come. There's something interesting in those early couple of pages, that's not just again, listing out like all of the backstory and all of the history and all of the rules of your world. There's something to latch on to. Right. That's, that's when I think a prologue can serve kind of an interesting role in, in the story.
So I don't want to discourage you, if you're like, I've written a prologue, how do I know if mine's good? Will people automatically start, you know, like, stop reading. And the thing about prologues I've heard from some readers is that they actually just don't read prologue. So another thing to think about, kind of a last little thing to remember with prologue is that prologue. So if you're going to have one, I think it really should be short. Again, if you've got a prologue, that's like a full chapter length, why not just have that be chapter one, prologue should really be kind of a tease, a hook. So really just think about a short prologue that's going to hook the reader that's going to entice them to read more.
Something I've also heard from agents, I've done a lot of research on what agents you know, like read interviews with agents, read blogs with agents listen to podcast, from literary agents, both when I was first querying the first time around, and now when I'm, I'm trying to find a different agent after leaving my first one. I, a lot of agents say that they dislike prologues, and a lot of them say they dislike pro prologues. You know, they'll give reasons that are similar to what I've seen, in my own experience with editing. So that's something to consider to like, if you are querying, and you want to try to find an agent, really make sure that your prologue serves an actual function in the story, to hook the reader to entice them to give them a little slice of the action, not just, you know, dumping all of this information about the characters in the story and the history in the world, because agents are not going to be pulled in by that if that's, you know, the first couple of pages and with agents, if you're only sending them 10 pages, or the first 15 pages or whatever. And your prologue is the first 10 pages, you know, that's that's could potentially, I don't want to generalize, but it could potentially be a strike against you, if it's just a bunch of info dumping. So keep that in mind for those of you who were querying or going to be querying at some point in the future. So that's kind of the prologue debate in a nutshell, and my professional opinion on it.
But again, you know, it's your story. If you feel really strongly about your prologue and you think it serves a good function in the story, then fine, you know, keep it. I don't want to, I don't want to persuade you to cut something out just because I feel this way about it. Just something to consider. Like all the episodes of this podcast, I never want to tell you what to do. I just want to give you some food for thought. Alright, thanks for listening, and I will see you next week.