Prologues are, by definition, "a separate introductory section of a literary or musical work" or "an event or action that leads to another event or situation." It seems simple enough on the surface. So why all the fuss?
I'll tell you why:
- People are lazy.
- Authors don't use them correctly.
- Over-generalizations are products of ignorance.
So, people are lazy. If they are not entertained from the opening page of your story, they will often not read further. Prologues have a bad reputation for being dry info dumps--true enough--but gods forbid you actually force your readers to think.
Tying into this idea, when authors do not properly use a prologue, readers become bored and either skip them or discard the work altogether. When I say "do not properly use," I am referring to the dry info dumps that would have better served in an appendix...or being worked into the body of the book itself. Sometimes, I understand that books can just become too much of a behemoth for everything to properly find its place in the exposition. That still doesn't warrant a prologue.
FURTHER tying into this laziness, because several authors have either misused prologues or failed to hook their reader, many readers now over-generalize to state that prologues are unnecessary. This is a product of pure ignorance. This is like saying all blonds are stupid, all black men are criminals, or all white girls like Starbucks.
POPPYCOCK, I SAY! Absolute and utter poppycock. Oh, if only you could see my soul-withering stare through the pixelated land of cyberspace. You would shrink in upon yourself and beg for mercy. ...but I'll spare you that painful death. THIS TIME.
At any rate, there you have it. I'm settling myself firmly in the PRO prologue camp, and I have a very good reason for doing so. Prologues are, from a literary standpoint, sometimes necessary.
Now I'm going to outline a handy dandy guide for the proper use of prologues.
We begin.
Q: Does your opening chapter begin with an event not directly tied to the rest of the book, but it is IMPORTANT to the book as a whole?
A: If yes, you might need a prologue.
Q: Does your opening chapter begin a significant amount of time before the rest of the book?
A: If yes, you might need a prologue.
Q: Does your opening chapter feature characters or POVs that will not be featured within the rest of the book (or they might only be featured indirectly thereafter)?
A: If yes, you might need a prologue.
Q: Does your opening chapter merely take an event from later in the book to use as a hook?
A: If yes, you do NOT need a prologue. Write a real hook, you lazy turd!
Q: Does your opening chapter introduce political parties, exorbitant amounts of backstory, lineages, or other bits of info that become dry and hard to understand out of context?
A: If yes, you do NOT need a prologue. For the love of cheese, you're giving all authors a bad name! Work that ish into the body of your story or add an appendix.
Now, I expect you to use your heads and decide what works best for your story. Be judicious with your choice, you masterful wordsmith! Now seriously...get writing.
