Prologues: The Poll

[thirdworld]

I've been to panels at cons where editors/writers believed that many/most readers don't read prologues and it made no sense to me. Surely a reader would always read the prologue? Or am I wrong? A recent poll of hands at our writers' group saw a 70%-30% split, with most agreeing with me. Well, almost. Truth is few had just a yes or no answer, so I

Comments

[calendula_witch]

I do read them; I've only written one once, when there was no other way to handle what needed to be handled. I've heard they're out of fashion, but you do still see them more often than not, especially in fantasy (even urban fantasy), it seems.

[thirdworld]

I agree. It does seem to crop up more in fantasy than in SF. I'm trying to decide if I need one, or if it will spoil my fast-paced beginning, or add to it.

[calendula_witch]

Of course, my one prologue is in the book that keeps getting rejected, so what do I know? :/

[thirdworld]

I need to check that out.

[renegade500]

I do tend to read prologues, because there is usually something in there that will help me make sense of the book. I do tend to see them more in BFFs (Big, Fat, Fantasies, to take a phrase from Jim Minz).

But I am of two minds on prologues. They're usually short, so that's okay, and the writer took time to write them. But I like the idea of a story growing organically, and I wonder if there's a way to get the prologue information across in a way that is more organic to the story. Plus, I like the idea of a story starting "in the middle of the action" and prologues are rarely that.

Having said that, I did recently read the first GRRM Fire and Ice book (A Game of Thrones) and the prologue was pretty important to the unfolding of that story. I think there's a running thread in that book that wouldn't have made much sense to me without the prologue.

So, I haven't really answered your question, I suppose.

[thirdworld]

Actually, from the perspective of many of the writers I've spoken to you make perfect sense. Most think that a prologue should only be there if it's needed, which is basically what you said.

[ex_camillea]

I can't answer coherently within the tiny portions of reality available to me! Polls are a tool of the Man, man!

Discussions, however, are A-OK with me!

I have no problem with a SHORT prologue, say, a page. Maybe two. But some long-winded types abuse the prologue ... make it some ungodly unwieldy thing spanning five, ten, twenty pages. Those people should be punished accordingly by having no-one read their prologues, ever.

So I guess my answer for #1 would be: I Always try, because I figure It's part of the book, but Sometimes I just skim it because handled improperly, prologues are confusing or don't add to the story.

The answer to the second portion is yes, I would write a short (1 page) prologue if it helped clarify the beginning of a story and couldn't be inserted naturally into the text.

[jamesenge]

If a book has a prologue, I'm now less likely to read it at all. I'm not against prologues on principle, or I didn't used to be, but I've seen so many bad or irrelevant ones that I now think of the prologue as a symptom of a writer who doesn't know when the story actually starts.