The first thing to learn about prologues is that you probably don’t need one. Prologues are these tempting things that appear sophisticated but are usually unnecessary, unhelpful, or both. It is so easy to write a bad prologue that we first need to cover how to not do it wrong before we examine how to actually do it right. As I’ve been writing this post, I’ve realized that there’s lots to say about both sides of this coin. So, I’m going to make this post a two-part series.

There are two common ways that new authors get prologues wrong. They either call the first passage a prologue when it’s acting like a first chapter, or they use a prologue to info dump.

Making Sure It’s a Prologue and Not a Chapter

A prologue is an introductory text that appears before a book’s main body text. In non-fiction, it usually gives relevant context to the main text. In fiction, it’s trickier to recognize when an introductory section is acting like a prologue or first chapter. Titling a scene as a prologue communicates that it is in some way separate and peripheral to the main story. In order to warrant being considered a prologue in fiction, it needs to be written in a different voice and style than the rest of the text and it needs to not directly include main plot line events.

Many writers think that if the first scene is a flashback, it warrants being put into a separate prologue. That often isn’t the case. If it’s told with the same narrator, writing voice, and style, and if it includes central plot events, the scene should usually be a first chapter. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is a great example. The story starts when Harry was a baby. The first scene happens the day his parents died and Dumbledore left him with his aunt and uncle.

Many readers would be tempted to put such a scene in a prologue, but that separation from the main story would be misleading. This event is essential to the main story. It’s not contemplative or peripheral. Even though it’s in a different spot in the timeline than the rest of the story, it’s still an important part of the main plot line. That means it’s a first chapter, not a prologue.

Navigating the Noxious Info Dump

I’m sure you’ve heard many times that the first sentence of your first chapter needs to hook the reader. Backstory, as important as that information is, often reads as tedious and dull. The first page of your story can’t just be backstory. Otherwise, you’ll bore your readers. With this rule in mind, new writers often end up being unsure how to introduce important backstory if you can’t do it at the beginning. Their solution is to stuff all that important information into a prologue. That’s not the breaking the rule – you can just save the engaging stuff for the first chapter, right?

Well, I’m sorry to inform you, but the first page is what will hook or repel your reader, not the first chapter. If you have a prologue, it needs to hook the reader just like a first chapter. Using the prologue to info dump backstory or worldbuilding history will bore your readers to tears. And don’t say, “But Tolkien did it!” Yes, “Concerning Hobbits” is a worldbuilding info-dump prologue. But there are several facts that make Tolkien’s prologue an exception, not a rule.

What to Learn from Tolkien’s Approach

First, he was writing to a very different audience in a very different time. Second, he made it quite clear that the prologue was optional material for interested readers only. Third, he wrote the prologue and the plethora of appendix material in the style of an academic textbook. Writing in an academic style made it sound as though the story’s events actually happened. That’s an interesting narrative technique, but most modern readers won’t find it compelling in a contemporary piece of fiction, especially if slogging through that material is necessary for understanding later plot events. Most people don’t turn to fiction for an informational textbook writing style. They turn to fiction for the story.

If you’re doing epic worldbuilding and want to include the drier historical stuff in a textbook style, be like Tolkien. Put the bulk of it in an appendix at the end where it’s clearly peripheral, optional material. All the plot-relevant information needs to be in the text itself. Instead of putting all the background information in one large passage, introduce little bursts of background information as it becomes relevant to the current action. That way, the reader still has context but you’re not boring them with a long section of telling with no showing.

If you’re still set on including a prologue, write one that hooks the reader with a distinct writing style and relevant information, but no direct plot events. For more practical advice, go ahead to Writing Prologues in Fiction Part 2: How to Craft a Stunning Prologue.