Aside from beleaguered adverbs and the wrongfully character-assassinated semicolon, few elements of storytelling are as often maligned as the poor, misunderstood prologue.
Writers are told that agents and editors won’t read a submission that starts with a prologue … that readers skip over them or pass on books that begin with them … that the holiest of holies of writing advice is this: Never, ever use a prologue.
Prologues got a lot of haters.
And yet, thumb through a handful of published titles, and chances are solid that no small percentage of them feature this pariah of a prelude. How are all these authors getting away with that allegedly egregious breach of good storytelling and good taste?
It’s because skilled storytellers know this secret writing truth: A good prologue, well used, can immediately draw a reader into a book, whet their appetite for more, and set up and strengthen the entire story.
The key to a prologue that works is to keep it essential, purposeful—and short.
Where Prologues Go Wrong
The reason agents and editors so frequently advise against prologues is that they see a lot of bad ones. If authors don’t understand how to use a prologue deliberately and intrinsically to serve and enhance the story, they can fall into one of the many
