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To Prologue or Not to Prologue?
The book I’m reading, among other reasons I’ll soon mention, has made me consider one of the many debates among readers and writers: to prologue or not to prologue? I’ve recently started George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones. The book, like many other fantasy epics, opens with a prologue. The more I consider this book, the less purpose I think the prologue serves. This book is not alone in this regard.
Earlier this year, my wife and I finished the first draft of our novel The Last Vandaryn. In the course of writing it, I got a wild hair and wrote a prologue. Even at the time, my wife didn’t completely agree with the idea. Without giving away too much, the scene I wrote focused on the death of character, a moment that very much affects the course of events within the book.
As we neared the end of that first draft, we sought out the advice of local writer David Robbins. We’ve become friends with him since we first got involved with James River Writers here in Richmond. He generally writes historical military fiction, and we felt his input would help us with our battles. We picked his brain about much more than that. Prologues came up in the discussion, and he fell in the camp of writers who consider them a bad idea. Among the reasons he offered is that readers generally know that nothing that actually advances the plot of the book happens in a prologue. That robs the prologue of any drama.
My wife and I took David’s observations on prologues to heart, and we cut our prologue. Ironically, changes we made in the story for the second draft allowed us to incorporate that aforementioned death scene within the story itself. Not only do I think it works better, but it’s turned into one of our most dramatic moments within the book thus far, giving the start of our book even more momentum.
So what else got me thinking about the question of prologues? Yes, I’ve mentioned the book I’m reading, A Game of Thrones, but a conversation where I work touched on this very issue. I overheard two ladies, one of whom is a voracious reader, discussing prologues. The lady who doesn’t read as often said that she flat out never reads prologues. The more avid reader berated the other lady for not reading the prologues, and I was tempted, as a writer, to toss in my two cents worth. Something made me stop, and I realized to just listen might prove more insightful—and it did. The lady who doesn’t read prologues said, “Well, if it’s important, then why don’t they just put it in the story?” I’ve heard writers make this very point, but to hear it from the mouth of the average reader, well that floored me.
When I got home, I mentioned this to my wife. She told me that when she first read Tad Williams’ Tailchaser’s Song that she didn’t read the prologue. My wife loved this book. She later did read the prologue, but she said not having read it made the villain’s appearance all the more dramatic and interesting for her. Essentially, the book worked better without the prologue.
A Game of Thrones opens with a prologue, and in this scene, Martin introduces three characters. Two die and the one who does survive doesn’t live past the first chapter (he’s not even named in the first chapter; the reader must infer it’s the same man). I get the impression Martin started the book and then tacked on the prologue as an afterthought, much like the prologue I attached to the first draft of The Last Vandaryn. I might well be wrong about this, but that the scene contributes nothing to the book appears clear to me even less than fifty pages into the book. I also sensed that perhaps Martin didn’t trust his first chapter to grab his audience, that he needed more action within his open. Like Tailchaser’s Song for my wife, I also feel Martin has tipped his hand in terms of the enemy sooner than necessary, though he certainly leaves plenty of questions to be answered regarding the threat he presents.
Within the past few months, I’ve made a one-eighty on my view of prologues. I trust many of you have your own firm opinions about prologues. I’d like to know if you think they’re generally a bad idea or if they do contribute something essential to a book. Can you think of any books where the prologue really worked and strengthened the overall story? Do you have an example where the prologue left you wondering if the editor and author had been on crack? For that matter, do you always read them or skip them?
Despite this criticism, I am enjoying what little I’ve read of A Game of Thrones. This entry doesn’t technically count as my review for that book, so you can still look forward to that in the near future.
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I always read the prologue before purchasing a book, but now that I am aspiring to write my own book, I wonder if I will include one or not. Still sitting on a fense over it. Hmmm.
Always, Carly :) http://journals.aol.com/ondinemonet/Ellipsis -
Having a prologue is an awful lot like having a frame to your story. My theory is that you don't need a prologue or a frame unless the structure is going to actually add something necessary to the main body of the text. I think many writers use prologue to set up tonality or to emphasize something important.
I will read prologues, but I'm finding more and more that most prologues just aren't that relevant to what is going on the body of the novel. I think that prologues and frames are tools left over from the nineteenth century that are as cumbersome and stifling (and about as useful) as a whale-bone corset.
I'd much rather get to the story at hand. If I need extra information, then I can gather that information through action or dialogue.
So, I guess my answer is...no, I don't like prologues. ;) -
I believe in prologues, myself, if they're well-written. I use them a lot. As deslily said, they set up the story, they provide a hook, and they also give the potential reader a taste of the atmosphere, voice, and tone of the work to follow. I do prefer them to be short, a slice of a scene rather than a fully-developed one. The reader should finish the prologue with a lot of questions that they really, really, really want answered . . . enough to plop down the $6.99, or whatever the price is!
Louise
www.louisemarley.com -
I read prologues.. I've always thought of them as "setting up" the story thats about to be told.. I think they are not "necessary".. but i do like things set up so that when i begin to read, it makes sense, and I don't have to "think it out for myself".. But then, that's just the feeling I have as a reader.
11/9/05 4:00 PM
Jude
http://journals.aol.com/Jmora