P- P is For Prologue

     Prologues. It seems people either love 'em or hate 'em. I love 'em. How come? Well, I'll tell you. Otherwise I wouldn't be writing this post.

     A prologue is an excellent tool in the arsenal of a writer for one good reason: You can set up your world, hook your reader, and give an idea of the general direction of the plot. And then you can jump into a slower-paced first chapter without the massive risk of losing your reader after page 1. If they're hooked and wanting to know why the dude in the shiny black helmet choked the crap out of the pilot and captured the girl in white, then they'll be willing to put up with all sorts of whiny-ness from your farm boy main character just so they can get to the 'good stuff'.

     In my humble opinion, a prologue that starts with the main character is--usually--a prologue wasted. Your main character will not--most of the time--start directly in the middle of the action. As such, you want your prologue to show someone who is. Maybe their wise future mentor who's going to turn them into a machine of magical butt-kicking, or maybe the snarky lancer who winds up being just boss enough to push them over the edge and into victory come the final battle. Perhaps you want to start with an elven princess transporting a valuable 'jewel', only to get kidnapped by a really, really nasty dude(s).

     Prologues will also set the tone of the book. If it's going to be an epic, the prologue will need to be a bit more grandiose than a tightly-focused story about a small town. If your book is going to be gritty, then let the prologue convey that; we don't want a mother to pick up what she thinks is a 'nice fairytale book' for her 9-year-old son, only to find a witch-burning, a beheading, and a gory torture scene all within the first six chapters. Sweet dreams, kids.

     When it comes to hooking the reader, here's how you do it. On the first page include action, a mystery, or a very, very tense situation(remember Conflict?). Mission accomplished. Not quite that simple, but you get the idea. Also: You want your readers to have questions at the end of the prologue. By the end of that bit, you want them starting a betting pool on whether or not you can deliver one the promises you make to them.

     The prologue is the best place to drop Chekov's Guns. If you need the gun to go off in Chapter 12 that your main character is part of a prophecy, then have someone in the prologue mention a prophecy and people thinking it's close to being fulfilled. One thing that you can do that is rather risky is this: You can set up series-long Chekov's Guns/arcs in your prologue. Why is this risky? If poorly handled, people will think it's an aborted arc and you are a crappy writer.

     If you start an arc or place a Chekov's Gun in your prologue that won't pay off until a sequel, keep it fresh on your reader's minds. Do not fail to mention it for the rest of the book. Find a way to assure them that you still hold that thread. If they see that the thread is actually being followed, then when the book closes with 'To Be Continued', or whatever words you choose... They will not think that you just dropped them on an island, promised them mystery and adventure, then brought them to a sorry excuse for a series conclusion that didn't even answer any questions, like "WHERE DID THE POLAR BEAR COME FROM?!" Sorry.

     Point is, try a prologue, but remember: readers have long memories.