The AmWritingFantasy Podcast: Episode 18 – How to write a good prologue for a book

Don’t you hate when opening a novel and you’re presented with a ten-page prologue which dumps a whole slew of ancient history on you?

The question is though, what should a prologue contain to make it a good one? And how about the epilogue?

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Read the full transcript below. (Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion).

Jesper (12s):
Don't you hate when you open a novel and you're presented with a 10 page long prologue that just dumps a whole slew of ancient history on you. I certainly do. The question is though, what should a prologue contain to make it a good one? If you are fantasy author, then you've come to the right place. My name is Jesper and. Together with Autumn, I run amwritingfantasy.com between us, we've published more than 20 novels and our aim is to help you in your writing and marketing endeavors.

Jesper (53s):
Before we get started, I want to send a huge thank you to alias McKinney and Perry Chalmers who have become our latest support us on Patreon. You too can become a patron of amwritingfantasy. You will find the link in the description field or in the show notes. For those of you who are listening on podcast and for just a $1 pledge, we will ship you an am writing fantasy bookmark.

Jesper (1m 23s):
There's lots of other rewards too, but uh, you can check all that out by following the link if you are interested. Alright. Prologues it is, it's not an easy subject to tackle because so many get them wrong. And one of the most common issues is how the author hasn't clarified what he or she is trying to achieve by including a prologue in the first place. In many cases, the content of a prologue might as well have been part of the novel itself.

Jesper (1m 55s):
If that's true, don't write a prologue prologue that are littered with background information which really have no direct relevance to the story being told is incredibly boring. Unfortunately, many writers think that their world building is so cool that the reader just have to know about the kingdom that fought another kingdom a thousand years ago.

Old McGrumpy (2m 21s):
You're lying

Jesper (2m 23s):
old, my grumpy as our resident AI, you should learn that. It's not polite to call another host for a liar,

Old McGrumpy (2m 31s):
but you are.

Jesper (2m 33s):
How so?

Old McGrumpy (2m 34s):
You do think that your world building is so cool that it should be included in the novel?

Jesper (2m 40s):
Well, it depends on how you, how you look at it. I guess I, I, I don't think it should be included if it has no relevance, you know, for, for the sake of the reader. If it was up to me alone, I would probably,

Old McGrumpy (2m 54s):
it's the same problem with that. The logs, you worthless humans also those even one, there is nothing important to say.

Jesper (3m 3s):
In such cases we really shouldn't. All my grumpy you see prologues and epilogues alike have to be relevant.

Old McGrumpy (3m 12s):
That is easy to say. Why not let me write them for you.

Jesper (3m 16s):
So you claim to know how to decide which facts should be revealed in the prologue.

Old McGrumpy (3m 23s):
What do you mean?

Jesper (3m 25s):
Well F for the prologue to be relevant, you need to share significant inflammation which proves to be vital to the story itself.

Old McGrumpy (3m 35s):
I knew that I really new do you perhaps know of how to hack?

Jesper (3m 40s):
No, nor do I claim to

Old McGrumpy (3m 43s):
then leave me alone.

Jesper (3m 44s):
Alright. I will. Jesus, the rest of us can carry on while he's awaiting. You. See what I was trying to say was that there might be scenarios in which such significant information can be easily shared within the contents of the book itself. If it can then avoid the prologue. However, what if such information is shared by a point of view care too who aren't featured in the novel or perhaps events are taking place during a different time and all maybe a different place then a prologue might come in quite handy.

Jesper (4m 24s):
What is important to know though, is that most readers tend to skip the prologue all together and they just head straight into the first chapter. So if you are sharing important elements about the story that you're going to tell, you have to make sure that they actually stop and read it. Otherwise it's sort of becomes counterproductive. Right? Here you are sharing a vital piece of information and the reader didn't even pay any attention to it.

Jesper (4m 55s):
Hence, you have to write an incredibly engaging first paragraph, hooking people to read the prologue. You then proceed to hold the reader's attention by limiting the amount of background information and share the necessary details as part of the narrative, not as an info dump, you know, a thousand years ago, blah, blah, blah, blah, that sort of thing. We don't want to do that. If the S Rita is still reading, chances are that you can keep it up for the remaining parts of the program.

Jesper (5m 29s):
The final trip wire is making the prologue too long. Simply simply keep it to the point. Okay, so, Oh, and not to forget, just because you manage to hook the reader with a killer prologue that doesn't relieve you from the obligation to do exactly the same thing with the first chapter. The novel needs to begin as strong as it would even if there were no prologue serving as a leader.

Jesper (5m 58s):
So to summarize, make sure that your prologue is relevant to the story that you're going to tell S in directly relevant. I mean not background setting, what the reader learns from the prologue should play directly into the plot of the story. Make it interesting and compelling and please keep it short while we added. How about a quick look at the epilogue as old man grumpy indicated before, that is another place where we offer often missed it.

Jesper (6m 34s):
First of all, every essential plot threat has to be concluded by the end of the story. Not in the epilogue. Yep. If the epilogue is to add to the reader's understanding of the story, it can be superficial either. That's not me saying that you should go overboard and tie up, eh eaten every single open plot point. Either. You see there is a balance to walk when writing a killer epilogue. In most cases you have two options.

Jesper (7m 5s):
Either you expand on the character development or you use the epilogue to set up the next book in the series. If you want to expand on the character development, it isn't sufficient to portray the character. 10 years later, Rolla, you'll have to show how the story has made an impact on the character and how this person has now continued to grow since we left him or her in the final chapter.

Jesper (7m 35s):
That said, the most accepted reason for including an epilogue is to set up the next book in the series. Why is that the most accepted reason? Well, it's because it's almost by default exciting. Something will happen which introduces a new plot line and that's a good premise to build on. Yet. Even here, you have to be careful if your intent for a cliff hanger type of epilogue makes sure that you've included hints in the main body of the story.

Jesper (8m 9s):
Unless the epilogue rings true. Read us. Won't show a forgiving attitude. So foreshadow is needed, or readers will think that everything they believed about the story simply all of a sudden just turned out to be false. So don't undermine your own ending with the epilogue. And finally, just like writing a prologue, made sure to keep it short. That's your guide to avoiding insanely boring prologue and logs.

Jesper (8m 41s):
So, uh, stay safe out there and, uh, see you next Monday.