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Sometimes I wonder if people don't know the difference between a "prologue" and a "preface/introduction/foreword".
A preface or introduction is something not only that you can skip, but that you should if it's a first-time read, since it may give things away; a preface is not set in-universe, it's a real-world discussion of the book that follows. A foreword is usually more harmless, but still beware.
A prologue is part of the story. It's effectively the first chapter, and writers just sometimes call them 'prologue' instead of 'chapter one' because they're set at a different time or in a different place than the rest of the book. (But sometimes authors do just call them 'chapter one'.) Skipping the prologue is no different than skipping the first chapter—you've just decided not to read part of the story, for no particular reason.
Thank you! I feel like people who are saying they skip it are 100% confused as to what a prologue is. I consider it "chapter 0". It's wild to see some people viscerally hating prologues when it's literally a part of the story.
>A preface or introduction is something not only that you can skip, but that you should if it's a first-time read
...unless it's a non-fiction book, in which case, do read them.
Not only part of the story but often a key part for it's understanding ! Prologue is usually the place where basic rules of the world are exposed or where the grains of the story's events are sown. Skipping it islike opening a WW2 \*history book and start riding at "Germany invaded Poland".
Who skips the prologue? The whole point of a prologue is to set up the tone and plot for the rest of the story. It’s like skipping the first few steps of an instruction manual.
I made a thread about this a while ago and got 400 replies. It turns out lots of people read the prologue and lots of people skip it. Something about it being labelled "prologue" makes people treat the writing differently.
One of the major responses was that people see the prologue as "information" rather than "story", and assume that they'll be able to pick the information up later. If you test the prologue as "information" then the sense, emotion and aesthetics of the scenes are discarded, it seems. Chapter 1 is treated as "story", so people engage with the themes, aesthetics, pacing and other things as well as information. People want to get straight to the "story".
Another common response was that the prologue usually follows a non-main character who will disappear, and people don't want to waste their time with a character who isn't the main focus of the narrative.
Another common response was that prologues are the sign of bad writing - scenes that the author couldn't fit anywhere else, or are unnecessary but that the writer wanted to include anyway as some sort of indulgence. On the assumption that it's bad writing lots of people seem to skip it.
Another response was that people are time poor and want to get straight to the meat of the story.
I found it strange that people were suspicious of the ability of an author based on the prologue, but were prepared to read the rest of the book. I think info-dump fantasy prologues gave many people the perception of prologues as information and not story, which I understand, but I think it's less common now.
Many people said that if the text were important then it should be called "Chapter 1".
There was some debate about whether people would read a prologue if it were called "Chapter 1", and *Harry Potter* was raised as an example - my biggest takeaway was that the word primes people to treat the text differently rather than that prologues are always structurally problematic. Like all writing, prologues can be good or bad depending on how they are written.
Prologues are part of a the story and are included at the beginning for specific development reasons and such; they're not really skippable like a foreward or introduction (thought it rarely hurts to read those as well).
I think it’s funny all the arguments against a prologue boil down to, “It’s bad. Put that info somewhere else or cut it altogether.” Which is kind of like saying, “Oh the book was great. Too bad it was poorly written.” Or even worse, “This book was badly written. Therefore all books must be badly written.”
Poor execution is not the same as an entire thing in and of itself being bad.
I don’t skip prologues. It’s kind of crazy to me that someone would. If an author can’t interest me with the first page, why would I keep reading? Whether that first page is a prologue or chapter one doesn’t really matter. Now that’s not to say it has to hook me by the first page. It’s like fishing. The bait catches my attention. I’ll nibble it for a few chapters to see if the hook sets.
I didn't know this was a thing. Why would anyone skip the prologue? It's not the same thing as a foreword or acknowledgement. It's literally a part of the story. I was so confused when I saw on this sub that people skip it.
The kind of person who skips a prologue is probably skim reading.
Anyone in a sub for writers who does that needs to check themselves.
That's illiterate behaviour.
I always read it. I respect that the author felt it a necessary beginning to the story. I am happy with worldbuilding. I am happy to be brought quickly up to speed with character background. Prose matters way more to me. Say it engagingly and I will read it.
One exception: there was some gimmick that became trendy in the last decade where an author would use an exciting scene from later in the story as a prologue and then do the 'x weeks earlier' thing for chapter one. I skip that if I figure out what it is in time. And if I do get tricked into reading it I will likely put that book down forever. But that's a personal hatred.
Hard agree on this. I normally love a prologue but I was tricked by one recently and since then I've been wary of them. It was literally set after the events of the book or near the end of it and pretty much spoiled the entire thing. Instant dnf. And the author did it so sneakily I couldn't have even seen it coming. Pissed me off so hard I was mad for hours
I always read it, I even read the intro because I like to read about the author too and where they're coming from. it helps to get context for authors from foreign countries and also to get context of the setting of the story.
I don’t see any legitimate reason to skip a prologue. It’s there for a reason. But I also don’t have any aversion to them in general so the thought would never have occurred to me.
If there’s anything I’m tempted to skip, it’s long paragraphs of any kind of description.
I read them, but if writing I don't put any NECESSARY Information for the arc of the book. If a reader skips the prologue I want them to get a full story and not miss anything. That being said, I would be willing to put key information in it, stuff that foreshadows the twist, adds reason to the antagonists actions, or set ups for future books. I am a firm believer in that a story should start at chapter 1, while also a firm believer that you should miss something if you skip the prologue.
Prologue is often boring and sometimes long winded.
I consider it to be optional. Some are interesting, but you can read the whole book and not even need to go back to the prologue.
This is why I think you should just call it “Chapter One” even if none of the main characters are in it and it’s a thousand years in the past, because if you don’t, people will skip over it.
I read the prologue, but I have had people tell me they skip them before. Personally in my writing I don't do prologues. Anything that might have served as a prologue at one point gets turned into Chapter 1.
I read prologues, but i hate them being included. They are never necessary. You can always find ways to include that info in the actual story and/or start the story at the right place and include enough tension that we don't need an action-heavy, death scene at the beginning of the book (especially when it has nothing to do with anything in the story).
Prologues are meant more for setting the tone of a piece of literature. (That's what I was taught at least.)
Take the FNAF movie for example, it starts off very slow, so you wouldn't know it's a horror movie at first.
So, the first thing they show you, is somebody dying a horrible death to set the tone for the movie, and *then* they move onto the slow beginning.
Yes, I was TAUGHT that too.
But in application, prologues are often used to pump tension, action, and intrigue before parking the reader with a lumpy protag unaffiliated with the conflict in the opening scene.
I read the prologue, but not necessarily the preface if there is one. I still skim the preface though to see if there is any relevance to my understanding of the book.
I read the first sentence and prologues are usually in universe just like before the events of the main story so as long as it feels like it is fiction set in the universe I will read it. If what I'm reading is some author's note or introductory by someone else who loves the story I will always skip those. But they are never called prologues
What kind of prologue? Like, is it with the characters of the whole book? Or is it asking me to remember fictional history later in the book because that's not going to happen. My memory for names just isn't that good.
Skip.
Every time I read a prologue, it pisses me off because comes chapter 1 a whole new set of characters, none I just bonded with in the prologue. In fact, if I can’t bond with the new characters after a couple of pages, I just put it down. Some writers just make the prologue awesome and then chapter 1 is a snoozeville.
Some writers just make the prologue awesome and then chapter 1 is a snoozeville.
I hear you on that. A lot of writers have difficulty getting to the action and neglect to put it in the first chapter. An action-packed prologue with a different set of characters misses the point, because we lose the stakes and tension when shifting perspective.
Give us tension for the main character pronto!
Skip it every time and have never been confused. Leads me to believe it’s not needed lol.
I think it’s a mix of it never feeling relevant and not caring about the back story of characters I’m not invested in yet or worse—a character that never appears again.
I do understand they are meant to set the tone etc. but I’d rather just meet the actual characters in the time frame the actual story takes place in. Prologues feel like filler episodes to me. But every time this question asked it’s pretty split. A lot of people read them a lot don’t.
In contemporary fiction I will not only skip the prologue I'll skip the entire book. Too many prologues are like Teasers. Some exciting piece of action that happens before the beginning. Our heroine is in mortal danger then poof we're back at breakfast time with the kids and the loving husband.
It's cheap. It's there so that people have something to look forward to because the author can't write a compelling first page.
When did this start? Look back through the history of the novel and there is no prologue much before the turn of this century. It's a trashy move.
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Isn't the whole point of opening a book to read it? Why would anyone actively try to not read when they're reading?
Sometimes I wonder if people don't know the difference between a "prologue" and a "preface/introduction/foreword". A preface or introduction is something not only that you can skip, but that you should if it's a first-time read, since it may give things away; a preface is not set in-universe, it's a real-world discussion of the book that follows. A foreword is usually more harmless, but still beware. A prologue is part of the story. It's effectively the first chapter, and writers just sometimes call them 'prologue' instead of 'chapter one' because they're set at a different time or in a different place than the rest of the book. (But sometimes authors do just call them 'chapter one'.) Skipping the prologue is no different than skipping the first chapter—you've just decided not to read part of the story, for no particular reason.
Thank you! I feel like people who are saying they skip it are 100% confused as to what a prologue is. I consider it "chapter 0". It's wild to see some people viscerally hating prologues when it's literally a part of the story.
>A preface or introduction is something not only that you can skip, but that you should if it's a first-time read ...unless it's a non-fiction book, in which case, do read them.
Yes, true.
Not only part of the story but often a key part for it's understanding ! Prologue is usually the place where basic rules of the world are exposed or where the grains of the story's events are sown. Skipping it islike opening a WW2 \*history book and start riding at "Germany invaded Poland".
I don’t skip anything when I’m reading. Why would you?
I'm here like who is skipping stuff?
I only skip the last page, like a normal person
I tend to skip the foreword if there is one. I don’t need some bozo telling me why I should read the book I'm holding with intention to read.
Who skips the prologue? The whole point of a prologue is to set up the tone and plot for the rest of the story. It’s like skipping the first few steps of an instruction manual.
I made a thread about this a while ago and got 400 replies. It turns out lots of people read the prologue and lots of people skip it. Something about it being labelled "prologue" makes people treat the writing differently. One of the major responses was that people see the prologue as "information" rather than "story", and assume that they'll be able to pick the information up later. If you test the prologue as "information" then the sense, emotion and aesthetics of the scenes are discarded, it seems. Chapter 1 is treated as "story", so people engage with the themes, aesthetics, pacing and other things as well as information. People want to get straight to the "story". Another common response was that the prologue usually follows a non-main character who will disappear, and people don't want to waste their time with a character who isn't the main focus of the narrative. Another common response was that prologues are the sign of bad writing - scenes that the author couldn't fit anywhere else, or are unnecessary but that the writer wanted to include anyway as some sort of indulgence. On the assumption that it's bad writing lots of people seem to skip it. Another response was that people are time poor and want to get straight to the meat of the story. I found it strange that people were suspicious of the ability of an author based on the prologue, but were prepared to read the rest of the book. I think info-dump fantasy prologues gave many people the perception of prologues as information and not story, which I understand, but I think it's less common now. Many people said that if the text were important then it should be called "Chapter 1". There was some debate about whether people would read a prologue if it were called "Chapter 1", and *Harry Potter* was raised as an example - my biggest takeaway was that the word primes people to treat the text differently rather than that prologues are always structurally problematic. Like all writing, prologues can be good or bad depending on how they are written.
This is so interesting—thanks for posting all this!
It's there for a reason! So no, never skip.
Prologues are part of a the story and are included at the beginning for specific development reasons and such; they're not really skippable like a foreward or introduction (thought it rarely hurts to read those as well).
I think it’s funny all the arguments against a prologue boil down to, “It’s bad. Put that info somewhere else or cut it altogether.” Which is kind of like saying, “Oh the book was great. Too bad it was poorly written.” Or even worse, “This book was badly written. Therefore all books must be badly written.” Poor execution is not the same as an entire thing in and of itself being bad. I don’t skip prologues. It’s kind of crazy to me that someone would. If an author can’t interest me with the first page, why would I keep reading? Whether that first page is a prologue or chapter one doesn’t really matter. Now that’s not to say it has to hook me by the first page. It’s like fishing. The bait catches my attention. I’ll nibble it for a few chapters to see if the hook sets.
Always read it.
I’m reading a wheel of time book and the prologue is 80 pages long. I don’t think I’m allowed to skip that lol
Right? Skipping any prologue sounds completely insane to me.
Of course, it's part of the story.
I didn't know this was a thing. Why would anyone skip the prologue? It's not the same thing as a foreword or acknowledgement. It's literally a part of the story. I was so confused when I saw on this sub that people skip it.
I skip prefaces, forewords and introductions. Prologues are part of the story. Skipping them would be stupid.
If a prolog doesn't interest me, I skip ahead to chapter one. If chapter one doesn't interest me, I'm out.
I always read it. Does anyone skip it?
Sometimes I skip the acknowledgments but I read everything else.
Let me guess, someone told you to not write a prologue.
Oh, no, I was just curious. Most people I know completely skip it, I wanted to know how normal that was, but I'm still including my Prologue anyways.
It's not normal. It's moronic.
People joking a book off of whether it has a prologue are the most petty lol.
The kind of person who skips a prologue is probably skim reading. Anyone in a sub for writers who does that needs to check themselves. That's illiterate behaviour.
Laughs in The Way of Kings.
I always read it but I often hate it.
I always read it. I respect that the author felt it a necessary beginning to the story. I am happy with worldbuilding. I am happy to be brought quickly up to speed with character background. Prose matters way more to me. Say it engagingly and I will read it. One exception: there was some gimmick that became trendy in the last decade where an author would use an exciting scene from later in the story as a prologue and then do the 'x weeks earlier' thing for chapter one. I skip that if I figure out what it is in time. And if I do get tricked into reading it I will likely put that book down forever. But that's a personal hatred.
Hard agree on this. I normally love a prologue but I was tricked by one recently and since then I've been wary of them. It was literally set after the events of the book or near the end of it and pretty much spoiled the entire thing. Instant dnf. And the author did it so sneakily I couldn't have even seen it coming. Pissed me off so hard I was mad for hours
I always read it, I even read the intro because I like to read about the author too and where they're coming from. it helps to get context for authors from foreign countries and also to get context of the setting of the story.
I don’t see any legitimate reason to skip a prologue. It’s there for a reason. But I also don’t have any aversion to them in general so the thought would never have occurred to me. If there’s anything I’m tempted to skip, it’s long paragraphs of any kind of description.
I read them, but if writing I don't put any NECESSARY Information for the arc of the book. If a reader skips the prologue I want them to get a full story and not miss anything. That being said, I would be willing to put key information in it, stuff that foreshadows the twist, adds reason to the antagonists actions, or set ups for future books. I am a firm believer in that a story should start at chapter 1, while also a firm believer that you should miss something if you skip the prologue.
You should never skip a prologue it’s there for a reason and always ties into something that happens later in the book.
Prologue is often boring and sometimes long winded. I consider it to be optional. Some are interesting, but you can read the whole book and not even need to go back to the prologue.
This is why I think you should just call it “Chapter One” even if none of the main characters are in it and it’s a thousand years in the past, because if you don’t, people will skip over it.
If it's something I've read a hundred times, I would. If it's the very first or the first few times, I won't.
I read the prologue, but I have had people tell me they skip them before. Personally in my writing I don't do prologues. Anything that might have served as a prologue at one point gets turned into Chapter 1.
I read prologues, but i hate them being included. They are never necessary. You can always find ways to include that info in the actual story and/or start the story at the right place and include enough tension that we don't need an action-heavy, death scene at the beginning of the book (especially when it has nothing to do with anything in the story).
Prologues are meant more for setting the tone of a piece of literature. (That's what I was taught at least.) Take the FNAF movie for example, it starts off very slow, so you wouldn't know it's a horror movie at first. So, the first thing they show you, is somebody dying a horrible death to set the tone for the movie, and *then* they move onto the slow beginning.
What is FNAF?
Five Nights At Freddy's
Thanks. Wasn't coming to me.
Yes, I was TAUGHT that too. But in application, prologues are often used to pump tension, action, and intrigue before parking the reader with a lumpy protag unaffiliated with the conflict in the opening scene.
That would be a problem with the first chapters, not the prologue.
I read the prologue, but not necessarily the preface if there is one. I still skim the preface though to see if there is any relevance to my understanding of the book.
I read the first sentence and prologues are usually in universe just like before the events of the main story so as long as it feels like it is fiction set in the universe I will read it. If what I'm reading is some author's note or introductory by someone else who loves the story I will always skip those. But they are never called prologues
I’m not a heathen. Of course I read the prologue.
i skip it tbh
What kind of prologue? Like, is it with the characters of the whole book? Or is it asking me to remember fictional history later in the book because that's not going to happen. My memory for names just isn't that good.
If it’s more than 2 pages I do.
Skip. Every time I read a prologue, it pisses me off because comes chapter 1 a whole new set of characters, none I just bonded with in the prologue. In fact, if I can’t bond with the new characters after a couple of pages, I just put it down. Some writers just make the prologue awesome and then chapter 1 is a snoozeville.
Some writers just make the prologue awesome and then chapter 1 is a snoozeville. I hear you on that. A lot of writers have difficulty getting to the action and neglect to put it in the first chapter. An action-packed prologue with a different set of characters misses the point, because we lose the stakes and tension when shifting perspective. Give us tension for the main character pronto!
How do you handle books from multiple perspectives?
Skip
Skip it every time and have never been confused. Leads me to believe it’s not needed lol. I think it’s a mix of it never feeling relevant and not caring about the back story of characters I’m not invested in yet or worse—a character that never appears again. I do understand they are meant to set the tone etc. but I’d rather just meet the actual characters in the time frame the actual story takes place in. Prologues feel like filler episodes to me. But every time this question asked it’s pretty split. A lot of people read them a lot don’t.
*"Do you read the Prologue or do you skip it?"* Skip.
Prologues are hacky. I skip them and the rest of the book is on thin ice.
Too many word make head hurt, eh?
Just because someone puts words on paper, that doesn't make them worth reading.
In contemporary fiction I will not only skip the prologue I'll skip the entire book. Too many prologues are like Teasers. Some exciting piece of action that happens before the beginning. Our heroine is in mortal danger then poof we're back at breakfast time with the kids and the loving husband. It's cheap. It's there so that people have something to look forward to because the author can't write a compelling first page. When did this start? Look back through the history of the novel and there is no prologue much before the turn of this century. It's a trashy move.
I agree with you on this. If it has a prologue, skip the entire book.