Prologue

Definition

A prologue is set apart from chapter 1 by a break: in time (an earlier event), in point of view (a character who won't reappear immediately, even the antagonist), or in register (a document excerpt, a legend, a dream). It doesn't simply narrate "before" — it plants a puzzle piece the reader can only reassemble by advancing through the story. A poorly used prologue is just a chapter 1 in disguise, or worse, a block of world exposition with no real scene at all.

What it's for

A good prologue creates a delayed promise: the reader keeps an image, a threat or a question in mind, and the novel then organizes itself to answer it. It's a powerful tool for large-scale Foreshadowing, for planting a stake the main protagonist doesn't yet know about, or for glimpsing the antagonist without breaking the main story's tension. Conversely, a prologue that only exposes historical or geographic context delays the real entry into the story — the genre's most frequent trap.

Variants by genre

• Fantasy: a legend, prophecy, or founding-event prologue (the fall of a kingdom, the forging of an artifact) reactivated much later in the plot.
• Crime / thriller: a prologue from the victim's or the killer's point of view, often set before the crime, that installs a dramatic tension running through the whole investigation.
• SF: a prologue that shows the early signs of a catastrophe or discovery, before shifting to the protagonist who will bear its consequences.
• Romance: a rarer prologue, sometimes used to show a scene from the couple's past or one character's backstory that explains an emotional wound.
• Literary: a prologue that's often reflective or metatextual, questioning the story's own status rather than opening on an action scene.

Common pitfalls

• The infodump prologue: pure world or history exposition, with no embodied scene or character.
• A prologue that spoils the climax by revealing crucial information too soon, without preserving mystery.
• A disconnected prologue that never returns in the story — an open promise never paid off.
• Confusing prologue and chapter 1: writing a real first chapter, then renaming it "prologue" with no real break in time, POV, or register.
• A prologue that's too long, delaying entry into the main story by dozens of pages.

Examples

• A Game of Thrones (Martin) — the prologue from the Night's Watch's point of view sets up the threat of the White Walkers, absent from the rest of book 1.
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone — the opening chapter at the Dursleys' works as a disguised prologue, from the "Muggle" point of view.
• Gone Girl (Flynn) — a form of prologue through a POV shift installs doubt about Nick from the very opening.
• The Pillars of the Earth (Follett) — a prologue about a hanging that gains its full meaning hundreds of pages later.
• Dune (Herbert) — epigraphs attributed to Princess Irulan, which function as a fragmented prologue throughout the novel.

Writing tips

• Write your prologue as a real scene: a character, a stake, tension — never a plain paragraph of world exposition.
• Test its necessity: if you could move the prologue's information to chapter 5 without losing anything, it doesn't justify a separate prologue.
• Make the prologue return in the story: a detail, an image or a line from the prologue should read differently once the novel is finished.
• Limit the length to a few pages: a prologue exceeding a tenth of act 1 delays entry into the main story too much.

Learn more: The First Page of Your Novel: How to Hook Readers in 250 Words and Examples of Compelling Chapter Openings: Analysis and Techniques.

Revision checklist

• Does my prologue show information, a point of view, or an era that chapter 1 can't carry?
• Does the prologue contain a real scene (character, stake, tension), or is it just an exposition block?
• Does the prologue come back, transformed, later in the story?
• If I cut the prologue, does the story lose essential information — or only atmosphere?