I'd say that an introduction is a presentation of how things are at the time of the story's starts, while a prologue is a summary of events that lead up to it.
Depends on how you look at them. In a way, prologues and introductions are the same thing. Prologues introduce settings. See what I did there?
google is your best friend! [5.5 million hits in a split second!]... saves a lot of thread-watching time... Search term: prologue vs introduction
Fiction generally doesn't use an introduction. Those are typically short essays useful for helping the reader of a nonfiction book get a sense of the content, direction, scope, tone, resources and overall usefullness of the material. A prologue, on the other hand, is a device of fiction in which the author presents one or more scenes that take place prior to the start of the narrative and which are not (usually) directly connected. For example, the thriller author James Rollins front-loads his book with several short scenes set days, months, years or even centuries before the priamry narrative. The protagnonists are seldom in these scenes in Rollins' novels. Often they are set in historical events that will relate to plot backstory; and sometimes they involve characters whose actions need to be shown so that the novel itself can make sense from the beginning. Sometimes the prlogue is used to establish something about the protagonist, but in a situation not otherwise directly tied to the main plot. If you remember the opening scenes of Raiders of the Lost Ark, when Indy is in South America looking for the golden statue. We learn a lot about the character in those action-packed minutes so that when the novel starts and we meet him as a bookish college teacher, we know that this isn't WHO he really is. Take a tip, though. Except in historical novels, some horror and some thrillers, editors generally don't want to see a prologue. The editorial view these days is: give us the protagonist on the first page and get right into the story.
Prologue I suggest trying to avoid a prologue if you are not using it for a purpose, rather an extension of you story. It can be useful to push through a concept, but can also be harmful. All depending on your writing style. A prologue should be whatever length you need it. I feel that a prologue the size of a chapter is a little ridiculous. The goal of one is to give your story a setting or a feel. Foreshadowing, if you will. If you are going to be spending most of your time explaining in your story how you got to the starting point it will get tedious and often repeat itself. It can also be used as a good start up to portray a feeling, of the situation or the world. You should avoid using any main characters or main villains in the prologue, seeing they should be covered elsewhere in your book. Imagine it as setting your reader up for their adventure, rather than putting them in your adventure immediately. If you would like to include that 'prologue' still why not blend it smoothly into your first chapter. It will take some editing and reformatting of idea's, but if it is that important it will be worth it.
In my opinion, that is about the worst reason to use a prologue. You are muche better off scrapping the prologue entirely in that case. By the way, why the thread archaeology? And on your very first post, no less.
Elaboration in fear that it wasn't quite understood. Robert Jordan, book 1 of Wheel of Time. He has the event of 'the breaking of the world' occur in front of the reader. It gives you a feeling on how dark this world really is, also giving you a event in history at the same time. This is essentially the event that creates how the world is in the day the book actually begins. Hence, the author wrote a very good beginning giving a background to start from, but not ruining the story itself. All through the book when this moment in time is spoken about or this legendary character is mentioned you mind goes back to how it was then. Feels as though it holds that reader in a dark area, whether or not the book seems dark in the chapters your reading.
what cog meant by 'archeology' isn't your edit of your original post, but that the posts you're responding to are over a year old...
How long is too long? I ask this because I'm writing a story and its prologue may end up being six to seven pages. I've been told to just make it Chapter One, but the problem I see with that is that the events in it happen before the actual story (1,200 years earlier) and set the tone for the story. It could make a separate novel by itself, if I were to detail everything before the event I wrote about. Also, the main story is the tale of another character and their struggle, while the prologue explains that individual's companion and how they came to be, so I still see it unfitting to include it within the entire story. What bothers me, though, is that I think I'm making it too long and I have rarely seen any (if there are any) prologues that long. I've seen a few three pagers, but not one of my length.
Firstly, in the writing industry it's standard to judge length by number of words, rather than page length. Given that people have no idea what font, size or other formatting you're using, it makes it easier for us to appreciate how much writing you're talking about. Secondly, do you need a prologue at all? As I see it, the prologue provides backstory to a secondary character? Why couldn't it be included within the story? A lot of prologues are either not prologues, or not necessary at all, and one of the biggest pitfalls is using a prologue as an info dump. I'd recommend having a think about whether the prologue is strictly necessary, or whether you could give the reader the same information in the body of the story, later on perhaps.
I'm using 12 point font, Times Roman, and its currently four pages long in MS Word. It does serve as a backstory, and it is the opening to the entire world I have created. It's difficult to describe without showing the actual piece itself, but I'll try to summarize it: The main story is about an elven woman that becomes the wielder of a demonic and sentient blade. The prologue describes how that sword came to be. I open with a war scene, so it's not much of an "information dump", but I do put in a few historical/lore things in there; however, very few. I have it planned that I'm going to start Chapter One off by introducing the antagonists, but no names are given and their motives are vague throughout the first book. This book is going to explain the sword's history, through journal entries written by one of its first wielders, and the life of the main character. I have reviewed it for the last four months, and I just can't see what I'm writing as Chapter One. I see it serving the purpose of a prologue, just like I said, I'm afraid of the length it'll be.
Prologues can and do work, but history lessons often don't. It's a difficult balance. Names and places and events that occur have less meaning to a reader if they're not anchored with characters they've come to know, for example. Then, if it is followed by not giving names and only vague motives, what is going to keep the reader going and not moving on? Remember, your first audience (unless you intend to vanity or self-publish) is going to be agents (sought to represent your work) and/or editors (submitted to consider publishing your work). Even if you self-publish, you still have to hook and keep the reader interested. A second red flag turned up, which may be nothing of concern at all, but you list this as the first book...of a series or a trilogy or the like? Remember, as a first time author, your first novel should stand alone, tell a complete, satisfying story. Sure there can be openings for various plot elements to continue in other books, but trying to sell a series straight off is vastly more difficult than a good stand alone novel. Also, as was indicated, word count is what is used to estimate length, not pages, even if you give the font and margins, etc. Just refer to the word count listed at the bottom of your MS Word document or however it is calculated on your word processor. There used to be (and still isn't unheard of) other methods of calculating the length of a novel, but for general purposes the document count is close enough of an estimate. As far as length for the prologue, if while writing it, you're concerned that it's too long, then it probably is. How much does the reader need to know to move forward. That's all that is needed, and nothing more. A good action prologue that incorporates a good bit of action and adds character/color to the opening of the novel while serving its purpose of setting up the reader for what is needed to understand the story can of course be an asset. What Banzai was indicating, I believe, is that often the information provided in the prologue is better suited for being incorporated within the context of the story. In the end, don't fret over having a prologue or not at this stage. Write it and move on. Get the first draft finished. You're going to have to edit and revise anyway. At that time you can fix, reduce, eliminate or keep as is, the prologue as written based on the entire novel. Sorry if I rambled a bit. Good luck with your writing. Terry
I took into account names and such, so I removed city names, which was the one thing that you brought to my attention. The rest are just character names now, names that pop up several times throughout the story. The reason I'm writing a series is because the story is too vast to just make it a stand alone novel. I've had the idea(s) for years -- seven years to be exact. Everything has to be written, or nothing at all. That's another issue I have with it, I almost need one (or two) more writers because it has became that large of a project. Some have told me to write another piece on the side... but a lot of my other ideas aren't as detailed as this one. I hate rules sometimes. What if a piece was written well? If a piece is excellent, why would it need to follow rules? Why can't feeling alone be enough? Anyway, thanks for the advice.
Rules, if that's what you want to call them, can be broken. But one thing to keep in mind is that publishing is a business. In my opinion, you should strive to write your first novel (or part of the series) so that it does stand alone, so that there is a complete story arc. If you sell the first, the others (rest of the story) can follow. Or, as was suggested, write another great story. Get established with a publisher and establish a reader base and then the grand, multi-volume story may be possible to get published. Terry
The kind of prologue you are describing, which Terry refers to as a history lesson, is what I would most urge you to discard. Instead, let the characters of your story discover the relevent bits of the past, and the reader discovers it at the same time. By then, both your characters and the reader are burning for that knowledge. Stick with story, not backstory. As for your novel being too long, why not concentrate on a sufficiently challenging first goal. You may drop some clues that there is something greater building, but keep them few and subtle. Keep the focus on the lesser objective. Then when you write your first sequel, you can being to develop the larger picture.
George R.R. Martin has longer prologues in his book. I believe Game of Thrones is around 15-20 pages long (if I have to guess). That's book-format, though, not typed on page. It's your book. I've seen many longer prologues. Many. What genre is the story?
is that 4 pages double-spaced, or single?... and why not give a word count, to make it simpler? i agree that you probably should dole out that info as you tell the story, rather than making it an obvious pages-long info dump...
Fantasy. And for the people asking me the word count: 1515 It's also not an "information dump" because I removed all but one historical thing, and it's an actual scene, a war scene that happens 1,200 years before the main story. It doesn't reveal anything other than how the sword came to be, which is brief and not fully explained--and happens during a battle, not in a wizard's tower. The story is about the sword, but its creation doesn't take away from the story since the story is about its symbolism; that is where I want interest focused on. It's a piece of self-discovery and philosophical value that I disguised with fantasy elements. And though it is a fantasy, it's more modern than the typical fantasy, and a bit steampunk. You'd just have to see the prologue yourself to truly judge it, but I don't plan on posting until much, much later. Right now, I'm more worried about the prologue's length, which MsMyth seemed to have given me reassurance about lol.
Precisely what I was trying to say. A bit of mystery about it at the beginning might be a good thing, to keep the reader interested.
