A long time ago, writers worldwide would take a massive dump of exposition in the very first pages of their novels. Fortunately for them, there weren’t that many writers out there, and readers had little to no choice and were, therefore, forced to endure mind-shattering amounts of boredom if they wished to entertain their minds.
But times have been changing….
Info dumping. That’s what prologues were for. This is when a writer decides to dump all of the worldbuilding and backstory into a prologue, thinking that this way, the reader will be amazed by all your brilliant ideas and have a good understanding of the story from the start. But that’s not what happens. Readers open your novel, think, “Oh, not this again,” and close it.
Then you have the in media res trope. In media res, for those who don’t know, it’s when you start the action mid-story. Like those movie intros where someone is about to get hurt badly, the frame freezes, you hear a record scratch, and the narrator steps in, “You’re probably wondering how I got into this mess.” Well, I’m not. I couldn’t care less. I don’t even know who you are, so why don’t you tell us the gosh darn story?
This also means that half of your story is now a flashback. I find the approach dirty and cheap.
Unless you already have an established and loyal audience you should avoid it at all costs. If do have a fan base then you can do whatever you want (to a certain extent, of course). But for most of us, writing an expository or in media res prologue is not a smart move. And some will argue, that writing a prologue at all is not a smart move.
So I made a decision. I would not, under any circumstance, write a prologue. And why would I? It’s commonly known that agents and publishers are severely allergic to prologues and forced to carry an EpiPen wherever they go.
Even if you self-publish, a prologue dilutes the strength of your first chapter. If you have a solid opening scene, don’t mess with it. Your opening pages are life or death here. Don’t take…
