In a recent blog post by James Scott Bell (http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/2010/04/death-to-prologues.html), the author discusses his thoughts about the importance of prologues and when to use them. Two years ago, I was fortunate enough to attend an SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators http://www.scbwi.org) conference, Writers' Intensive. I had brought with me my first 500 pages of my fantasy novel to share with a group of writers and an editor or agent. Right before our readings, a panel of agents stated that prologues are in the past and are no longer necessary or even wanted. They said a prologue is a sign of bad writing. Well, imagine my humiliation at having brought a prologue to read. I'd wished I had brought my chapter one. Although my prologue gave backstory that was important to the main character in my novel, I was told the information could be slowly flushed into the the main story. I spent a year revising and fixing, deleting the prologue, and rewriting most of the chapters. Guess what? The novel is so much stronger than before, and I really didn't need the prologue! This is not to say that we should never have prologues, but we should rethink our reasons for having one. What do you think? Are prologues more acceptable in middle grade/young adult novels than in stories for adults? Or is it the other way around?
Read James Scott Bell's post in the link above to see his great ideas about the use of prologues.
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