How should I post my prologue?

[RootBeerBert]

I’ve finished up my first few chapters but after some thinking I realized that the main story really starts after these chapters and they’re more of a prologue but I hadn’t thought of writing a prologue when I first started so I’m not sure how to really to post everything. It’s 4 chapters with around 7k words total. Please lend me some advice great, wise seniors!

 

[MajorKerina]

You can present a multi part prologue so labeled or just give a note that it’s essentially a prologue and include a different distinction for the subsequent chapters. Whatever works for pacing and your preferred presentation.

 

[AuntieMaysLittleCousin]

You normally call a prologue divided in several chapters an 'Introductory Arc'. It's perfectly fine to do this, and lot's of people use it as a way to hook people on. However, I advise you to write a strong, attractive Prologue so that people are drawn to your story, and then specify that these first chapters are a part of your introductory arc

 

[Pujimaki]

Carefully

 

[Tsuru]

........Sorry for the people that know me already but i still gonna repeat the same advice i give to all authors : "Go read more"

For your case. Just try a bunch of novels and study their prologues.
Because all domains of studies is basically copying others to grow early on.
Cooking is copying the recipe or other chefs.
Shooting is copying the instructions of firearms.
School is copying the knowledge of predecessors to your brain (and learning to use it of course)

After seeing more, you can do more.

Funny prologue.
Flashback prologue.
Romantic prologue.
Spoiler prologue where protagonist is maybe dying as a cliffhanger.
Bland prologue of seeing MC normally, and introducing stuff slowly.
Ultra spoiler prologue of showing MC dying of old age and recollecting his memories (this one i think is too old-school as i didn't see it for a while)
Trolling prologue
Misleading prologue
Sudden action prologue (offtopic : just now i got flashback of 2b crashing through the wall at beginning of Nier automata)
Prologue with the pov of someone else and maybe is the narrator of the story
Explanation prologue = kinda like a narrator explaining the background of the world and how humanity is in the brink of extinction against enemies
Sacrifice prologue of a character that got relationship or not with MC (like his father or a random soldier suicide-attack, win war and time-skip)
Prologue POV of FL
Prologue POV of both MC-FL
Prologue of a random character (like a scientific inventing a great invention that gonna have the plot resolve around it)
[Edit : Even possible to do ENEMY-POV-PROLOGUE]

Tired i stop

 

[Deleted member 54065]

I agree with some of the thread replies here advising you that instead of labeling those chapters as 'prologue', you should just make it 'introductory arc'.

But no one's stopping you from exploring alternatives. If you aim to divide your prologue into chapter then upload them in parts (like part 1, part 2, part 3, etc), it's fine. Or you can upload it in one single (and huge) chapter. The only drawback with that is some readers get intimidated with walls of text.

Any case, up to your style. What's important is, the prologue serves its purpose, which is to make your readers interested in reading the rest of your work.

 

[J_Chemist]

My prologue is 20k+. Just send it.

 

[Le_ther]

You can just make as many chapters for a prologue(web novels only ofcourse). It's just that only you the author will be the only one to know when the actual story starts. It can be 1-2 chapter prologue or a wooping 40 chapters(it should be a arc at this point)

 

[Yetano]

An idea of mine is to make the naming of those Prologue(s) you made to be a hook of kind.
Example : (Normal) Prologue: [Sub-title], Part. X

(Experimental) CLASSIFIED - Section. X

(Edgy) What It Takes For Another Of Me? NONE. Pt. X

Maybe 50-50, if you get the audience some 'hook' material on the first paragraph, especially the first few lines.

 

[P00H]

I’ve finished up my first few chapters but after some thinking I realized that the main story really starts after these chapters and they’re more of a prologue but I hadn’t thought of writing a prologue when I first started so I’m not sure how to really to post everything. It’s 4 chapters with around 7k words total. Please lend me some advice great, wise seniors!

Is the prologue about the main characters and their lives? Are the events what happen there bought up again, or do they influence the story in the future?

 

[Lire]

I have an entire arc as a prologue to my isekai. It is 200+ pages.

Don't worry about it, man. Just slap a "Prologue" on the chapter name.

 

[Just.Another.Adult.]

I’ve finished up my first few chapters but after some thinking I realized that the main story really starts after these chapters and they’re more of a prologue but I hadn’t thought of writing a prologue when I first started so I’m not sure how to really to post everything. It’s 4 chapters with around 7k words total. Please lend me some advice great, wise seniors!

i just dropped mine as CHAPTER 0, explained in the description that it works as a prologue for those interested in a longer build up, but is essentially optional... doing it as an "origins/intro arc" or just naming it "prologue" also work~

 

[Kidd_Wadsworth]

I’ve finished up my first few chapters but after some thinking I realized that the main story really starts after these chapters and they’re more of a prologue but I hadn’t thought of writing a prologue when I first started so I’m not sure how to really to post everything. It’s 4 chapters with around 7k words total. Please lend me some advice great, wise seniors!

I am also new to Scribble Hub. So weigh my 'advice' appropriately.

Two suggestions:
1) Post the prologue and ask your readers for comments about its labeling
2) Create a discord account and discuss the fate of your prologue there

In other words, here in this forum you have asked for suggestions, and received some good ones. But perhaps the best people to ask are your readers.

--Kidd