What prologue type attracts readers?

[Le_ther]

Honestly, after trying to push my brain to find the most suitable format for a prologue. I wanna try to get public opinion and some writers on this.

I keep wondering how were you able to create a good prologue/foundation for your story?

Did you start as:

[Question type] - you start the prologue with a question and mostly prominent to isekai troupe and an example of this is like:

"How did this happen?

Why did I get transmigated to this sh*ty visual novel game that no one likes?

And why do I look like the famous third-rate villain?"


[World building type] - you start the prologue with a huge info dump about what is the situation of the world or what type it is.

"After the world had depleted all of its resources, Humanity began to deteriorate. The world drastically changed as some of the lands became uninhabitable and life begin to dwindle deep into the darkness."


[Situation type] - the prologue starts where the mc finds themselves in a strange situation which can either be a backstory or foreshadowing.

"
"run" was the last voice the little girl heard before she run away into the forest. She runs with tears as she leaves behind everything on her back. She ran away while being chased by black-clothed knights.

She ran until she was finally stopped by a cliff. she looked down below to find the raging sea waters. She looked behind her and finds the knights are still following her. Left with no choice the little girl jumped towards the waters.

In desperation she uttered her last words, "I will never forgive you!!"

"


This is just my personal way to describe a prologue and don't think too much about my sh*tty examples. I think there is a much better way to call them but I wanna see how professional authors, normal authors, and some readers view which type of prologue attracts people to a story.

 

[SailusGebel]

No prologue is the best prologue.

 

[Paul_Tromba]

I had my prologue open with a transcendent being taking form and picking the MC at random to be their avatar of sorts in order to see what would happen. Don't know whether that's good or not. I would say that it depends on the reader and the audience you have.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Well, preferences are very subjective. There is no 'standard' when writing the 'best' prologue, other than to follow the vague, "Make it interesting" advice. And what's interesting to a reader depends on his/her preferences.

In any case, let me share my story's prologue (the first paragraph of the first volume). I did it because I noticed a lot of positive 'hooks' whenever they give my novel a shot.

"Silence prevailed in the desert valley as the opposing hosts met. Thousands of colorful banners fluttered in the air. The light reflected from the armors of the knights, gunners, and pikemen standing on the other side of my position blinded me. Adjusting my sight to the brightness, I watched the wide expanse in front of us, as the leaders of the two of the greatest worlds of this land met each other at the center: the spiritual head of the human armies, the Great Saint of Chersea, Madelaine Ann Rubinforth, and the king of the demon clans, Hurion Devras IV."

It's written in 1st Person POV. In some sites, it's also accompanied by a colored illustration.

Spoiler: Illustration

 

[melchi]

Each reader has their own likes and dislikes. One cannot treat them as a singular group. I would suggest focus on being clear so the readers that might be interested can identify something that they like.

For example, if I was going to write a story where an artist named Hans is the MC I'd try to have Hans doing art or art related stuff at every opportunity. Start with a scene painting, have him chat with his agent, go to an art gallery to chat with a side character, an antagonist could badmouth his art behind his back for example. This establishes an art-like narrative.

 

[TotallyHuman]

for me a prologue is good as long as it doesn't step on landmines and has half-way decent grammar. If its pitch is good enough to get me to read the prologue and the prologue is good enough to get me to read the next chapter it is good enough.

Really, the prologue is not as important as your pitch to attract the reader so I usually put my pitch into the prologue.

Description + title = basic pitch
Prologue = a further pitch
The rest = a delivery on the pitch

 

[CupcakeNinja]

Honestly, after trying to push my brain to find the most suitable format for a prologue. I wanna try to get public opinion and some writers on this.

I keep wondering how were you able to create a good prologue/foundation for your story?

Did you start as:

[Question type] - you start the prologue with a question and mostly prominent to isekai troupe and an example of this is like:

"How did this happen?

Why did I get transmigated to this sh*ty visual novel game that no one likes?

And why do I look like the famous third-rate villain?"


[World building type] - you start the prologue with a huge info dump about what is the situation of the world or what type it is.

"After the world had depleted all of its resources, Humanity began to deteriorate. The world drastically changed as some of the lands became uninhabitable and life begin to dwindle deep into the darkness."


[Situation type] - the prologue starts where the mc finds themselves in a strange situation which can either be a backstory or foreshadowing.

"
"run" was the last voice the little girl heard before she run away into the forest. She runs with tears as she leaves behind everything on her back. She ran away while being chased by black-clothed knights.

She ran until she was finally stopped by a cliff. she looked down below to find the raging sea waters. She looked behind her and finds the knights are still following her. Left with no choice the little girl jumped towards the waters.

In desperation she uttered her last words, "I will never forgive you!!"

"


This is just my personal way to describe a prologue and don't think too much about my sh*tty examples. I think there is a much better way to call them but I wanna see how professional authors, normal authors, and some readers view which type of prologue attracts people to a story.

a prologue is just to set up the rest of the story.

I hate prologues that tell me future events, or even hint at it. i dont need info dumps because it can all be explained at a better pace as the story goes. And question types are similar, but dumber.

"HOw dID i" nah shut the fuck up and show me how all this happened first. If you tell me the good stuff NOW im just n ot going to give a fuck about the lead up because i want the exciting bits. Its like Boruto. Look how long we have wait to get to the stuff we saw at the prologue. The thing that drew us in to begin with.

Sure im interested to know how it happend, but its TOO FUCKING LONG. You gott keep it short and sweet or our tolerance ends quickly.

So again, use prologues only to set up future events. None of this "How did i end up here " or those future event type of situations.

Have a sequential order or fuck off, i say.

 

[AiLovesToGrow]

The best prologues are short, attention grabbing, chronologically taking place before and not after the events of the first chapter, typically from the POV of a character that is important to the story. They are best used in speculative fiction, because to build up a world takes time, often making the first chapters feel slower paced. The prologue should be an explosive firework going off before the slowly building fire of the story starts off.

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

It really depends on the audience.

I have some vague advice that may help to see the image, even tho it doesn't have any useful point :

If it romance, focus to be poetic. Use Barnum effect to make reader feel that they can relate their romance feeling even tho they're not.

If it action, it better be thrilling rush experience. The situation is bad, something bad is going to happen and accidentally the character have fuxked up circumstances. The time is only three week. It's time for revenge, or something.

If it a story for young adult, put some intriguing concept of world building. Like a town that live inside a moving train.

If it for old people above 40, you can make old style paragraph that similar to old novels.

Always try to build the flow and subvert reader expectations.

Don't write anything like infodump that isn't going to be relevant for the plot.

A character doesn't have to die to be tragic, they can just forced to move to another town and have a sad moment before leaving.

Don't just hide character ability to give reader suspense, show how much character can do and make them use their ability in different ways that reader didn't expect due to the writing style that prevent reader front thinking that the character can use their ability this way.

Of course, instead of hiding the ability, you can just show them in one chapter and never mentioned it again afterwards. until it's the suspense thrilling action and suddenly the character use that ability again and make the reader question their memories instead of blaming author for forced power up.

And the real advice is :
GET AN EDITOR

Those people can help you to check your writing and improve them. The improvement is very immense.

 

[Akaichi]

Cut into action!
this always works.
You can afterthat dump or sprinkle the expositions throughout.

 

[J_Chemist]

Used my prologue has an extended first chapter. Honestly have no idea how they work so I just winged it.

 

[greyblob]

prologues are a waste of time. start the story by introducing the mc and their character.

 

[BearlyAlive]

My prologue is kinda bad. I have my MC and his Imouto-type character bickering about isekai clichees and then starting chap 1 with said clichees. I'll try to revise this, tho.

The best ones ab imo are the ones that start in medias res with a WTF moment before pedalling back to how and why things went SNAFU

 

[NitroxDarks]

As long as a baby can understand it, you won't receive complaints.

 

[Num]

Honestly I just skip them

 

[Ilikewaterkusa]

Honestly, after trying to push my brain to find the most suitable format for a prologue. I wanna try to get public opinion and some writers on this.

I keep wondering how were you able to create a good prologue/foundation for your story?

Did you start as:

[Question type] - you start the prologue with a question and mostly prominent to isekai troupe and an example of this is like:

"How did this happen?

Why did I get transmigated to this sh*ty visual novel game that no one likes?

And why do I look like the famous third-rate villain?"


[World building type] - you start the prologue with a huge info dump about what is the situation of the world or what type it is.

"After the world had depleted all of its resources, Humanity began to deteriorate. The world drastically changed as some of the lands became uninhabitable and life begin to dwindle deep into the darkness."


[Situation type] - the prologue starts where the mc finds themselves in a strange situation which can either be a backstory or foreshadowing.

"
"run" was the last voice the little girl heard before she run away into the forest. She runs with tears as she leaves behind everything on her back. She ran away while being chased by black-clothed knights.

She ran until she was finally stopped by a cliff. she looked down below to find the raging sea waters. She looked behind her and finds the knights are still following her. Left with no choice the little girl jumped towards the waters.

In desperation she uttered her last words, "I will never forgive you!!"

"


This is just my personal way to describe a prologue and don't think too much about my sh*tty examples. I think there is a much better way to call them but I wanna see how professional authors, normal authors, and some readers view which type of prologue attracts people to a story.

It would be best to use both question and situation but just merge them carefully

 

[sam9501]

Honestly, after trying to push my brain to find the most suitable format for a prologue. I wanna try to get public opinion and some writers on this.

I keep wondering how were you able to create a good prologue/foundation for your story?

Did you start as:

[Question type] - you start the prologue with a question and mostly prominent to isekai troupe and an example of this is like:

"How did this happen?

Why did I get transmigated to this sh*ty visual novel game that no one likes?

And why do I look like the famous third-rate villain?"


[World building type] - you start the prologue with a huge info dump about what is the situation of the world or what type it is.

"After the world had depleted all of its resources, Humanity began to deteriorate. The world drastically changed as some of the lands became uninhabitable and life begin to dwindle deep into the darkness."


[Situation type] - the prologue starts where the mc finds themselves in a strange situation which can either be a backstory or foreshadowing.

"
"run" was the last voice the little girl heard before she run away into the forest. She runs with tears as she leaves behind everything on her back. She ran away while being chased by black-clothed knights.

She ran until she was finally stopped by a cliff. she looked down below to find the raging sea waters. She looked behind her and finds the knights are still following her. Left with no choice the little girl jumped towards the waters.

In desperation she uttered her last words, "I will never forgive you!!"

"


This is just my personal way to describe a prologue and don't think too much about my sh*tty examples. I think there is a much better way to call them but I wanna see how professional authors, normal authors, and some readers view which type of prologue attracts people to a story.

Honestly a prologue doesn’t mean a whole lot to me as a reader. It is simply another chapter in my mind. If there wasn’t a prologue and the first chapter was written badly or there was some issue I had with it, no prologue would have saved it.

Alternatively, if there was a prologue and it was written badly or something rubbed me the wrong way, I would likely just end it, because a prologue is just another chapter in my mind.

 

[gaylolis]

I never remembered any worthwhile prologue.

To me, the most interesting part comes from the title, synopsis, and the reviews. Anything that gives me the basic idea of their premise in the most straightforward way. Though it also depends whether their stuff is my cup of tea.

 

[Le_ther]

I see. It seems like after reading tons of comments. Prologue seems to be not that important after all it's just the introduction.

 

[twinning-the-blades]

So far, the prologue that catches my attention are either events from the middle or the end of the novel. After realizing it just recently, the prologue of my story is something that would happen in the middle of the novel.