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Q&A Defining a Prologue

Usually a prologue is outside the main flow of the story in some way: Tease with an out-of-sequence scene. The prologue might tease us by previewing a pivotal scene that will occur later in the m...

posted 10y ago by Dale Hartley Emery‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T03:41:56Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/12677
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Dale Hartley Emery‭ · 2019-12-08T03:41:56Z (about 5 years ago)
Usually a prologue is outside the main flow of the story in some way:

- **Tease with an out-of-sequence scene.** The prologue might tease us by previewing a pivotal scene that will occur later in the main storyline. Often this is a snippet of the climax.
- **Give context through a different viewpoint.** A prologue might put the story into a wider context by offering a viewpoint that does not otherwise occur in the main storyline. Perhaps the viewpoint of a character who does not otherwise have a viewpoint scene (or appear directly in the story at all). Or a viewpoint from a different timeframe, either before or after the main story.
- **Dramatic irony.** A prologue might tease us by giving information that the hero will lot learn until much later in the story. Thrillers, for example, often feature prologues from the bad guys' viewpoint, giving us readers information about the scope and dastardliness of the bad guys' plans.
#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2014-08-20T23:16:14Z (over 10 years ago)
Original score: 6