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Anybody Can Write a Novel

Chapter 4 “Plot Points” – Section 1 “The Prologue”

With Links to Supplementary Material

Now that we have finally assembled all the pieces necessary—a World, an Outline, and a Cast of Characters—it is finally time for us to begin writing our story! If you haven't already, you may want to brush up on the guides of How to Write Every Paragraph, and How to Write Every Chapter of your novel—as those two guides will be integral to helping this one to work.

Step 1: Compile a list of the events, world exposition, and protagonist actions that are necessary for the Inciting Incident.

The purpose of your Prologue is to set your story up for the most dynamic and comprehensive Inciting Incident (the plot point at which your story is set in motion) possible. But, in order to do this, there may be certain things about your world or characters that your audience needs to understand, or events that need to take place in order for the Inciting Incident to be possible. Write these down so that your thoughts can be completely devoted to writing the best Prologue possible, and not to remembering details.

Step 2: Set up and build pressure for an explosive Inciting Incident.

One way of thinking of the Prologue is like the part of “Home Alone” where Kevin is setting up all the traps and surprises for Harry and Marv (and the audience). By revealing the setup of the traps, the movie did not ruin the surprise but built anticipation for a payoff, which was certainly delivered. Trigger events that will clue your reader in that something significant is going down, in order to build anticipation and interest from the beginning.

Step 3: Create an initial Hook—foreshadowing, Themes, or a Mystery

The second priority for your Prologue (although of equal importance) is to create a Hook—something that will fuel your reader's interest from the very beginning. Remember, it is not the job of the reader to work through the “boring part” of your story in order to get to the “good parts”. Every part should be the “good part” of the story. And so you should trigger interest and mystery from page one—creating a question so compelling that it will drive your reader all the way to the Inciting Incident.

Step 4: Your Prologue should establish the norms of your World before the Inciting Incident.

Your last priority is to establish what your World or the life of your Protagonist was like, before the Inciting Incident. We do this in order to create an appreciation for how much the Inciting Incident has changed things for the Protagonist. Otherwise, we might think that Harry Potter was always a wizard, and that going to Hogwarts was the norm for all children in his world. However, this must be done in the subtle details as you craft the structure for the previous three steps.

Step 5: Make sure that the Prologue has the same pace and feel as the rest of your novel.

A common mistake in writing is that the author will create an exciting Prologue that exists as a False Hook for readers—leading them to no payoff or a remainder of the story that is not what the author promised. There is no better way to make your reader feel cheated than this. So make sure that your tone, writing style, and level of excitement in your Prologue matches up with the rest of your novel.

Step 6: Once you have finished writing the Prologue, know what to cut.

Remember that the Prologue is not your world's exposition trash-bin. If you see paragraphs of non-essential exposition (meaning, they will contribute nothing to the inciting incident and likely bore your readers), cut it, put it in a separate document, and save it for later. Everything in your Prologue should be essential to the plot. If anything in it can be cut, without it affecting the power of the plot or the Inciting Incident, cut it. It's just filler information that can be more subtly revealed later in the story.

Step 7: Know that your Prologue CAN and often should be combined with your first chapter.

Now, if you're just beginning to read along with us, I want to let you know that the theory behind my process of writing a novel, is that while rules and conventions are meant to be broken, they should be broken purposefully and only once you have objectively judged a better alternative to the rules. Also, creating within and conforming yourself to structure has been proven to enhance creativity—just like the use of poetic forms. But, after you have followed the structure and have judged that cutting the Prologue (or adding it to the first chapter) will serve your story better, feel free to do it!

Step 8: Edit the Prologue with your Writing Partner, and trust their critiques.

Remember that many of these steps will require your brutally honest Writing Partner to test, and criticize, and help you to put through countless drafts until you get them right. Together, you should break down each element (paragraph, theme, and idea) in your Prologue, judge its worth, and see how it could be bettered. Use this article as a sort of checklist with your Writing Partner, in order to weed out that which does not belong and to make more dynamic that which works well. However, this is best done after finishing your first draft completely.

Feel free to comment with other suggested resources. Any questions about writing? Things you want me to discuss? Comment or send me a message and I will be glad to reply or feature my response in a later article. If you enjoy my reviews, please feel free to share my articles with friends, add it to your favorites, become a watcher on my page, or send send a llama my way!

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