: Re: How long can a prologue be, and what should you not do? A while back I wrote a prologue about the beginning of time and space and all that. One thing I noticed later is that between the

As for anything else in a work, you must ask yourself: "what is this for?".
Everything you put must be there for a reason.
So what is the reason for a prologue? Why a prologue and not, for instance, a chapter 1? Why not spread the prologue info in your normal text? Why does my prologue need a separate identity in the narration flow?

Only by answering these questions you can understand if you need it, and how it must be written.

As a personal opinion, I love prologues. What I like about them, when they work, is:

They set the mood and tone of the world
They introduce fundamental plot elements that are outside the main narrative arc, but become revelead later (for instance: the prologue of Martin's A Game of Thrones shows white walkers very clearly, but they are unseen again for a very long time after that. So why introduce them here? Because the reader must remember that the threat is present)
They can serve as exposition for something you don't want to spend too much time later on. For instance, in the Lord of the Rings movies, the whole Ring's story is condensed in a prologue, so that the viewer knows everything he needs to know right away - that's done, moving on
For these reasons, it must differ a bit in terms of style and pace

The don't list is kind of the opposite of this one:

Don't write a prologue set up in the same time and place of the main plot
Don't write a prologue with the same style and pace of the main plot
Don't use it for exposition that can be spread elsewhere
Don't use it as background for something that can return later

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