A prologue is a self-contained opening section of story that sits before chapter one: a different time, a different viewpoint, or an event whose meaning only becomes clear later. It is part of the text, not front matter, so it carries arabic page numbering starting at 1 and opens on a right-hand page.
It is also the most argued-about element in a novel, and the one agents most often say they skip.
No Style Manual Defines It
Worth knowing before you take anyone's rule as authoritative. The Chicago Manual of Style has no entry for "prologue". Its index reads simply: "prologues. See introductions." New Hart's Rules, the British equivalent, never uses the word at all across its entire chapter on the parts of a book.
What that redirect settles is placement. Chicago treats a prologue as a kind of introduction, and both authorities put the ordinary introduction in the text rather than the prelims. New Hart's Rules:
"The introduction is properly part of the text of the book (except in special contexts such as editions of literary texts, where the editor's introduction forms part of the prelims). The Arabic pagination begins with the first page of the introduction, which therefore must fall on a recto."
Yale University Press, whose manuscript guidelines set out the same order, gives the test in one line: "if the reader must read the introduction in order to understand the rest of the book, the introduction does not belong in the front matter." A prologue is story, so the reader must read it, so it is text.
Numbering and Placement
Three consequences follow, and they are the practical part of this page:
Arabic numerals, starting at 1. Not roman. The front matter's roman sequence ends before the prologue begins, for the reasons in why front matter uses roman numerals.
It opens on a recto. A right-hand page, like any chapter opening in a printed book. See why chapters start on a right-hand page.
Numbered or not, both are allowed. New Hart's Rules permits either treatment: the section "may be treated (and numbered) as the first chapter of the work, or it may be headed simply Introduction, the numbered chapters following thereafter", and when it addresses the work as a whole "it is usually left unnumbered." In fiction the overwhelming convention is unnumbered, titled "Prologue", with chapter one following.
When It Works
A prologue earns its place when it does something a first chapter cannot:
- A scene the protagonist was not present for, in a book otherwise locked to their viewpoint.
- An event long before the main story, whose consequence drives the plot.
- A frame, opened here and closed by an epilogue.
- A promise of tone or stakes, in a novel whose opening chapters are necessarily quiet.
- A voice you cannot use again, such as a narrator addressing the reader directly once.
The common thread is that the material is genuinely outside the main narrative's reach. That is the test.
When It Fails
Prologues have a poor reputation for a reason, and the failure modes are consistent.
It is backstory. Explaining the world or the history before the story starts asks the reader to care about people they have not met. Backstory belongs woven into the narrative, not stacked in front of it.
It is chapter one wearing a hat. If it is the same protagonist, the same timeframe and the same viewpoint, it is your first chapter. Retitle it.
It is a false action opening. A violent scene disconnected from the book, added to buy attention before a slow start, is a promise the novel then breaks.
It is skippable. Many readers skip anything labelled "Prologue", and agents say so openly. If skipping it loses nothing, it should not be there. If skipping it loses something essential, consider whether that material can survive as chapter one instead.
The honest test: delete it, read the first chapter cold, and see whether the book is worse. Often it is not.
What Deckle Does
Deckle has no Prologue document type, and that is correct rather than an omission, because a prologue is structurally a chapter.
Create it as an ordinary chapter, title it "Prologue", and it behaves right by default: it starts a new page, opens on a recto in the print PDF, joins the arabic page sequence, carries the running headers, and appears in a generated table of contents.
Two settings worth adjusting:
- Turn off chapter numbering for that document, so the heading reads "Prologue" rather than "Chapter 1" and your first real chapter takes the number 1.
- Keep it below the front matter in the Binder. Position determines numbering, so a prologue placed among the front matter documents would be numbered in roman, which is wrong.
Deckle's Front Matter menu offers Title Page, Copyright, Dedication, Epigraph, Foreword, Preface and Table of Contents. A prologue is deliberately not among them.
For the counterpart at the other end of the book, see what is an epilogue in a novel, and for the elements it is confused with, prologue vs preface vs foreword.
Common Mistakes
- Putting it in the front matter. It is text, and it starts the arabic numbering.
- Numbering it as chapter one. Permitted, but the fiction convention is a title with no number.
- Using it for backstory. The reader has no one to care about yet.
- Writing a prologue that is really chapter one. Same character, same time, same viewpoint means it is a chapter.
- Adding action that is not connected to the book. It reads as a bait and switch.
- Assuming everyone reads it. Many readers skip it, so nothing essential should live only there.
FAQ
Q: Do agents hate prologues? A: Many are sceptical because so many are backstory. A prologue doing real work is not a problem.
Q: Should the prologue be numbered? A: Convention in fiction is unnumbered, titled "Prologue", with chapter one following.
Q: Does it start at page 1? A: Yes. It is text, so the arabic sequence begins with it.
Q: Do I need an epilogue if I have a prologue? A: No. They pair naturally when the prologue opens a frame, but neither requires the other.
Q: How long should it be? A: Shorter than a chapter, usually. Length signals importance, and a long prologue delays the book.