In many stories (but not all), a story starts before the beginning. This is called a prologue (pronounced PRO- log). A writer will have a small scene that takes place before the story really starts, sometimes many years before. The point of this scene is to show events that will affect the story once our hero takes the first steps on his journey.
This scene, or chapter of a book, will usually be very short and not reveal too much; exposition (the art of revealing details in a story) is for the hero to discover along with you. It’s there to give you some information that you’ll refer to later. You probably don’t know what it means yet, but it’s important.
Some examples include:
(Art and Story by Kazu Kabuishi)
- In Frozen, two loving sisters, one who is capable of magic, are playing in their home when an accident occurs. In order to prevent harm to others, Elsa is told to hide away in their home and conceal her magical powers.
- In the prologue of the Amulet series of graphic novels, our hero Emily and her mother are left alone in the snow after a car accident kills her father.
- In the new Ultraman series, the entire history of Ultraman is explained.
- Four baby turtles take residence in the New York City sewer and are discovered by a rat who’s a martial arts master, which is how the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were created.
Often, the prologue involves an explanation of how our hero, or the world he lives in, came to be. A prologue is a good tool for explaining something that’s unusual about the hero in some way, such as how an infant got a scar on his head and came to be an orphan, or how four turtles living in the sewer came to grow to unusual size and become masters of the martial arts.
orphan: noun
a child whose parents have died
When both her parents died, she was taken to a home for orphans.
Regarding orphans, you’ll notice that many, even most, of our heroes have no parents; their parents are either absent or have died. You’ll understand why when we begin reading about the hero, but it’s no coincidence. Just consider some of these examples:
- Superman
- Batman
- Spider-Man (the original one)
- Harry Potter
- Luke Skywalker of Star Wars
- Anna and Elsa of Frozen
- Raya of Raya and the Last Dragon
- The Baudelaire children in A Series of Unfortunate Events
And many more. In short, it’s an easy way to make the hero stand on his own, without the support and love that a parent provides.
- Has there been a prologue in your life? Was there an event long ago that had an effect on your life today? What was it, and how do you think it could be affecting you?
- Could you be living a prologue for your future life right now? What could you be doing now to ensure your life in the future is what you want it to be?
Now that the prologue has fulfilled its purpose, let’s give the story a proper start in the hero’s Ordinary World.
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