I received a lot of responses to my question about the use of a prologue in a novel. Some viewpoints are completely opposed to each other.  I thought I'd share a few at a time.

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I dont know why people skip prolouges... It depends on the book I guess. For some prolouges they don't make sense at all and I might deside to skip it, but usually I do read the prolouge. I sometimes find prolouges pretty intresting and how they actually tie into the book.

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I expect the prologue to hook me!

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I don't think I've read a novel where the prologue wasn't necessary. To me, it's just like another chapter. Sometimes there's a vital key or hint to the story in there and you won't understand until you finish the novel and then I go back and say, "Oh, that's what that meant!" So I think it can be a clever way to sneak some information in there, sort of get the reader intrigued about the story.

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I think it depends on the prologue.  I think I like when they go back to their childhoods the best.

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 I like a good prologue as long as it adds to the story but they are not needed. Sometimes I've read prologues that take away from the story. Here is a good article on it:http://www.foremostpress.com/authors/articles/prologue.html

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I read all prologues on the assumption that, if the author put it there, it's important to the story. Many "prologues" should simply be renamed "Chapter 1." In my opinion, a prologue should be different in time and/or place, but closely related to the main story. A brief setting-of-the-stage, so to speak. Not all books need a prologue. A great opening line accomplishes so much more than an unnecessary prologue.

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Only write a prologue if it is necessary. There is no right or wrong about it. So the question is does your book need a prologue?

I started writing my next book. It doesn't even have a title yet. I have included a prologue. A person in my critique group whom I respect tremendously told me (in a nice way) to ditch the prologue. Then she sent me a link to an article from Writers Digest that says not to include backstory in the first pages of your novel. In other words, don't use prologues.

This upset me. First of all, I'm tired of blanket rules. I think most things "depend." And I happen to be someone who loves prologues. Okay, not a bad one.  But if it is bad, I won't read it and I probably won't read the book either. It's probably a bad book. My friend says she skips prologues all together. I don't understand that.

"Water for Elephants" has a great prologue. Without the prologue, this book will miss something. My prologue is where my story begins. It is backstory in the sense that I then jump ten years forward where I continue. I didn't want to include my opening as a flashback scene.

I took my concern to Book Blogs and someone sent me a link to an article about prologues. It is a thoughtful article as opposed to the one from Writers Digest. Here is the link for those of you who are interested: 
http://www.foremostpress.com/authors/articles/prologue.html

So my question to anyone who cares to tell me what they think is, What is your opinion about prologues?

 

I had a nice publicity piece in the paper come out about me on January 8th.  Here's the link:http://www.applevalley-review.com/node/977