Swing or duck, every writer holds an opinion or faces the dilemma about “prologue.”

Whenever you offer a novel to the public, you’ve made a decision.

As you ponder, keep in mind the decision often hinges, not on right or wrong, but effective versus ineffective.

Perhaps you’re in the crowd with Author Elmore Leonard and rile against prologues.

Even he had to conjure up how to begin a novel.

Other writers don’t lob a full-scale right hook, but pepper their malcontent with little jabs that no matter what is written should “show” and not “tell.” There’s a point, see number 4 below.

If you join him and dispense with a “prologue,” you’re still faced with how to start.

Four options remain:

1.     Protagonist or villain action.

2.     In media res, or a fancy way to say in the middle of the action.

3.     A frame device. Think Titanic and a character reminiscing about the past.

4.     Be sneaky and use a prologue, but don’t call it that.

The first three are straightforward. Number four deserves greater attention. What is being sneaky? Here is a non-exhaustive list.

1.     Use a time/place reference, for example, The ides of March, Caesar’s Senate.

2.     Use a recipe, an extract from a textbook, an e-mail, a newspaper clipping, or

any number of items that represent your novel’s organizing principle.

To stray beyond prologue into a full discussion of organizing principles will be lengthier than this article was meant to be. A frame device may be an organizing principle. The simple inclusion of the day’s date as Author A. J. Finn incorporates into the woman in the window.

In specific genres (science fiction or historical sagas) a map or family tree is a prologue without the identifier.

As there is no definitive answer, the tussle over prologues will continue as long as novels are written and published. If a prologue is used, ponder these three hints:

1.     Don’t let it be an information dump of every quirk you’ve given your characters.

2.     Don’t write a lengthy prologue in italic. Italic hurts human eyes if administered in large doses.

3.     Don’t “tell.” “Show.” Enough said? Well, no. Don’t employ clichés. The world has read enough stories that started on a “dark and stormy” night.