Young Writers Society

what do you put in to a introduction to a story? everyone I know just skips over it

Hey Leaseal! This is, like your newest post, so congrats! Oh, and also welcome to YWS!

First off, introductions. Are you sure everyone skips it? I think it's most improbable because it's an indispensable part of any story. See, when you say introduction, you don't mean introducing your character in a bland fashion like simply listing down his or her biography. It's more of an opening; it doesn't actually limit you to where you start. You can begin in the middle of the story (a technique called medias res), you can begin in the most beginning. Some even start with a short poem or song.

In other words, introductions are what indulges your readers to your work. See, you're friends might tell you they skip introductions, but tell me, they do start somewhere, right? That start is the introduction itself. And a good introduction could already hook the readers. What should you put in it? It's totes up to you, but here's a short list of all the wonderful possibilities:

Character
You could start with introducing the character. Not in a way that you'd just reveal everything, though! In introducing a character, a writer would usually show the attitude, personality, pet peeves, hobbies and interests are shown in the character's action, dialogue and thoughts. Instead of saying that the character is always angry, you could describe that he just got angry because of a little thing. You could interest the inside of the character, in other words.

Setting
Place, time and date, those are the introductions for fantasy and sci-fi stories. See, it's sometimes hard to catch up with the setting and background of most out of this world stories, so writers tend to introduce the story with some knowledge-aspect.

Scene
Something exciting! Maybe a battle scene, or a simple action, as long as it leads to the story itself, then this can be a scene introduction.

Now, just my last words, introductions can never be skipped, but its form and style and content can always change. Also the content depends on you. So now, all I want to say is that you try to see for yourself what introduction to include and start writing!

Best of luck, my dear

If you're talking about prologues, which are a specific type of introduction, most readers skip prologues because most prologues are not done well, and a lot of times, prologues can spoil the entire story.

If you want to include a prologue, then there are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Not everyone will read your prologue.

2. Prologues need to be directly relevant to the story in some way.

3. Prologues should never give away the most important parts of the story (like the ending or plot twists).

4. Prologues are not always necessary.

Because prologues are often skipped, any information you include in them should be the kind that's nice to know, but not absolutely essential to understanding the story. Think of the information prologues should contain as a little bit of syrup for your pancakes. You can eat and enjoy your pancakes without the syrup, but the syrup makes the pancakes sweeter.

Prologues should generally not contain information that gives away the ending of the story (like a prophecy) or reveals a major plot twist (like a secret identity or relationship). At the same time, prologues need to tie directly into the story so that the people who read the prologue aren't left wondering why there was even a prologue in the first place.

And it's always a good idea to remember that prologues are not always necessary. It's always worth seeing how the story works without a prologue instead of tacking a prologue on because that's what everyone does.