6 prologue examples for a memoir or nonfiction book, and what makes each one work
A prologue opens a book with one vivid moment that the rest of the book explains. These six short examples show different ways to do it in memoir and nonfiction. We wrote them for this page; none is from a real book. Read them for the technique, then write your own from a moment only you can tell.
1. Memoir: start at the turning point
"The phone rang at 4:12 in the morning. I know the time because I stared at the clock for a full minute before I picked up, already knowing. My brother said three words, and the life I had planned for the next twenty years ended in the time it took him to say them. This is the story of what I built instead."
Technique: a precise detail (4:12), withheld information (the three words), and a last line that names the book's journey.
2. Business: the night it nearly failed
"On a Thursday in March, I had nineteen employees, eleven days of cash, and a signed letter from our biggest customer saying they were leaving. I sat in the empty office after everyone went home and wrote two lists: who I would have to tell, and what I would say. I never needed the first list. This book is about the second one."
Technique: hard numbers create stakes immediately, and the closing line connects the scene to what the book teaches.
3. Leadership: a moment the reader recognizes
"She knocked on my door at 4:55 on a Friday, which is when people quit. She sat down, looked at the floor, and said, 'I love this job. I just can't work for you anymore.' I had been her manager for two years. I had no idea. Every manager eventually has that conversation. I want you to have it before it is too late."
Technique: a scene the target reader fears, then a direct turn to them in the last line.
4. Health: the diagnosis
"The doctor did not look up from the screen when she said it. 'Your numbers are the numbers of a sixty-year-old.' I was thirty-eight. I drove home, sat in the driveway with the engine running, and did the math on how many of my daughter's birthdays I might miss. That afternoon I made her a promise. These are the eighteen months it took to keep it."
Technique: a quoted line, a physical image (the running engine), and a promise that sets up the book's arc.
5. Narrative nonfiction: start in the middle
"By the time the second boat capsized, the rescue had been going for six hours and nobody on shore believed there were survivors left. One woman did. She was standing on the pier in a borrowed coat, refusing to leave, and before the night was over she would be proved right in a way that changed the town forever."
Technique: drop into the action at its most tense point and promise an outcome without revealing it.
6. Flash-forward: show where it ends
"Ten years after I was fired, I stood on a stage in front of three thousand people and told them about the worst day of my working life. I am going to tell you about it too. But first I need to tell you how I got there, because it was not the day I was fired that changed everything. It was the morning after."
Technique: show the end first, then pull the reader back to the start with a question they need answered.
Does your book need a prologue?
Usually not. Prologues work best in memoir and narrative nonfiction. In a how-to or business book, readers came for the method, and a prologue makes them wait for it; opening the introduction with a story does the same job. Use a prologue only when you have one scene that is strong enough to stand on its own and that the book later returns to.
For the steps to write one, see the foreword, preface, introduction and prologue guide, which covers how to write a prologue. If a story at the start of your introduction is the better fit, how to write a book introduction has example openings. For the other end of the book, see afterword vs epilogue.
Start here: write down the single moment your book would be nothing without. Describe it in present tense, in under 200 words. If it pulls you in, you may have your prologue.
Common questions
What is a good example of a prologue?
A good nonfiction prologue drops the reader into one vivid moment that the rest of the book explains: the phone call, the diagnosis, the night the company nearly failed. The examples on this page each do that in under 200 words.
How long should a prologue be?
Short. A few pages at most. A prologue is a hook, and every extra page delays chapter one.
Does a nonfiction book need a prologue?
Usually not. Prologues are most common in memoir and narrative nonfiction. In a how-to or business book, a story at the start of the introduction usually does the same job without an extra section.
What is the difference between a prologue and an introduction?
A prologue is usually a scene, told before chapter one, that the book later explains. An introduction tells the reader what the book is about and why it matters.
Sources: all six prologues and the notes on them were written by Scribe Media for this page; none is from a real book. Published by Scribe Media.