I thought these are two words for the same thing.
In Lost stories was a question answered with "Building a Better Past" by tendertouch.
I clicked on the link and on the title page there are both:
'Foreword' followed by 'Prologue' and then 'Chapter 1'.
I haven't started reading so don't know yet why the author differentiated between both.
My question is to you other authors, do you differentiate between foreword and prologue?
HM.
Yes.
I would have said that a forward is the author addressing the reader outside of the story while a prologue is backstory to set up the main story.
Then I decided to look it up and I found this:
https://proofed.com/writing-tips/what-is-the-difference-between-a-preface-a-foreword-and-a-prologue/
Preface – An introduction written by the main author(s) to provide the story behind how they conceived and wrote the book.
Foreword – Written by someone other than the author of the book, typically to endorse it or to discuss its relevance to the subject area.
Prologue – An introduction that sets the scene for the story to come.
What this calls a preface is what I was thinking a forward was.
Foreword – Written by someone other than the author of the book, typically to endorse it or to discuss its relevance to the subject area.
I wonder whether that's becoming archaic, with many authors now writing their own forewords. Neither a preface nor a foreword should advance the story, although some non-authorial forewords use it to discuss key issues in the story.
AJ
The few author written forwards I've seen in dead tree books are what the source I cited describes as a Preface.
It's not about the story itself. It's the author speaking directly to the reader, thanking editors and others who helped and/or describing issues with/about the process of writing the story.
The few author written forwards I've seen in dead tree books are what the source I cited describes as a Preface.
That sounds fair to me. I'm thinking of including a foreword with an almost complete novel if I ever get around to finishing it, because I'm too stupid to know how to put text on the story page. The content would have been put in the preface once upon a time.
My copy of 'Great Expectations' has a page at the front placing it in the context of Dickens' life. It doesn't have a designation so I guess it's not a prologue nor a preface nor a foreword ;-)
BTW, the word is 'foreword' - are you aware you keep spelling it 'forward'?
AJ
There is also the term Introduction.
The Prologue and Introduction seemed to me to be the same. However, when I researched the two terms, I found definitions that indicated they are similar and definitions that say they are different.
I also found definitions that indicate that Exposition is the formal term for Introduction and definitions that indicate they are different.
My conclusion is there are many 'so called' experts on the internet that seem to disagree with each other - I came to that conclusion many years ago.
What term would you use for a section that merges different types of content that would normally be in a Preface, Introduction, or Prologue?
For example: A section that addresses why the author wrote the story, provides background information that is not provided in the story, and then addresses the characters and plot of the story.
don't forget the general introduction, overview, prolegomene and preamble in addition to the introduction, preface, prologue, foreword...
