Writing Woes

I have recently noticed that I always start my writing with a prologue. I think I've not done it only once since I started this whole 'writing to be published' endeavor. Anyway, I was thinking to myself why I always start this way, and I think I may have the answer.

I start writing with very vague details about the main character. From those details I construct a prologue to cement the main conflict in my mind. You see, I don't do it for the reader I do it so that as I'm writing I can go back and read the prologue to make sure I'm on the right track of where the story is supposed to be headed.

Another reason, I thought of, that could be why I start with a prologue is just to have a starting point. Did that make an sense? Let me explain. Instead of writing words that come into my head I write scenes and dialogue as I see and hear them, played out like a movie, in my mind. So that prologue would sort of be the voice over during the opening credits. It just seems very off to me to start with dialogue.

Now that I've got it figured out I ask myself, since I don't do it for the reader, in the final copy, do I leave the prologue out or do I let it stay?

I just thought for fun's sake I'll post the prologue to the still untitled short story that I've been talking about forever. Here goes.


Alexandera could feel them touching her. Like spider webs across the skin. Light and eerie. There have been so many coming through Demon souls. So far, they didn’t know she could see them, feel them. She wondered if it was just her or if the mortal skin around her could feel, too. If those same mortal eyes can see them, beautiful and devastating.
Someone- something- left the gates unguarded.

Alexandera shouldn’t know these things, but her father made sure she knew what she was before he left. Half-demon, half-human. Hell on Earth. Most half-breeds don’t survive, but Alexandera’s father kept her safe. It was her father, Vigilo’s job to keep the souls in their realm, the fifth of the seven hidden worlds. Why they were out now could only mean that he was in trouble; something was letting them out. There were only two beings who knew how to take them back into the hidden worlds. Vigilo and Alexandera. She would have to find him or risk her life and the life of her mother to save Earth, the Fourth World, Realm of the Mortals.

Enjoy my friends, and have a great day!