Here are a few more notes on prologues. In some cases, even if it involves your main character, but it occurred a long time ago, then you might want to use a prologue.  Another way to handle past events is through flashbacks. A flashback can vary in length, but if it’s too long, the reader may get lost in space and time. Then again, some background information may be too comprehensive to cover in snippets.

If you’re unclear on such a situation, this is where your beta readers and author friends with whom you share your work can be of tremendous help. It may even send you back to the drawing board as far as your story is concerned. Are you starting it too late? Or is it something that could be covered later as a prequel?

The good news is that any plot with that much context or character with that much history is probably a great one. It may even become a series instead of a single book. I know first hand how that goes. My Star Trails Tetralogy didn’t start out as a four book series with a prequel and full-length side story, but that’s how it wound up. My current WIP was supposed to be a cozy mystery, but it quickly evolved into a not-so-cozy conspiracy thriller that will be long enough upon completion to split into a trilogy.

Once your characters come to life and start writing the story for you, there’s no telling where you might wind up.