Epigraphs

flowerburgers

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I'm obsessed with picking epigraphs for my projects! I spent all of yesterday parsing through poems and passages from stories and decided on this one for my newly completed short story collection:

“…yes, there, even in the heart, where the filth is pumped in and courses and slanders and pollutes and determines. I will my will, though I may become famous for a mysterious vacancy in that department, that greenhouse.”
—Frank O’Hara, “Meditations in an Emergency”

This is the one I've chosen for my novel-in-progress:

“One night, after practice—some of you might appreciate this—I found myself standing in the unforgivable light of a grocery store, staring at my reflection in a freezer, and realizing: ‘You’re not having a bad day—this is just what you look like, now. This is who the years are making you.’”
—Will Eno, “Behold the Coach, in a Blazer, Uninsured”

Just wanted to share these quotes because I'm obsessed with them. Do you have an epigraph in mind? Does anyone else love choosing them?
 
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Harlequin

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sure, I like them pretty well. I think they can be helpful for tone, or a way to cheat with worldbuilding in secondary fantasy.

for secondary, I'm a little wary of "fake" poetry, that's often never quite as good as it's supposed to be. Fake quotes are usually fine.
 

sideshowdarb

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I always use them, and they're usually quotes / lines that have stuck with me a long time.
 

blackcat777

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I always loved the way Linda Goodman uses them in her astrology books! Lots of Alice In Wonderland, Peter Pan, always something mysterious, fun, and whimsical. When supporting the content and the tone, epigraphs are lovely.
 

The Black Prince

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I managed to use one of my favourite aphorisms (from Conan Doyle) as an epigraph to a crime novel featuring an ostensibly unpleasant and arrogant narrator. It is this:

"Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius."

Just perfect.
 

Pancubuzz

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I'm making short ones for each chapter in my current novel as a way to provide some quick insight into the world itself given it is a fantasy, and how the different fantasy species feel about each other. It's quite fun, but I'm going to stay far away from poetry since I know I'm never as good or clever with it as I'd like XD
 

The Black Prince

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My first novel (never published despite its soaring brilliance) employed epigraphs before every chapter. They were all invented aphorisms from a book within the story called The Way which was a kinda handbook to corporate enlightenment. My favourite was:

"Ask a question, and you take one step from the answer."
 

KTC

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Each of my novels has an epigraph. I LOVE choosing them. My latest, Pride Must Be A Place, has a Shakespeare quote:

"Let no one who loves be unhappy...even love unreturned has its rainbow."
 

Laer Carroll

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If anyone enjoys writing or choosing epigraphs, go for it. But you'd better do them and place them really well.

As a reader I hate them. They jerk me out of the ongoing story, inducing a pause. Or even a total stop, if they piss me off. Then I give up on the book, and maybe give up on the author forever after.
 

blackcat777

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If anyone enjoys writing or choosing epigraphs, go for it. But you'd better do them and place them really well.

As a reader I hate them. They jerk me out of the ongoing story, inducing a pause. Or even a total stop, if they piss me off. Then I give up on the book, and maybe give up on the author forever after.

Can you elaborate more on the why of when they do and don't work for you, as a reader?

Hah! I've just been told off for using epigraphs on an online critique. By a bigshot editor.

What was the reasoning?
 

Kjbartolotta

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I always loved the way Linda Goodman uses them in her astrology books!

Me too! She could really pick 'em.

Epigrams are fun. I have no problems if they survive till the finished version, but they're pretty much must-haves for me when writing. Just one per book tho, please! :)
 

indianroads

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I've used them in the heading of many of my short stories - and at the start of my novels. In my WIP I have them at the start of each major act (3 act format)

Start of book: You must have chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star. – Friedrich Nietzsche
Act 1: In war, events of importance are the result of trivial causes. – Julius Caesar
Act 2: Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate. - Sun Tzu
Act 3: The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself. - Sun Tzu
 

Harlequin

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No, that's the epilogue! :)

Epigraph is a short little quote at the top of a chapter, or the start of a book. Disconnected from the text.

Neil Asher had a great series of epigraphs for his novel, Skinner. Yes, every single chapter. They were all linked and you could read them as a single short story. It served the purpose of introducing the awesome creatures in that book and setting the tone (Everything eats everything else). But of course nothing was lost if you chose to skip them.
 

indianroads

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I recently reread Ursula Le Guin's Lathe of Heaven (my favorite book by her) - and noticed that at the start of each chapter she included a quote from either Lao Tzu or Chuang Tsu. I had not noticed that when I read her book before... but decades have passed since then, so I may have forgotten.

Anyway - I like using epigraphs to set the mood of the piece. It kinda clues the reader in about what's coming.
 

Twick

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Some people have a bad reaction to epigraphs. Need to get their epi-pens.