K.I.S.S.! K.I.S.S.! K.I.S.S.!

[onyxhawke]

Among the half a trillion things that bemuse me about writing, is the "chapter quote". To me, it seems like entirely more work than is needed. To me, a non writer, the extra work spent putting them together could be better spent working on the text. Also there is the fact that for consistencies sake, once you have them, you'll probably be expected to continue them. Given the penchant publishers, and to some extent the public have for never ending series this could be ten to twelve books. If you have a slim twenty chapters per book, multiplied by twelve books, that is a whole lot of time.

Then too, there is the problem of doing it right. I have almost the same grievances with chapter quotes as i do with prologues. Either A) they are not done right, either spoiling the entire book and or chapter, or B) they are totally opaque and just distract the reader and make them think the are missing something that just isn't there.

This hopeless ramble was spurred by nothing in particular...

Comments

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

The Asprin/Brust variety.

I don't grok why someone would do that to themselves unless it's just fun for them.

[archangelbeth]

Hmmmmm.

In the Hambly case, it rounds out the world with context, without actually having to put it into the viewpoint character's conscious thoughts. In the other case... Hm. Brust is doing much the same thing, IIRC -- quotes from the character, quotes from people in his world... (Though IIRC again, Dragaera is partly based on a RPG world, so he probably has notebooks full of quotes that he can use, much as I would be able to mine many people for quotes about In Nomine, such as, "Being annoying in the service of God is what Ofanim are good at!")

I guess Asprin is just good at it and it's fun for him.