Starting with Quotes? Yes or no?

Er ... I'm not all that fond of them.

Generally my reaction to them is something like "ok ... but why did we need to hear that? I mean, really. Why? Are you trying to point out some sort of theme I should be looking out for? You think I can't spot it for myself? You haven't even started and you're trying to tell us stuff. I don't want to hear what you have to say yet. Or even what you would like to point out that other people have said. I don't believe in you as an author yet. Sorry. But there it is. Maybe a chapter or so in, I will, but just now, no. Like I said, I'm sorry. It's nothing personal. The rule applies to everyone."

THere's probably an articulate way of summing that up.

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bookworm201 wrote:
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books also use quotes well.

Ooh, yeah, that was really well done.

i never said that I liked the books, just that she used qoutes well. Honestly, I just kept eading the books for the quotes.

Okay, now that I think of it, that's not a good use of quotes, it's just bad writing with really fun quotes. I'll have to think on that...

I love quotes with a passion, but you'd have to consider what quotes you were going to put in the first line of your story. It couldn't be any old rubbish now, it would have to be gripping.

Churchill, Hitler, those kinds of people maybe. Backstreet Boys and the Spice Girls - A big no-no.

I have no problem with quotes, I just have a problem with awful quotes.

hmm...if you put the quotes in a preface or before the story even starts, maybe. but be careful. it's your story, not Churchill's or Shakespeare's or anyone else's. I have a Bible verse to sum up my entire story, but it's on the title page, not in the book. so, that's my two cents.

*said in the same tone as "I like mayonaise"* I like quotes.



If I had a quote as a prompt for a story - like for the Fool's Duel - then I put that up the top. I started with a Bible verse for a historical story I did, because it really applied to the person, and it was put in connection with the person when the person was alive. If you have a needle.

I'm going to have Gandalf's quote at the beginning of one story, because it ties in so well with the story, the title, the character, the character of another connected book, the whole idea of the story, and it's laced and intertwined with double, triple and quadruple meaning.

"There was never much hope. Only a fool's hope." ~Gandalf, ROTK.

Or something like that, I can't remember if that's word perfect. The story's called A Fool's Hope, and that quote fits so well. *gloats*

GingerLizzy wrote:Churchill, Hitler, those kinds of people maybe. Backstreet Boys and the Spice Girls - A big no-no.

I have no problem with quotes, I just have a problem with awful quotes.

If you wanna be my lover,
You gotta get with my friends.
Taking it to easy,
That's the way it is.

–The Spice Girls

Pah! Is that not a completely rivetting way to start a novel?

But anyway. IMHO, quotes are a tad overused. I have no qualms with them, but 95% of the time I'm thinking: Uh, okay … Then I start reading and remember nothing of the quote.

It's kinda like chapter names. Once you understand why the author chose the name that they did, you've already forgotten it. Works that way for me, at any rate.

I would not mind... They catch your attention. And they introduce you to new things.

I don't mind quotes but I hate it when they drone on and on. It's like it kills you before you even start reading.

Quotes that are short and snappy at the beginning of chapters are good. They just ease you into the story.

Alainna
xxx