Using Quotes and Descriptive Titles at the Beginning of a Chapter.

[AlexanderSen]

I am writing a short novella about colonizing a new world and I wanted to give it an rich American Western/Pioneer feel to it. The problem is I am not sure what is the best approach. I am probably getting bogged down with analysis paralysis.

There are several different ways I identified going about it:

Just a one/two word title
A description of what is happening or what the chapter is about. Clear grouping of info.
+ Clear and concise groups of info
- Seems kind of boring
- Predictable plot arrangements

Title which is a saying or phrase
+ More flavor than just one word titles and unique spin on things
- Phrases might seem like meaningless dribble

Quote or phrase from someone famous
+ Has a lot of clout and potential meaning
- Personalities of the quoted might clash and meanings might be eschewed by people's lives and political connections

Make my own quotes up from characters in my own universe
+ Interesting world development
+ No real life personal baggage
+ Can control personal histories
- Time consuming
- In world characters might seem irrelevant and might not have as much impact as real life people in history
- Clogs people down with extra info (red herrings) that don't necessarily contribute to the story

Just Number
Just what it says.
+ Organized tracking other wise nothing special
- Lack of flavor

Does anybody have any advice on this?

 

[jastius]

if you use famous people you must make sure of the permissions to publish other people's work..what might work is a book within the book type of thing.. where you quote your made up book every chapter. (by the way i doodled all over your cover ..sorry, got bored.. but i love your art.. .).

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I just use chapter numbers personally. If you use quotes the one way to make sure they aren't going to be copyrighted is to use quotes a century or more old (and of course attribute them properly).

However as to making your own up - I like that. If you've ever seen Andromeda the series, you'll know they started each episode with a new made up quote and I really enjoyed reading them. Some of them didn't make a lot of sense but some were brilliant. There wasone for example to the effect that reality was simply a complex series of negotiations between the observer and the observed, which has stuck with me because of the philosophical insight it sheds.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[farntfar]

what might work is a book within the book type of thing.. where you quote your made up book every chapter.

This method was used in the Dune books, as I recall. Bits from the Bene Gesserit handbooks, or the Orange Catholic Bible or even future history books.
Also in Stephen Donaldson's Gap series, I think
It works well, because you can always make it as apt as you like.
Finding real quotations which are truely relevant to each chapter is going to be one hell of a task, even without the copyright issues.

 

[tinkerdan]

I would just go with numbers unless the quotes or added stuff had some significant reason to be there.

In a novel it makes for a cute break, but it still becomes annoying if there's no more reason for it than that the author must have thought it was cute.

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

You could quote a phrase from the chapter itself... I'm doing that, and it seems to fit quite well.

And if you do it right, it won't give away the purpose/topic of the chapter, but still be relevant to it.

 

[Tyburn]

I have a quote at the start of each chapter, most of them relevant to the chapter - excerpts from the characters personal journals, though one or two of them are just little joke bits I put together in an idle moment.

Jasper Fforde is good with this, he tends to have extracts from various handbooks and tourist guides at the start of each chapter. I like it, I think it can be used to add a little extra colour to a scene and can be a way of mini-infodumping without actually seeming like you're infodumping.

As it means I have to write a little extra for the start of every single chapter without giving too much of the plot away and keeping it relatively light and humourous, I may have set myself quite the task for it.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Like everything else, it really depends on the story itself, and on how relevant the quotations are, as well as whether or not they add anything of value (they can be a handy way of sticking in brief bits of backstory or background). Just as with Prologues, appendices, pronunciation guides, etc. some readers will hate them on principle, others will like the ones that add background because they want as much information about the world as possible, and the rest will reserve judgement until they see how they work out.

By the way, a quotation (real or imaginary) at the beginning of a chapter is called an epigraph. With the real ones, I've come across some beautiful quotations that directed me to poetry I wasn't familiar with, for which I was extremely grateful. And aside from that I did think they added something special. But with others, I couldn't see the relevance.

I've made up my own quotations to use as epigraphs, but those were for works much longer than novellas (whole trilogies, in fact), and after a while I became tired of doing so but I was stuck with the pattern. I also named the chapters. This also became tiresome (and what a lot of work I was making for myself). Now I just number the chapters and be done with it.

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but my query is on the same topic.

Would one put a title on a Prologue?

 

[HareBrain]

Back when I had a prologue, I tried to disguise its nature by giving it a title (but no chapter number). It worked, too -- one irate beta even put the comment at the end: "Argh! That was a prologue, wasn't it?!"

 

[Bowler1]

Back when I had a prologue, I tried to disguise its nature by giving it a title (but no chapter number). It worked, too -- one irate beta even put the comment at the end: "Argh! That was a prologue, wasn't it?!"

Clever. I've made note of this.

 

[Tyburn]

I have actual titles to my chapters in the manuscript form, but they won't necessarily be left in when it comes to sending it off. I like the way some old books have each chapter starting with something like "...in which our hero discovers the correct way to make a cup of tea.", and I am aiming for a retro-esque feel.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I like the way some old books have each chapter starting with something like "...in which our hero discovers the correct way to make a cup of tea.", and I am aiming for a retro-esque feel.

I've always enjoyed that about old books, too. In my extravagant let-no-chapter-go-with-a-simple-number days, I chose to do it that way for Goblin Moon, because it almost seemed essential given the setting and the style of the book. I did have a lot of fun writing the little headings, readers seemed to enjoy reading them (some reviewers even mentioned them), and since there was only one sequel I never had a chance to get sick of doing it that way.