Now that you have mentioned it. How do you pick epigraphs for your chapters? Do you have your favorite aphorismes saved ip somewhere? Or do you go on a search for each chapter? I really really enjoy them, thx
I do have a collection of my favorite quotes (mostly poetry) that I keep! But most of the early epigraphs were found when I was looking for inspiration for the fic title. I found so many that I liked, and I wanted to do a fun nod to the RY style. So I have dozens and dozens of quotes organized into categories (which are mostly aligned with the search terms I used to find quotes):
- Spying/Lying/Dishonesty
- Poison/Medicine
- Research/Science/Experiment
- Friendship/Love
- Lightning/Thunder/Storm
- Rebellion/Revolution/Government
- Other
Sometimes I have the quote picked out way before I even finish the chapter, but mostly I go to the list after I finish editing the chapter in AO3 and I pick based on the vibes. I struggle with some chapters more than others and I have to go searching for something more applicable, which is definitely silly because I don’t need to put so much thought into them. But I do anyways 😅 I’m glad you enjoy them!
I have a doc with all of them listed chronologically and reading through them in order is kind of fun. It gives an interesting context to the development of the story with little other context hahaha
I still have some fun ones in my pocket for the last couple arcs! For part ii, I think I’m moving away from epigraphs (to both save myself the time finding 70+ other new quotes and because I have other, more… epistolary plans) 💓
