Epigraph | The Eckleburg Workshops: Literary Terms

In literature, an epigraph is a qutoation on the title page of a book or a motto heading a section of a work. (Handbook to Literature)

Epigraph Writing Exercise

An epigraph must really earn its place within the work. Editors are split on the necessity. Some editors like to see them, others find them to be as necessary as a hangnail. If you are going to use an epigraph, consider using it in a way that is new and essential to the work you are writing.

Choose a work or chapter you are currently revising: short or long. Study your main character for moments when s/he might use a quote. If you cannot find a moment when your main character would quote someone or something recognizable, then the epigraph might not be organic to the work. If you can find a moment when the main character can organically quote either in close in narration or dialogue, use this quote.

Before sending the work out, really consider whether the epigraph is necessary to the narrative. Usually, the epigraph can be cut. Readers like to be thrown into the scene from the start and epigraphs can hinder this immediacy, so really consider whether your epigraph is necessary to the narrative.

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