Have you noticed the trend to start book chapters with a quote?
Maybe authors have often done that; but somehow, I am noticing it more and more – and I like it.
It’s a thoughtful way to introduce the theme of a new chapter. Like a soft opening.
As my next book’s edited manuscript nears readiness for the production team’s formatting, I realized that one of my initial goals — adding a fitting quote to introduce each chapter — hasn’t been fulfilled. Alas, I never got around to it!
Dare I delay sending the manuscript to production while I search?
Where is everyone finding these quotes?
Bingo! Ask AI! Duh.
I had always admired the effort authors would take to find such quotes, thinking they would still be stuck in stacks of quotation books.
But this is the 21st century, and if you want to find quotes about anything, your search is a click away! From Socrates to Twain to Angelou, your quest will find great quotes spanning the millennia on the same topic.
We frequently use the phrase, “dropped down a rabbit hole,” when researching, as one discovery often leads to another.
But after reading this article recently, I realized what I experienced in my quote quest was more like wandering.
Wandering: meandering through a space with no plan, destination, or urgency – just enjoying the journey.
So, in addition to simply Googling and asking ChatGPT for quotes about various emotions and resilience, I meandered through this site and discovered all kinds of wisdom and reflection-inducing thoughts.
My noodling around was almost like a spring walk – without the sneezing.
If you need relief from today’s craziness, wander for a spell in the world of quotes to discover those golden nuggets from across the ages – without having to read individual tomes to extract them.
Then, get outside to wander a spell just to see what you can discover. The headlines will be right there when you come back, but you will feel refreshed.
One word of advice though is, if you use the likes of ChatGPT to pull quotes from the databases of the world, double check to see if the cited author really said that. Sometimes AI will summarize an author’s collective quotes to reflect your query, and that quote you are given cannot be verified.
During my own research, I came across some incredible authors I hadn’t encountered before, and whose works are definitely worth exploring further.
Happy wandering!
In health –
Deidre
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