Comments on: Footnotes and Endnotes

By: --Deb

--Deb — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:03:28 +0000

@Melissa–that’s the trick they use to keep you reading more–they throw enough interesting stuff into the footnotes that you keep going back to read the boring ones…

By: Melissa Donovan

Melissa Donovan — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 23:19:02 +0000

I find it interesting that writers would use footnotes to get more words into their word count. I'm in complete agreement with you, and I have experienced the exact same frustrations with footnotes when there are just too many of them - and they definitely interrupt the flow of reading. Sometimes there's just such good stuff in there though! Melissa Donovan’s last blog post..Homophones: Two, Too, and To

By: --Deb

--Deb — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 12:40:21 +0000

@Lillie I LIKE endnotes, even if I don't read them all that often, just like I like Author's Notes that explain how historically accurate they're fiction (or non-fiction!) is. I'm all for authors making stuff up, but I like to know what's real. I'll never complain about a lot of back-matter--it just shows responsible research and writing. @Brad--Exactly! Well put!* *(And I mean that) --Deb’s last blog post..Footnotes and Endnotes

By: Brad Shorr

Brad Shorr — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:47:11 +0000

Hi Deb, If a book has tons of footnotes, they'd better be good.* *Otherwise I won't read the book. Too distracting. Brad Shorr’s last blog post..Spiritual Renewal Monday

By: Lillie Ammann

Lillie Ammann — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 04:05:51 +0000

Deb,

I agree that too many footnotes can be overwhelming. I find it distracting to jump down to the bottom of the page and read a footnote, but I don’t want to miss anything.

We are putting endnotes into the historical novels written by one of my clients. It may be unusual to have references in a novel, but his books are all historically and genealogically accurate. He wanted to include a lot of details that slowed down the pace of the story, so we put those details into endnotes. People who are interested in the details can read the endnotes, and people who are interested only in the story aren’t distracted or bogged down in historical and genealogical facts.

We used endnotes rather than footnotes for two reasons. We didn’t want to break up the flow of the story, and from a practical standpoint, it was much easier to lay out the book with endnotes rather than formatting footnotes on individual pages.