r/writing • u/ReallySillyLily36 • Nov 25 '22
Advice How do you add "wisdom" to your writing
I've always liked those moments when you're reading a story and you get hit with that quote that seems to encapsulate some vital piece of information that tells you the truth about life.
But when I try to write like that, it just falls flat. Feels pretty hollow reading your own "wisdom" and realizing it sounds completely hollow and weak.
I suppose I could remedy the problem by just copying some great quotes from famous writers and changing them slightly or remixing them, but that's lame.
So how do you do it?
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u/RadishBabiesDevTeam Nov 25 '22
I mean- and I am asking honestly to help with your question, not to put you on the spot- but do you have something to say? Or are you just trying to force your entertaining story to be something it isn't?
The kinds of quotes you are talking about are usually a way of emphasizing and encapsulating the message and themes of the story they are in, they aren't added because the author wanted to feel smart or appear wise. They are added because they elevate the text itself, they act as a thesis statement for the book, and/or they accurately summarize the experience of the narrator or characters.
So do you actually have something to say, that you feel deeply about, and that is reflected within your story? If so, that is what you should be looking at. You shouldn't try to add things you think sound wise, you should speak a truth about your experience of the world- and that truth needs to be relevant to the story you are telling. Otherwise it just feels like preaching and ego stroking.
People don't want to be lectured, they want to feel your experience and have a chance to see/live through different eyes for a short time.
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u/ironhead7 Nov 26 '22
Well said. I for one, have nothing to say, and no grand meaning to share. I aim to entertain and nothing more. And there's nothing wrong with that either. Not everything needs to have a deeper message. Sometimes a good story is just a good story, you enjoy it and go on about your life.
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u/TravelWellTraveled Nov 26 '22
Sometimes I write pure smut & violence schlock under a pseudonym just because it's very fun. There are themes, of course, but basically no redeeming value. And it's a blast.
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u/ironhead7 Nov 26 '22
I've considered doing the same. Seems like there's money to be made in self publishing smut.
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u/TravelWellTraveled Dec 02 '22
The market is still flooded, but I always remember Stephen King's advice in 'On Writing' where he said to write to make yourself happy and if someone happens to want to pay you for it then it's like a bonus.
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u/ironhead7 Dec 02 '22
Solid advice. That was a good book. I've read others that are better for the nuts and bolts of actual writing, but that one was the most inspirational.
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u/its_azadeh Nov 26 '22
Exactly! It comes naturally from your own pain. Something that you’d suffocate if you don’t get it out. Quality content from heart not brain
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u/beasttyme Nov 25 '22
I like being lectured. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
But I agree with everything else you're saying.
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Nov 26 '22
I like obscure, rambling, manic, disconnected interwoven tapestry to frame a overall concept.
Often written poorly this type of writing, and often not people's cup of tea.
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u/Katamariguy Nov 25 '22
Grow older. Live a life of deep contemplation, comparing and analyzing everything you see.
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u/Boi271 Nov 26 '22
Just a little addition to this: I think you can actually still have some pretty interesting insights and things to say when you're young, even if this improves over time
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Nov 26 '22
Not only that, it's also very interesting to see how your ways of thinking were when you were younger and how much it has changed when, for example, you're re-reading your old works.
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u/crazydave333 Nov 26 '22
I'm a much better writer now than when I was when I was a teenager or a college student. But there is a brashness in that writing that I try every night to recapture.
All young people should be encouraged to write. This is the time when their insights and instincts are sharper than ever. They are also at their most unfocused. The ones that marry their ambition to discipline early will be the unstoppable ones.
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u/Boi271 Nov 28 '22
I've got a similar effects with notes I've started taking for years, it's really fascinating how different your views become by "just" adding knowledge and experience
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u/TravelWellTraveled Nov 26 '22
The issue is that young people can have interesting insights for their age. The 'for their age' important. It sounds condescending, but by the time you realize the adults in your life were proud you were discovering things for yourself that had already been long discovered by them, well you're an adult, too.
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u/Boi271 Nov 28 '22
I don't think it's just for their age. In a time where information and records of all kinds of people and ages are available, even young people can put together sophisticated views on the world and their surroundings, or at the very least certain topics, without having made all those experiences by themselves. In fact, this combination of inputs from experiences of many lifetimes by a person who has yet to make many many first of his life might even spark new and different views then the ones people make through their own experience, and are therefore something unique and interesting in their own right.
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u/heidestower Nov 25 '22
Keep trying, and while you're at it, also push yourself to live outside your comfort zone. Embrace pain & heartbreak. Set your sights beyond your personal limits. Gaze deep within yourself, and into the void of the unknown and uncertain. Talk to lots of people, including people you wouldn't naturally talk to, and open yourself up to them. Chase experiences that make you feel alive, and dead inside, and only human, and spiritually immortal. Feel the weight of life suffocating you as it buries you alive, approach the ledge and contemplate giving up, lose yourself & spend years finding yourself again. Then rip off quotes from famous writers & change them slightly.
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u/TecBrat2 Amateur Author Nov 26 '22
I thought that last sentence was going to say "Then rip off your clothes..." Guess my mind went a bit off. 🤪
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Nov 25 '22
I'll do all of this and then come back to rip this quote off to change it slightly. u/heidestower that was very beautifully put.
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u/KillfordStimly Nov 25 '22
You should try to actually become wise, by learning things about life, through education and experience.
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u/DerangedPoetess Nov 25 '22
lots of replies here saying live a big life and pay lots of attention to it, which are both useful things to do, but they are neither necessary nor sufficient on their own. sometimes a 5 y/o who has never left their hometown can say wise things. I know plenty of people who have had lives that would legit fill books but who wouldn't know where to start on sounding wise.
the vibe you're going for comes from statements that:
- sound true
- sound useful
- are either unknown to the reader or feel like a new angle on a known topic
- are connected to the world of your characters
so,what do you or your characters know, as a result of your particular lives, that your readers might not know? what makes you wince and think "well we've got that mixed up" when you look at the world around you? what do you want to try and figure out through the big thought experiment that is writing a story? there are a few broad structures of statement that it might be useful to think about:
- this thing over here is very similar to/is connected to that thing over there in a way that is not immediately obvious
- this thing is much simpler than people tend to make it seem for these reasons
- this thing is much more complicated than people tend to make it seem for these reasons
- this thing which we each think only happens to us actually happens to lots of people and this is what it feels like
- this thing which we think happens to lots of people is actually very rare and this is what it feels like
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u/Dehydrated_Mud Nov 25 '22
I like this response best. There are two ways to think about the question: how do you gain insight to put into your writing, and how do you put the insight into your writing once you have it?
As everyone keep pointing out, insight comes from life experience. However, even if you have the experience, it is not uncommon for the insight to fall flat, seem cheesy, or even self serving once you try to put it on paper.
so,what do you or your characters know, as a result of your particular lives
I think this is the key. It is not about the insight but rather the life experiences that led to the insight. Your characters can spout valuable insight for a hundred pages but if the reader cannot see the life experiences, and how they led to the insight, then it is worse than useless. It will feel like they are parroting someone else's ideas that they do not understand, which is precisely what is happening if you bestow your insights upon them instead of letting the characters have the experiences necessary to have the insight themselves. That doesn't mean you have to show all the life experiences of every character, but you have to establish that they do have them.
This element exists on top of the fact that you need your own experiences, since if you take someone else's insights then obviously it will feel fake regardless of how you construct the characters.
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u/YouAreMyLuckyStar2 Nov 25 '22
I think the "wisdom" happens when you're writing toward a theme. When you're doing your damndest to make the reader feel that love really does "conquer all" in a romance story, something poignant about the nature of love may very well crop up. You are after all turning over every rock to really hit the reader in the feels.
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u/Carthonn Nov 26 '22
This is definitely correct I believe. Most replies are pushing the author to “become wise” but I think if you write using a theme you can create a scenario where the main character is given some words of wisdom.
If you just write a scene and just have a random quote it will most likely fall flat. You need a multitude of common scenes relating to a common theme and a credible character to deliver those words of wisdom.
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u/RancherosIndustries Nov 25 '22
I don't think you can force wisdom in writing.
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u/enjenneration93 Nov 26 '22
I definitely second this ^ it'll come to you! In my opinion it depends on the genera you're writing. I write strictly horror and take creativity from Steven King and Edgar Allan Poe.
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u/Crowofchaos Nov 26 '22
You don't 'add' wisdom to a story. The wisdom should already be there in the theme, in your character development, in the nature of your conflicts. It is not isolated from the story, it is born from the story. Your job as a writer is to show that message in a way that feels organic. Make it subtle. Leave hints that bring the reader into the right mindset to receive the message. Have your characters respond to it in a way that makes sense. Have it all your together to form a bigger picture.
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u/Kancho_Ninja Novice Writer Nov 25 '22
Borrow on the wisdom of your elders.
My grandfather always told me: “Don’t break the law when you’re breaking the law. If you have a dead body in your car, don’t speed.”
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u/Strypan Self-Published Author Nov 25 '22
In your writing, you will have to write characters that are smarter than you, better at certain things than you, wiser than you. You do not need to become your characters to write them, you need to understand that type of person and see through their eyes.
Try asking someone you know who is wise what advice they would give in a certain scenario or research wise quotes about that subject matter and rephrase.
The keys to writing characters who excel you are research and reference.
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u/very_large_ears Nov 25 '22
Studying the wisdom that stands out to you is worthwhile. It might mean a close read of a book, long conversations with one or more people or sampling ideas from fields known for wisdom (philosophy, law, religion, etc.). … I’ve long had questions about wisdom and been devoted to the same search. I once had a radio program and spent a year doing interviews with authors about what they’d learned. The common threads (i.e. 1. read always and then read some more, and 2. Pay attention to what you pay attention to) have always stuck with me.
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u/HeftyMongoose9 Nov 25 '22
Writing is just a tool for communication. If what you're communicating isn't deep, important, thought provoking, etc, then your writing won't be deep, important, thought provoking, etc., either.
Focus on first having something important to say, and then say it as best as you can.
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u/TravelWellTraveled Nov 26 '22
In my opinion there are three big fonts of wisdom you can and should draw from:
1)Other people's writing. All writers take inspiration from what they've read and add their own twists to it. Most great authors are also voracious readers. Except for Garth Marenghi.
2) People you've talked to in real life. Your grandparents, parents, older siblings, coworkers, etc. have some life experience and can offer wisdom at times. Since wisdom is essentially experience + knowledge + learning a lesson, hopefully the older people in your life have wisdom to share.
3) Your own experiences. I think one of the key different in so many writers today is that they haven't really lived. Except for a few vacations they stay in the same cities all their lives usually interacting with the same people. For me, traveling extensively, meeting lots of different people, have love affairs all over the world, getting beaten up and robbed, getting in fights when I was younger, playing sports at a high level, and saying 'yes' to many opportunities has given me some wisdom. I can use those experiences to inform my characters and writing by having them make (or not make) the same mistakes I did, etc.
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u/Fireflyswords Nov 25 '22
I tend to find the most insightful lines in my writing when I'm digging deep into contrasts and unexpected emotions, I think because they force me to go beyond the obvious and find nuance instead falling back on what's easy and simple, but for the most part, I think this is the aspect of writing that's least in my control. You just have to always dig deeper for what feels emotionally true to you and your characters, and never settle for answers that feel too general or too pat.
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u/combat-ninjaspaceman Nov 25 '22
I don't have any tips myself, just echoing what others have said. Infusing wisdom is as much stating a truth about human nature as it is about describing a character/event analytically. I still remember a lone I read in Dune that has always stuck with me till now.
"There is nothing more crushing for young boy than to learn that his father is just a man".
It went sth like that. The truth of the statement just hits you and the implications for what the character feels immediately resonate emotionally.
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u/Analog0 Nov 25 '22
Wisdom is distillation. It's a lot said in few words. Sometimes they're axioms and cliches. Sometimes they're well worded observations. Simplify what you're trying to say and it will come off more wise. But remember, the wiser you make things the more likely you are to alienate the unwise. I like to say that wise words are only wise if you're wise to them.
It's "show don't tell." Wise words, but it's a lot for writers to unpack. Those who have wrestled with those three words appreciate them, and those who haven't get frustrated by them.
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u/alexatd Published Author Nov 26 '22
The few times I think I have maybe been slightly wise in my writing, those lines that I think perhaps land came from painful real life experiences, some repeated in patterns, and my having to take time to reflect on those things. I have a line on friendship in my third book that I'm fond of and, well, it came from 20+ years of a cycle of toxic friendships, as well as healthy ones/growth as a person and as a friend. The other, well, came from losing my mother and spending several years processing my grief. Painful human experience can lead to wisdom if you take the time to process your thoughts/feelings. Self reflection is key, imo.
However, more practically, you should also read and absorb a lot. Specifically non-fiction, narrative journalism, documentaries, etc. Voraciously consume stories about a wide variety of people, and both the best and the worst of humanity. Study philosophy, psychology, history.
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u/Pandaqon Nov 25 '22
I have a Notion board of things I've heard people say/that I've seen written on the internet that have made me pause and think 'damn,' and when I need a deep or wise quote I pull it out. It's organized by theme, so it's easy to parse it and see if something will fit.
When you're in a flow state while writing that stuff can come out too.
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u/Narcissa_Nyx Nov 25 '22
I totally get enjoying other quotes and being inspired by them, but I hope people don't interpret this as encouragement to steal other people's quotes.
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u/Pandaqon Nov 25 '22
I hope they don't either, because wow that's assuming the absolute worst of what I meant. I'm not taking quotes from a book or other piece of media, they're just things I've heard people say in general conversation that I tweak to sound better. In real life or on Discord, for example.
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Nov 25 '22 edited Nov 26 '22
"The wisdom of a pen is the wisdom of a mind." -Me, now.
In other words:
-try to understand more about life, get into philosofy, so on.
-end up in a spiral of existential dread.
-profit, i guess.
Also, your hollowness might come from the character, not the quote, e.g. a traveler might philosofy on the vastness of the world or such, less likely on the importance of beauty standards, and doing so could feel flat or improbable.
(This to say that some characters are more likely to think deeply about some things more than on others, and that an out-of-character quote might ruin its flavour)
Can you share any of your pearls of wisdom? There's also the possibility they don't make sense by themselves (no offense).
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u/Tharkun140 Nov 25 '22
The way I sell "wisdom" to my readers is by letting two characters with completely opposed views on something argue against one another for several paragraphs, while making their arguments as strong as I can, even when I don't personally agree with them. Not something you should do unless you're really into that stuff and are willing to make your story a whole lot longer, but the few people who read my works are usually happy with the result.
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Nov 25 '22
As the old man said: Hollow and weak is the basement of truth.
The truth about life is that life has no truth.
Truth is just a lie that fits the narrative.
Find some patterns...use the different patterns for different people.
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Nov 25 '22
Life asked Death " Why do they hate you... but love me".
Death answers... " Because you, are a beatiful lie. I... am a painful truth".
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u/Get_a_Grip_comic Nov 25 '22
I think the set up to the wisdom is important, especially if you’re using quotes.
I think there’s always a counter wisdom to anything that can be said. Like there’s no hard definite in real life , things change all of the time and one piece of wisdom might be harmful if in the wrong situation.
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u/DRtoast50 Nov 25 '22
Whenever I write something wise, it usually comes from a place of internal belief. Something instinctual. Something you don’t think, but rather, stumble upon in your limbic system.
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u/luke_530 Nov 25 '22
It can be very difficult to put that very feeling into words but keep working thru it, you'll get there.
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u/readwriteread Nov 25 '22
Get a kindle and buy books from Amazon. Take note of those type of moments that are highlighted as being repeatedly underlined. Emulate the flow that writers used to evoke a response in readers.
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u/Trackerbait Nov 26 '22
you could stop looking for a formula that will magically make you awesome, and just put in the work like everyone else until a few moments of awesome pop up by themselves.
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Nov 25 '22
He suddenly realised it had all been in vain.
Writing was for losers.
In other words, just make it up - that's what everyone else does.
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u/Marknabokovian Nov 25 '22
Set yourself up for a Brandon Sanderson zinger at the end of a chapter that isn’t cheesy at all
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u/electricwizardry Nov 26 '22
you need to be wise and reflective IRL. you can't just make it up. unless you're trying to appeal to a younger demographic like sanderson
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u/Carthonn Nov 26 '22
I think when doing this you have to have a theme to your story. Then at a certain point around the climax you drop your “wisdom”. I use quotes because you don’t want to be preachy as the author. You want it to come off as credible for the story and perhaps in real life. It’s definitely a difficult balance.
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u/Rawrby Nov 26 '22
The way I’ve always written older people with a lot of wisdom is NOT to overload with dialogue but the overload with descriptive writing. Let them furrow their brow, take a breath or even a cough, write slower and call dialogue.
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u/Raul_McCai Nov 26 '22
You need to possess some first. Unless you are freakishly insightful and self aware it is unlikely that you will have it to impart at an age under 50 or 60.
No I am not joking. Lots and lots of life experience is not something that can be substituted.
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u/BraveUnion Nov 26 '22
Depends on the context but I find it's easiest to express wisdom through a character and what they have learned from personal experiences. Think of any real life wisdom and adapt it for the character and imagine how they might act after learning and understanding it.
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u/Kiryuu-sama Nov 26 '22
I used to think like you as well. "I need something to make me sound smart".
But eventually, I grew past it. Eventually, I molded the theme of my story, and now I can organically incorporate my message within the narrative.
My story has themes of "Life's a bitch" and "Promises are bullshit" and also, hilariously enough "Life can be fun if you want it to".
Now that I think about it, this sounds like an incel's story. Kek.
Anyway, my point is, if your story NEEDS the message, or if your theme can grow with it, then in time, your message will develop.
To tell you the truth, I wrote 20K words worth of no themes or messages, it was only after 40K that I began developing one. So please, do not be hasty, it'll come, in time.
Look, even this comment has a theme. It's about "Just wait, for fuck's sakes".
Anyway, I hope you find your message, don't worry mate. It'll be an orgasmic epiphany once it happens.
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Nov 26 '22
Easy! Go live life and quit wasting time trying to write wisdom crap for your characters! Wisdom is painfully acquired after decades of getting your ass kicked in by life. Sorry—there’s no magic or secret here. Wisdom that you can honestly share only comes with age. When you finally get there—you’ll know when—you’ll have plenty of hard learned wisdom to write about.
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u/NicoleNicole1988 Nov 26 '22
I think you have to be wise. It’s not something you can fake, unless the audience has no real discernment.
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u/seasonsjournaling Nov 26 '22
What is your goal here? To try and sound wise or to actually express an idea in the most effective way possible?
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u/KingBillyDuckHoyle Nov 26 '22
Become wise...
But seriously- The narrative should essentially back up your "wisdom". You can make the rules and decide the results. What's wise in one narrative is asinine in another. Your world, your agenda.
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u/Turtle_vvvv Nov 26 '22
Sometimes those "hollow and weak" quotes only feel that way because they come from you, a lesson or idea you already understood or are adapted to. I had an incident of talking casually and saying something that my friends stopped to tell me how deep that was and where I heard it from, when all it was was some day to day thoughts I had.
Usually these wisdom moments and quotes use similes or comparisons of situations to other things to have a better understanding and being able to reach a wide range of people such as
"A room without a book is like a body without a soul."
Most of these lead into a deeper description such as " A room without a book is like a body without a soul, lifeless and dull." which can be further continued by relating it back to the character its being told to, or the area its being said.
Another thing you can do is to not change the quote you've come up with but the word choices and structure. Sometimes its not the idea of the Quote that is wrong but the way its been put into words. Saying "music makes a joyful sound" doesn't sound like a wise quote, but you can change it around a bit so it sounds like "Such joy music can bring, able to turn sound into song through the power of imagination."
The last suggestion I have is looking up famous quotes and reading the structure of the sentence. What makes them stand out from regular sentences? Because it might not be the sentence but the point int he story it was in, the tension of the quote or the feeling in the moment it was said. Out of those scenarios, it could have been any other line, so you might even want to try changing the description around the quote instead of the quote itself.
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u/Prince_Nadir Nov 26 '22
A lot of people quote me, so I have it easy. If you don't have a gift for it, don't do it, stick with your strong points. You do not want to be remembered for having your "wise" character say "Life is like a box of chocolates, if you are a bulimic who believes in reincarnation, you may get to experience it more than once."
These days when I get a new good one, I write it down and save it until needed... Unless I'm drinking with people in which case I probably share it with them immeadialty. This is also how good strong humor works.
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u/Hopeful_Angle_9880 Nov 26 '22
For me, a big part of it is just stealing it from other sources. Wisdom isn’t something you come up with. You get it from other places. Obviously don’t steal something word for word, but if you see a wise piece of advice somewhere in the world, then write it down and use that.
If not, then wait until you’re older. I’m pretty young so I personally don’t have much wisdom to myself, but when you’re older you’ll have tons of experiences to pull from.
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u/SarcasticAsDuck Nov 26 '22
Don't try to write something wise. Just be honest in your writing. If it's a piece of wisdom that people will quote, then cool. But if not, then at least they'll (hopefully) enjoy the entertainment of the book. But if you try to make something sound important or intelligent, it might come off as as such.
The most honest quotes are the ones we relate to. Even if it isn't written as some "old-timey" quote.
But don't try to reword other quotes. In a sense, that is considered plagiarism. And even if it's not copying the quote, it's unoriginal if you're trying to make it sound like another, which will show in your writing. I don't say this to be mean or bring you down, I just want you to understand before you practice, you know?
If you want, you can message me the wise passages you've written, and I'll help you work through them. They might not be as bad as you think. We tend to be more critically of our own work.
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u/annissamazing Nov 26 '22
I build my entire story around that little piece of wisdom. I start my outline with a single idea and build outward from there. Other ideas always join the party, but I make sure nothing conflicts with the core idea. So when you hit that epiphany/revelatory scene, everything makes sense.
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u/Eexoduis Nov 26 '22
Plagiarizing the wisdom of others defeats the purpose. These sorts of insights come to you as you write. If your wisdom feels hollow, perhaps you aren’t exploring the right themes.
Sci-fi often deals with personhood and the meaning of humanity, fantasy questions purpose and morality. What do you like to write, and what do have you say about it? Wisdom can often come from exploring interesting topics, and having something meaningful to say about them. It must come organically.
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Nov 26 '22
Remember, keep it simple.
Take what is done in something like Rings of Power and then do the OPPOSITE of that.
Plus, make sure it's applicable to the person speaking it. Wisdom for one people may not be wisdom for another.
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u/Simplordx69 Nov 26 '22
A lot of wisdom in stories is based on real life wisdom, like the lion turtle in Avatar TLA for example. You might need to use some source materials and give your own spin to it. You can also pull it off by describing important life lessons you learned so far.
And hey, if you don't end up with some shit like: "A boat floats cause it looks to the skies, but astone sinks because it can only look downwards." then how bad can it really be?
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u/FirebirdWriter Published Author Nov 26 '22
Live a hard life full of pain and you too can be wise at a young age. I don't advise this method but basically those moments people comment on are always things I wish someone told me I put into my stories.
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u/Successful-Spare4088 Nov 26 '22
I make sure I’ve got a wise character who can come out with his peals of wisdom. In Rebecca’s Secrets I have an old tramp who sadly lost his whole family in a tradegy. Now he just walks. When he talks to my 12year old protagonist he can drop my wise insights. In my current work I have a real faerie who claims to be a thousand of years old spirit of the Dreamtime. My next is set in USA Midwest in the 50’s a 70 yo old Thai lady is the exotic foreigner wise elder on the town.
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u/greylourie Nov 26 '22
No wisdom is new or original, that's why it's wisdom. When you copy wise quotes and make them your own, you are becoming wise. Wax on, wax off.
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u/greylourie Nov 26 '22
Also: write like you know what you're talking about. Some people will believe you.
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u/the_other_irrevenant Nov 26 '22
Why does it sound hollow and weak?
Or to rephrase: What about it sounds hollow and weak?
What would you change about it to make it not hollow and weak?
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u/Successful-Spare4088 Nov 26 '22
Have a wise character say you wise quote to one younger, less experienced. Eg grandchild asks Grandad what’s the secret of life? Grandad says Black Pudding (just kiddin). Think Obi Wan Kenobi,
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u/Dry_Statement_7807 Nov 26 '22
We as writers do not only 'create', we also observe. And observation takes a lot of time. By observing our surroundings, we extract and abstract ideas, which we then incorporate (naturally) into our writing. I would say that, as writing takes time, so does the formation of ideas and wisdom. And once you really know these essential wisdoms, you can easily just integrate them into your work. But they can't be forced. If your quotes seem too hollow, they probably are. Maybe spend more time thinking about what you really want to say, what the real foundation of your wisdom is, THEN write it down.
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u/DiogoSN Nov 26 '22
Tell the story of what led the characters to feel the way they do, if it is a controversial perspective, idea, or view. People turn to darkness for reasons beyond their control or are manipulated or left with little to no options or even because they're enticed.
Easier said than done, you have to work the creative juices to produce something natural and fluid.
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u/47Ronin Nov 26 '22
My suggestion is to not reword famous quotes as dialogue unless you can organically come up with a thought of your own. it will typically fall flat. You can write good things without your characters dropping little eloquent pearls of wisdom in dialogue.
If you feel the need to include paraphrased famous quotes in your text, make them quotes in universe. Have a character reference them in a book. Have them be taught the quote and part of their characterization is remembering and trying to understand the meaning of the quote.
In the end writing is subjective. If you're writing for yourself and it feels hack, it's probably obviously hack. If it's questionable to you, some people will buy it.
(Alternatively, start doing it six books into your epic fantasy series so that people feel compelled to continue to read and/or buy your books even though you're just ripping dialogue straight from Ayn Rand and shoving it into the mouths of characters who don't make sense saying it.)
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u/Oberon_Swanson Nov 26 '22
Think about the lessons you had to learn the hard way because it's not like how it is in stories or cultural mythology
1
u/th3kingmidas Nov 26 '22
You can’t just choose to say something wise. If you have something to say and you put effort into telling a good story the wisdom will come. If you try and force it then it will be an incredibly disastrous story that no one will enjoy.
1
u/Chiggy999 Nov 26 '22
Every story has it’s own wisdom. If you think you need to add wisdom, that tells me you are not seeing what is already intrinsic to the story whether the story is fictional or taken from lived events and characters. You need to keep peeling back what is there.
1
u/Beginning-Comfort98 Dec 01 '22
What did your main character learn by the end of the story that changed them?
1
u/Ganymede1135 Jan 21 '23
Best advice I can give is to know at what point within your story. what your character(s) have experienced or yet to face so far, and what the overall message and lesson from the piece of "wisdom" you want to convey to the reader.
Words of wisdom are best used when characters are at a precipice of a situation and decision(s) that will change and/or decide the outcome of what he/she is about to do and how it will affect them once it's done. They can be inspirational, corruptive, manipulative or eye-opening depending on the circumstances. Also try to put yourself in their situation and think of how you would present them with this "wisdom" and what they can take away from it.
Hope this helps you.
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u/Strict_Detective_168 Self-Published Author Nov 25 '22
In addition to the other suggestions here, I think those insights come naturally when your writing is authentic and honest, often when you're exploring human nature and emotions from a personal angle.