Does no one use footnotes?

[blackcrowcrowd]

I've realized that I haven't really see any stories that use footnote, is it just because it's never necessary or ??

 

[Juia_Darkcrest]

I've realized that I haven't really see any stories that use footnote, is it just because it's never necessary or ??

Heh, I do but not in the proper academic way they are typically used.

generally I * something, then at the bottom of the page I have the explanation.

Generally they are not used in fiction writing.

 

[blackcrowcrowd]

Heh, I do but not in the proper academic way they are typically used.

generally I * something, then at the bottom of the page I have the explanation.

Generally they are not used in fiction writing.

I see, I usually see them a lot in chinese webnovels to explain stuff that it's meanings can't be grasped by direct translation (Ex: A chinese pun)

 

[CodeCrisis]

I think I used footnotes once in my hundred something chapter story, just explain sword parts. And that was it. Never used foot notes again.

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Fiction, unless abridged or translated, typically does not have footnotes. There are the occasional sci-fi and high fantasy stories that use them for the purpose of not losing the attention of the reader over words that they do not understand but those are extremely rare from what I have found.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Got used to working in situations where you couldn't use footnotes and got out of the habit.

 

[CarburetorThompson]

Only time I used foot notes was in my Interwar inspired fictional dogfighting aerial combat short story, because there was a ton of aviation terms like AGL, altimeter, etc, that I don’t expect the average reader to know

 

[RepresentingCaution]

I'd typically just do an author's note.

 

[Piisfun]

The only story I have seen use footnotes specifically used them for translations of sentences written in a different language.

There was only one or two sentences that were not in English, and they were specifically in a different language to highlight that the characters couldn't understand it, but translations were provided for the reader.

 

[Eldoria]

This is fiction, not a scientific paper. What's the point of footnotes?

 

[Placeholder]

??

 

[Jerynboe]

I can think of incredibly few stories that I’ve read that had footnotes. One published example was a YA novel series with a djinn character who could think about multiple things at once. Narratively we are told that most of the time that bandwidth was used for analyzing the situation and making plans in case a fight started, but whenever one of his secondary minds wandered there might be a footnote.

Frequently the footnote would provide additional exposition about the history of the world. Magic system explanations, characters he had a history with, political philosophy, that kind of thing. Occasionally it would be a fourth wall break, and the rest of the time it was the narrator making smartass jokes or spewing self aggrandizement. It was a fun quirk of that series.

 

[blackcrowcrowd]

This is fiction, not a scientific paper. What's the point of footnotes?

Well, if the fiction will reference certain cultural things or use uncommon terminology it could use it. For example, white lotus, green lotus, etc.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Outside of comic books ("Amazing Super Dude Issue 45. 'Nuff said") I have only seen footnotes used by comedic writers - mostly the late Terry Pratchett (who had one brilliant set of footnotes daisy chained for about half a page drilling into a joke, deflating it and reinflating it) and Peter David.
Usually, stories I'd be tempted to use footnotes in I've written in first person, so the narrator makes an aside to the reader instead of a footnote ("Remember when I mentioned Maguffffin X? Yeah... here's where it comes in...")

 

[Juia_Darkcrest]

This is fiction, not a scientific paper. What's the point of footnotes?

Best I can come up with is in fanfic when you go off canon and explain why you changed something...

for example;

One of the characters in my works has some noticeable scars but was never explained why in canon, I decided it was his cat girl ex-girlfriend who gave them to him. I made her up on the spot, * the paragraph and at the bottom explained the scene.

 

[Hoshino]

Too lazy- Wait, I have used them-nya.

 

[Kenjona]

Umm, are you using the word "footnote" correctly? Do you mean "Authors note"?

I do some technical writing and footnotes are more to provide citations or additional commentary for information in the main text. They are used to avoid plagiarism, cite sources, and offer extra information without disrupting the flow of the main content and follow a numbered bullet point format at the end of the page that link directly to a word, comment or paragraph in the page above the footnote.

An authors note is something that is used to connect with readers, provide extra information, or ask for engagement from readers. It can be used to ask for reader opinions on the chapter, share details about the writing process, provide interesting facts, or announce upcoming content or changes.

One is for more scholarly/academic articles. The other is either to get reader engagement or clarify parts of the story.

 

[ChrisLensman]

One of my favorite authors, Charles Stross, uses footnotes extensively, both for giving worldbuilding information that would break up the flow of the story and for added jokes, but I've never really felt the need. Not only are they annoying to implement and pull you out of your writing flow but when it comes to providing extra information to the reader the Glossary here on Scribble Hub is a much better and more centralized way to do that.

I do admit that I am a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to that because while it's too annoying for me to implement I would totally love to see it in more stories.

 

[blackcrowcrowd]

Umm, are you using the word "footnote" correctly? Do you mean "Authors note"?

I do some technical writing and footnotes are more to provide citations or additional commentary for information in the main text. They are used to avoid plagiarism, cite sources, and offer extra information without disrupting the flow of the main content and follow a numbered bullet point format at the end of the page that link directly to a word, comment or paragraph in the page above the footnote.

An authors note is something that is used to connect with readers, provide extra information, or ask for engagement from readers. It can be used to ask for reader opinions on the chapter, share details about the writing process, provide interesting facts, or announce upcoming content or changes.

One is for more scholarly/academic articles. The other is either to get reader engagement or clarify parts of the story.

I am talking about footnote, not author's notes.

 

[Our_Lady_in_Twilight]

If you like footnotes, you can't go wrong with Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Some of them go on for pages!