Young Writers Society

I think that some other posts elsewhere have touched on this subject a little, but I thought I would drag this out into the open and tie it up so that we can all get our big sticks out and take a swing at it. (Holy crap, that was a long sentence.)

Anyways, so one of the most important things that we as writers need for our stories are of course, titles. After all, the title is the first part of the story that our readers see. It is how they judge if our story is worth getting into in the first place. So of course, our titles need to be wonderful and amazing. But how are we to do that? What makes a good title in the first place? And, on the other end of the spectrum, what makes a bad title? Let's hear your thoughts on titles.

My view on them is fairly simple. The worst title in existence is Untitled. You need to call your story something besides that, even if it does smell like something you'd leave in the toilet.

I hate it when people title their stuff 'Untitled'. I mean, how much more of a lame title can you get? Seriously. I would rather see your lame title skills with a high fantasy named See Dick Run. Or something.

-Jared

This is a great article about titles by Snoink.


I'm horrible with titles, actually. Some of mine are amazing, others not so much. I actually think a title is more important for poetry just because it can add a lot more meaning, double meanings, to your poetry. It is still as important for novels, but I don't spend so much time worrying about it. I like to take things out of the text, so I can give my reader one of those "Oh!" revelations.

I usually start writing my stories a few chapters before I post them anywhere or show them to anyone other than for some peer editing or critique and by that time if I didn't know where I wanted my story to go I have a good idea what I want done with it. I'll just think of what the story is about and a title will pop into my head, I'm usually good with coming up with them.

My latest though, I couldn't think of a title and I was 5 chapters in and a random word that had nothing to do with the story popped into my mind and all I thought was "Hey that will catch people's eyes!" I ended up using it, telling myself I'd change it later when I wanted to show my story and I eventually ended up making it fit into the story without realizing it. Kind of cool.

I like to choose random titles for my stories. Most of the time I think about the main idea in my story and come up with a title that matches that idea. Some of the time I just choose a completely random title, but something that sounds good.

Titles usually come to me after the first few sentences. I'm not sure whether they are good or not but they are certainly different: Silver Ferride, The Boatman etc...

For me, it's either I come up with a cool title and then invent a story to go with it, or I write a story and then can't think of title... Like when I wrote "The Red Box" I didn't have any title in mind, and still to this day I hate the title that it has... I'll try to make a new one when I rewrite it, but usually my titles are hit and miss. It's either I have an amazing title, or I can't think of one at all. >.<

[s]BlackGhost[/s]

I don't think titles matter so much. Just make something up that slightly relates. Anything. Bad titles have never scared me off. The only thing that's ever scared me off is "Untitled".

The worst title format on the planet:

The [insert adjective or color here] [insert object here]. Titles like The Blue Sword or The Lonely Plains. I will never read any book that follows the above template, regardless of its quality.

Generally, I start titling my work according to the general topic and then dive a little deeper into some of the concepts of the topic. I also use consistant themes to title stories. A recent piece posted here on YWS of mine was a single story comprised of three separately titled vignettes: A Muse's Voicebox, A Muse's Fingerpaint, and A Muse's Ballpoint (PS: Siren has been changed to Muse, which is what I wanted to call it in the first place.) The constant in these three titles is the 'muse', which suggests an art related topic, while the three variables are unique to each vignette which were respectively music themed, art themed, and poetry themed.

Savvy?

-Kylan

I should totally not be one to speak on coming up with titles, considering all of my current projects (except perhaps "Mutts", but even that is temporary if I can come up with something better) are without titles. Titles are so freakin' hard for me to come up with. There are some people who just have a crazy knack for titles, but I'm not one of them.

But yes, I think the title is super important in attracting the reader. "Untitled" is by far the worst of the worst (please, people, anything but "untitled"... your work deserves more than that, even if it is "the day my aunt sneezed") but at the same time, there are many generic titles that no one cares about anymore. Snoink mentioned those in that article (bril btw, Snoink, and thanks, Suz, for posting it here) so I won't rant on and on about them, but those will drive me off just as fast as "Untitled".

I'd like the title to have something to do with the story. It can be really obvious (like "Abarat" for a book about a place called Abarat, or "Pride and Prejudice" for a story about those themes, to use two of my favorite books) or it can be something that plays a small part (like "To Kill a Mockingbird" - that phrase is a very small part of the book - with a greater meaning later on, but still a rather small part) just as long as it actually has something to do with the book. To rag on everyone's favorite scapegoat, the "Inheritance Trilogy", I seriously haven't figured out why they are called "Inheritance". Seriously. Who inherits what? I'm majorly not getting it.

So, yeah, I like my title to be relevant. Originality is nice too. I've noticed that a lot of pieces (discounting those "The ____ of ____" types) have a one or two word title, whereas having more than that can be interesting. I mean, "The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl" is interesting, no? And "The Coyote Kings of the SpaceAge Bachelor Pad" makes you go "huh?" and pick up the book (it did for me). And our very own Clograbby's "How to Dance Freely in Your Underwear" still makes me laugh.

Of course, those are lengthy titles. One and two word titles isn't all that bad either. It's just the matter of finding the right one or two words. Pretty much, it's about grabbing attention. So "Magic" probably isn't a good idea for a title. I mean, it's pretty blah. On the opposite end of the scale, "Enchantment" probably isn't too hot either, considering it's kind of melodramatic. It's also been done a few times, if I'm not mistaken. I could be wrong, but it sounds a bit familar. There's "Enchanted"... Hmm...

However, there are some titles that really seem to have nothing to do with the story at first and are kind of blah, but after you read the story, they take on a whole new meaning. The first that comes to mind is the novella "Gold" by Isaac Asmiov. On it's own, "Gold" is a pretty boring title(I personally picked it up for the author, not so much for the title of the book...), but after having read the story, it takes on a rather deeper meaning.

Ultimately, I don't know if there's any hard and fast rule for titling (except for "Untitled" - never, ever, EVER do it, 'k?). Just don't be... boring, I guess.

'K, enough rambling for me.

It's weird cause I can come up with chapter titles really easily but when it come to titling the entire thing I can never come up with anything. Currently, the story I'm working on the most at the moment is called 'Alana' because that's the main character's name. But whenever I try to think of a better title it just sounds uber-lame to me.