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[Tip] Coming Up with Titles

Sunday 15 April 2012 at 23:30

We all know that coming up with titles for your stories is hard, especially if you want it to be a good title. Even using these tips, sometimes I still find it hard to come up with a title, and you might too! It's completely normal, don't fret.

Honestly, I think titles are important. It sets the trap to capture your reader's attention. You could also argue that the storyline is more important than the title, but I like to believe that titles reflect it's storylines.

There's no right or wrong way to come up with a title, so all I can offer you are some tips that might come in handy for coming up with a good, interesting title for your story. I'm not the best at coming up with titles, and many of you may know this, but I hope I can be of some help.

1. Eye catching?
Do titles need to be eye catching? I believe so, to a certain extent. Many people tell us to not judge a book by it's cover, but the cover is what many of us see before taking a look at the actual words in the novel. Because we're talking about fanfiction, ways in which titles could be eye catching include the usage of symbols such as: ~, @, *, -, ♥, ▌ or wRiTINg like THIS (or jus typ1n 1n l13k thiz).

I think there's no problem in trying to make your title eye catching, but there's a very big disadvantage to using too many symbols. Your title is meant to reflect your story, and it's the first thing anyone sees, even before taking a look at the poster or trailer. The first disadvantage, is that it reflects your writing style. If you have poor capitalisation, punctuation, vocabulary or grammar, some readers may think it'll occur frequently throughout your story and will skip over it.

I think that because of this, it's unfair to those who aren't strong in English, but not everyone chooses a story based on it's title, so if you're not strong in English, try your best, yeah? I'm sure you still have many readers who love your stories because of the plot, not because of the grammar, the title or the words you choose to use!

Secondly, it's not easy on the eyes, using symbols in your titles. I think I speak for many people when I make this point. Normal, properly written titles are easier on the eyes and sometimes, in my opinion, easier to read. It may be okay for graphic threads, or for blog posts, but they shouldn't be used too often for story titles.

If you didn't understand any of that - keep your titles simple, and tone down on the symbols.

2. Ways to come up with a title.
One way that helps me is by re-reading my forewords. Even though I already know what the story is going to be able, it puts me into a reader's perspective, and it helps to trigger small phrases that I could use as potential summaries. From those summaries, I narrow it down even further by coming up with words to summarise those summaries.

Another way is by making a list of the key points in your story, or using the moral of your story. A title that will be explored later on in your story is probably one of the best you can get. For example, your story could be about a gangster plotting revenge, but then changing their mind as their heart changes for an innocent girl (as cliché as it sounds, and as cliché as it is, it could turn out to be a really good story). If the gangster has a gang, and if the group were to be called.. I don't know, 'Hades', you could title your story 'Hades', and gradually explore the meaning of why the gang called themselves 'Hades', or where it originated from.

Many titles turn out to be cliché, and that's okay. Originality is hard to come by these days - which is slightly unfortunate, but that's how it is. Keeping a list of the titles you come up with for a fic would be helpful, then you can cross out the ones that are, dare I say, retarded, and keep the ones you like.

Going back to original titles, here are some examples of very common and/or cliché titles.

I Love You

Goodbye

Living with my [insert group name here] Oppas!

Married to who?!

My Gangster Boyfriend/Girlfriend

Heaven is a place on Earth (Trust me on this one, it may not seem common, but I've seen it around a lot)

I've Always Loved You

These are just examples. You're free to use them, but commonly used titles can lead the reader into thinking that it's just another cliché plot that they've read before. Your job is to come up with a title that makes them think otherwise. There are nothing wrong with cliché titles though, some people actually like them.

3. Length.
There's no specific length to a title. It can be as long as you like! Bear in mind though, a longer title will be harder to remember, there's going to be a character limit, and it's going to look horrible on a poster or in a trailer. It's harder to work with too.

Pretend you're naming a book (you're naming a fanfic, it's similar!) or a pet. Would a long title fit on the cover of a book, in size 18 font? Or would a long name be remembered by everyone in your family?

4. Does it match your storyline?
I mentioned earlier that the best title is one that matches the storyline, yes? That's because I think the title can help the reader understand the story more fully; however, those titles that match the story, but only some people understand it do exist.

Lets put it this way. If you're able to back up your title with key evidence from the story, or if you're able to explain your title using your story, you've got a good title.

Taking the example from above, Hades is a title that matches the story because the group's name is Hades, so it appears often in the story. It'll also be explored further throughout the duration of the story. Voila, you have a link.

5. Examples.
Below are some examples of good titles.

July 26th - The title alone evokes a mysterious feeling, and it makes people wonder what's so important about this date.

Birth Right - Birthright is a term that refers to aquiring something at birth. For example, the family fortune, because you're the oldest male. In this case, the word has been split into two, and so it's read as two different words, birth and right. It makes people wonder what right people are given at birth.

Deconstructing God - Firstly, how can you deconstruct God? It leaves a sense of mystery with the reader, as well as the thought of 'how is deconstructing God possible?'.

Dysfunctional Equilibrium - Okay, I'm doing equlibrium in three different subjects to know that equilibrium is when all things are equal. This title makes you wonder how and why equlibrium is dysfunctional, and on what grounds?

Ultimate Weapon - What is the ultimate weapon? We're not given any specific details, so we can't say that it's definitely going to be a romantic comedy or a horror story. It sort of leaves you guessing until you start reading the story.

July 26th - rxnkim
Birth Right - DewOfTheSea
Deconstructing God - skysmex
Dysfunctional Equilibrium - XxKaylaH3artKxX
Ultimate Weapon - Mentality

With referral to I Choose You! Eye-Catching Title!

Labels: Tip, Type: Writing

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