The section dedicated to scoring a fanfic’s title should not take up too many marks on its own; it is, after all, merely a title. I personally allocate the title section five points, and I believe it really shouldn’t be any less or more. Less would perhaps be more preferable than more, though, in this case, if five really doesn’t work for you. Definitely no more than ten.

There are a few main things you should be taking into consideration when marking the title.

Ability to grab attention

One of the most important jobs of a title is to serve as an attention-capturing feature; the few seconds readers spend reading the words placed in the title section is essentially the amount of time you have to sell your story. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that reviewers should be paying some heed to the title’s ability to do so – that is, successfully endorse the story.

Originality

This could be one of the hardest boxes to check off, especially in the world of fanfiction. In order to meet this criterion, the title obviously cannot be overly cliché or common. If you feel as though you are guaranteed at least another five different search results by entering the title into the AFF search engine, then it probably isn’t the most original one out there.

Length

Now, this one could be debatable, in some cases. Many reviewers tend to have the incorrect perception that all long titles are equal to poor titles, and end up scoring the author lowly on the section based solely against the explanation that their title was too lengthy. While, ideally, a title really shouldn’t be more than approximately six words or so (in my personal opinion), sometimes long titles are implemented for a certain purpose. For example, some comedy stories will deliberately adopt a ridiculously long title to serve the purpose of humour, colloquialism, absurdity etc. It is imperative that the genre and style of the fic be taken into account when judging the title’s length. One-worded titles should also be evaluated appropriately – contrary to the misconception of some reviewers, titles that consist of one sophisticated or eloquent word do not always equate to providing ‘a sense of mystery’.

Relevance to story

A title should, first and foremost, encapsulate the general idea of the story. Do note, however, that for some works, it may not be until you are well into the story that you realize the role the title plays. For some, readers won’t understand the purpose of the title until they have finished reading the entire story, when everything has tied together and the title finally seems to make sense. It is also this reason that makes judging a title’s relevance slightly difficult for incomplete stories that fall under this category.

Correct spelling/grammar

Quite self-explanatory, I believe.

Use of symbols/emoticons

No symbols. No emoticons. It’s as simple as that. This means the inclusion of any flowery or ornate signs, marks, icons, logos, emoji etc. Though they do certainly carry out the role of capturing the reader’s attention, they are inappropriate and forbidden, in most cases, and marks should be deducted immediately upon sighting them – unless the reviewer can judge for themselves and deem the usage of the symbols fitting, which, most of the time, won’t and shouldn’t be the case.

As you can see, a section as small and simple as the title actually encompasses many factors that need to be carefully considered and thought over before choosing the single-digit number to award the author.

The title should not be fully reviewed until the reviewer has completed the reading process of the story, which may come as a surprise to many. I have seen many reviews where the title section clearly indicates that the reviewer simply provided the author with a short and concise explanation that did not point out how well the title serves as a representation to the fanfic and how relevant it is to the story. Assessing a title simply by its originality and attention-grabbing ability is not enough. The core existence of the title and its accuracy in encompassing the story need to be sensibly evaluated in order to provide an accurate and justifiable score and reasonable accompanying explanation, and that clearly won’t be possible until the reviewer has gone through the reading process in its entirety.