Titles

Why do I even need this chapter? Oh! Right… It’s because some authors (yes, I’m talking to you) just love to make super long, completely irrelevant titles for their story. All because the title just sounds cool.

Well you know what? I DON’T CARE IF THE TITLE SOUNDS COOL! If the title of your story is exceptionally long or doesn’t match the genre of your story whatsoever, then we need to have a talk. Like, NOW.

I’m going to begin my long rant with the LONG TITLE. To me, a long title doesn’t necessarily mean a *gasp* five word long title. The title of this story is actually five words long itself. But a long title is one that is basically a sentence on its own. Example?

“My Best Friend’s Brother Got Me Pregnant But He Doesn’t Know”

Well gee, thanks for telling me your entire story. I totally wasn’t going to read your story even though it seemed interesting from the description I just read. Thank you so much.

No. Absolutely no. Titles are supposed hook your readers into your story. They’re meant to grab your readers’ attention so that they can click on your story and READ it. If you use a title like the one above, then you basically just told us your entire plot line: The girl sleeps with her best friend’s brother, gets pregnant, hides it from everyone, gets found out, best friend brothers initially refuses to take care of the baby but then his heart warms up to the idea of fatherhood when he’s there for the birth, and they live happily ever after. The End. (WARNING: This story wasn’t based off of one I read before. I, literally, just made it up in a minute. If it is similar to your story, then you need a new story. Just saying.)

Good titles are short and sweet. Like, for example, a good title for the story mentioned above would be something like “Unexpected” or “A Piece of Me and You”. These titles hint at what the story is about WITHOUT giving too much away. And better yet, they match the genre of the story.

Which introduces me to the second part of my rant: MATCHING YOUR STORY’S TITLE TO YOUR ACTUAL STORY. You would think this wouldn’t be a hard thing to do, but you would be surprised at how many stories there are that have titles that don’t even match the genre or the plot of the story. For example:

“HAUNTED”

This is actually a good title. You know, for a supernatural or psychological story. Even an angst story would match the title. But a story about fluffy bunnies and romance? NO.

Like I stated earlier, the title is supposed to hint at what your story is about. Titles like “Forgetting You” or “Shattered Memories” would best be fit for a more angst-y story about someone losing their memories or trying to forget something, not a lighthearted story about a high school romance.

There isn’t much to say about choosing a good title for your story. I really only have two rules:

1. If your story’s title is too long or gives away the plot for your story, CHANGE IT.
2. If your story’s title has nothing to do with nor matches your story in any way, CHANGE IT.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Titles are tricky little things. They can really be the deciding factor as to whether or not someone clicks on your story. It’s hard to choose a good title for your story because what may seem good to you may seem stupid to someone else. Here’s a tip on deciding on a title: ask someone. Tell someone the title of your story and have them guess the genre of your story and what it’s about. If they get the genre correct and have a VAGUE idea of what your story is about, then the title is good to go. But if they can guess the majority of the plot or guess an entirely different genre that you were going for, then that tells you that you need to go back to the drawing board and think up a new title.

Cute little baby Taemin~

RANDOM FACT: My dad always forgets my birthday, but somehow still remembers all of the dates and times that his favorite football team has a game. Thanks Dad.