Literature Mused Reviews [Link]

Blog Post #2 : Creating the Right Title

I'm seriously not the person who should be talking right now. As you can see, I make some of the worst titles in history.

"More... Than Just Friends?" || The only words I can use to describe what I'm feeling right now is, "What the hell was I thinking?" I clearly wasn't in the right state of mind at that time! I used an ellipsis(...), when it really wasn't necessary. I guess I was trying to add the dramatic effect the title, but that clearly didn't work out. There's no reason to use the question mark at the end since it isn't even a proper sentence! And lastly, how cliche could I have gotten with that title? It makes me want to barf now just thinking about it.

"Miss Replay" || I finally got rid of the misuse of ellipses and unnecessary punctuation marks, but there was still one problem!  That title was completely irrelevant to my story. I still have no idea what to change it to at this moment!

"Playing the Player's Heart" || This title was actually alright. It wasn't the best in the whole universe, but it was decent. The problem with this title is that it's a little overused. With whole playing the player idea, the reader can already tell that the story would be another one of those unoriginal fails. I had clearly wasn't thinking correctly when creating the story.

Excuse my brain for unoriginal ideas.

As you can see, my titles clearly aren't good, so I advise you to stay away from using those similar to mine. The good part about me being so unoriginal is that I can tell you what you shouldn't do in order to stay away from that. Well, that didn't really make sense, but I hope you get the point I'm trying to get across by the end of this blog post.

• As I said earlier, avoid using unnecessary punctuation marks, since they only make the title seem messier and less professional. I have seen people use exclamation points and question marks correctly, but it wasn't very often. So I guess you can use them, but only when it seems to fit your title really well.
• Avoid cliche titles - I think this section speaks for itself. There's many users on AFF who are naggy about the whole idea of what's acceptable and what isn't. So in order to avoid dragging yourself into that, just avoid the whole topic overall. It saves you a lot of stress that you probably won't need in your life.
• "I'm married to SHINee's Lee Taemin and he's marrying me? And what? He got me pregnant and now he's cheating on me too? My life ! I'll just go run away and marry Minho!"  Yeah uh, don't use those titles. Please. I know I was over-exaggerating with that title, but I thought it would bring the point across better. Treat stories as some guy/girl you're checking out. You don't want someone who just gives their whole being to you. That would just label them as a major . You want someone who you can get to know as time goes on. These types of stories are just major turnoffs. They're unattractive.
• Keep titles professional. You don't want to read a story with a title like this: "L0v3 and Pr0Mi23s <33" Yeah, those titles are cringe worthy. Avoid using digits, heart signs, all caps... Those kinds of things. They ; sorry but it's true. It's all about professionalism here on AFF. Well, when I look for a good story, I look for titles that seem professional. You want to know why? When a title seems professional, there's a good chance the story will be professional too.
• Short and sweet, just the way I like it. You don't want titles where it's practically a hole sentence long! Keep the title to a maximum of five words. If you have a really good title that's over five words, then use it! I'm just trying to give a generalization here.
• Irrelevence is not the key to success. Make sure your title at least has something to do with the story. Would you seriously read a story about singing when it's titled, "The Way to a Man's Heart is by FOOD!" I don't think so. That's just... ew.
• Capitalize it correctly! Do not capitalize unnecessary words ok? The correct way to capitalize a title is to only capitalize the important words. For example, I'll use the title "Loving Mr. L To The Joe." It's obvious "to" and "the" are not important, so don't capitalize those words. The other words are obviously important and should remain capitalized. Also, remember to capitalize the first word in the title even if it's a word like "the" or "am."

And um, I really don't have anything else to say as of this point! If you need an opinion on a title you came up with, leave a comment down below and I'll check it out for you.  :)