This chapter will address titles.

The Title

Titles are more important than people realize. In my experience, for many people, if the title is a complete turn-off, they are very unlikely to keep reading. I, for one, judge fics by their titles, and usually the judgments I make from the titles end up matching my judgments of the fics of themselves.

The Wrong Way to Do It

This is a general guideline. There will always be exceptions, but unless you're extremely confident that it will work, it's best to go with the rules rather than risk losing readers by breaking them.

Avoid any and all combinations of the following:

• Erratic capitalization. Capitalizing what shouldn't be capitalized and not capitalizing what should be capitalized. When readers comes across words in all caps, they tend to read them as if they’re being screamed. Stylizing your title on a banner for your fic is fine, but when you’re just typing the title, it’s best to follow the conventions for capitalization. Some people choose to use lapslock (nothing is capitalized), and while it's not my thing, it's certainly better than any of the other things on this list. Just be consistent. Ex: lovE, TRUE LOVE, PaRaDiSe (wow, that took far too much effort to type), MARRIED to MY oppa Myungsoo
• Spelling errors. People are human and make typos, but please double-check the spelling in your title before you post it. If people see things misspelled in your title, they're going to assume that you will be misspelling things everywhere in your fic as well. Ex: Accidently in Love
• Leaving out spaces between words entirely (I still find it hard to believe that people actually do that). Also, make sure not to take two words and make them a single word unless there is some sort of literary/poetic license being employed for a valid reason. Common errors include "bestfriend," "inlove," "alot." They are actually two words. Ex: BeforeTheDawn
• Substituting weird symbols or—Heaven forbid—numbers for letters. It may look “cool,” but it’s usually just a pain to try and read. Not to mention if someone didn’t bookmark or subscribe to your fic and wants to find it later on, they’ll have a hard time digging it up again. Ex: TH€ SW€€T LIF€
• Using exclamation points or question marks or ellipses. Sometimes they’re okay, but mostly they just add a hilarious touch of exaggerated melodrama to whatever the title is, especially when you abuse them in large quantities. Ex: My boyfriend is a vampire……?!?!?!?!
• Using tildes (~) or asterisks (*). They are not necessary and often create the same effect as the punctuation mentioned in the previous point. Ex: ~*~Before the Dawn~*~
• Sentence-long titles. Again, these sometimes work, but for the most part, they just sound stupid or end up describing the entire fic in one line and thus negating the point of the fic. Ex: I hated him, but now I love him.
• Summarizing what happens in your story. Ex: See above.
• Using other languages when you don’t actually know them. My older sis saw someone who had an English title accompanied by a Korean title, and the Korean title was the result of the author pasting the English into Google Translate. Don’t pretend to know Korean because if a native speaker or someone who has some acquaintance with the language reads it, they are not going to take you seriously. At all. It’s kind of an insult to the language and the people who know it.
• Using cliche phrases. It tends to make the story sound cheesy or unoriginal, even if it’s actually an original plot line. Not to mention that increases the likelihood that someone else has used the same exact title. You want something that is easy to remember, but not easy to confuse with other fics. Ex: Not So Innocent (why did Britney Spears start playing in my head? LOL; yes, I know it’s “not that innocent.”)
• Using kpop song titles, particularly ones by the artists featured in your fic. The reasoning is the same as for the above. I cannot count how many Infinite fics are called BTD (or Before the Dawn), Nothing’s Over, Can U Smile, Be Mine, Paradise, or, more recently, White Confession. One time someone asked me if I’d read Nothing’s Over, and there turned out to be two relatively popular/well-known fics by that title. I was confused for a while.
• Emoticons. This should be a given, but apparently it isn’t. When I see people use emoticons in titles, I laugh because, as with the punctuation, they add a melodramatic flair. Ex: He Loves Me Not :’(
• Calling it something completely irrelevant to the fic. Should definitely be a given. Titles are supposed to be somehow representative of your fic. If your title is something random with no connection to the story, that’s just nonsensical. Ex: A story about vampires called The Muffuletta Sandwich (don’t ask) that doesn’t involve that kind of food.
• Using the idols’ names in the fics. This one’s a bit more ambivalent, but usually when I come across names in a fic title, it’s because they’re being used in combination with one of the words/patterns mentioned below…
• In general, basically any of the following overused words, phrases, or patterns: oppa, engaged, prince, maid, vampire, kingka/queenka, gangster, , player, roommate, boyfriend, husband, best friend, My ________ is a ____________[?!], Married to ________________, Pregnant with __________’s Baby, ___ Years Old and _________, Falling for/in Love with ________________; ______ by Day, ________ by Night; My Life with/as ________; It Started with ______; Of _____ and _____; Living with _______, My  number adjective and adjective noun. Even if your fic has gangsters and vampires*, don’t put it in your title. Just don’t.

*I know it sounds like I’m implying that vampires, gangsters, etc. should not appear in fan fiction. I know not all fics that include them are bad or cliche by default. But there a lot of gangster and vampire fics, and most of them are not very original, so…yeah. -_-“

Here is an example of a made-up title that uses almost everything I mentioned above:

~*~After a 하얀고백 B€F0R€theDawn, I fell in LOVE at first SIGHT. Now Im 18 years old and a pregnant MAID MARR13D to My Vampire GANGST€R BoYfRiEnD MYUNGS00 OPPA ...?! :O~*~

Now try to tell me that isn't an eyesore.

The Right Way to Do It

There isn't a set formula for coming up with a title, but I suggest going with the Three M's (I made this up):

1. It should be memorable: You want something that people will remember. It's easier to find a fic and recommend it to people if you can remember the name. It increases the chances that people will be able to remember your fic down the road. Even if they don't remember everything that the fic is about, they'll probably remember whether or not they liked it.

2. It should be meaningful: You want it to be relevant to your story. It should represent your story in some way. Pick a character, setting, theme, or motif that recurs in your story and formulate a title based off of that. Even better, come up with a title that makes your readers exercise critical thinking skills and draw connections between the text and the title.

3. It should match your story: By this, I mean that it should communicate the appropriate mood and feeling that you want the readers to get from your story. Say it out loud and see if it produces the effect you want. Make sure it doesn't sound like a little kid came up with it unless that's part of the point of your title. If it's a lighthearted fic, don't give it a weighty title.

Aside from the above, here are a few other things you should do or think about.

1. Search your title on AFF and see if any results pop up.

2. Go to the alphabetical listings of titles and see how many fics you can find, if there are any, that have either exactly the same or a very similar title to yours.

3. Take your title and try applying it to your other fics. Would it fit them? If so, then your title probably isn't effective.

4. Try this little game: get together with one or more people and each of you go find, say, five random fics and copy-paste their titles and descriptions. Then, mix them up and tell the other person/people to match the title to the description. It's better to pick fics with titles that don't flat-out summarize/describe what happens in the fic because otherwise it makes it super obvious.

5. Not only should your title be appropriate for your story, it shouldn't be so general that it can apply to a ton of other stories. In fact, if your title can fit a bunch of other stories, and those stories are similar to yours, that also says something about how original/creative your fic idea is.

Lastly, it's good to be creative, but a super original title isn't absolutely necessary. It's better to have a title that's not-so-original but follows the Three M's than have a title that's totally one-of-a-kind but sounds stupid or doesn't really relate to your story almost at all.

Note: If you want my opinion on your story title(s), feel free to ask.