Titles

pcyans fanfiction rants

TITLES

 

 

THE TITLE of a story is what helps me to identify or describe it, and hopefully to remember the story after a long time. Take for example: Baby's Breath. I've read this quite some months ago, but I can still identify the plot and idea of this story, and I know this is about Baekhyun and Chanyeol. The title brings interest to the readers, wanting them to find out more about what's behind the title, and why the title is such.

One thing in titles is originality. What if you were trying to find that story with that title, but then looking into the stories tab, you find lots more stories with the same title but different plots, and you were trying to find a specific plot? Not easy, right? Since it may take you to look at the tags, the characters, the description, the foreword, or maybe even the chapters itself. Song titles aren't really original, and take for example: Baby Don't Cry. I think in AsianFanfics alone, there are like 10 pages that would come up if you try searching for that title. But I'm not saying you aren't allowed to do so. You should probably just find a way to make it seem original.

pcyans' pet peeve #1: titles that go along the lines of "My Best Friend is Dating Me?" "I'm in Love with a Bad Boy!" "I'm Dating Wu Yi Fan!" "We Got Married!". Nope. Somehow these look like they summarize the whole idea already, and what to find out for in these stories is just how they came up with such. I think titles like these are the ending, and there's no more excitement to finding out the ending, since you know these already. So basically, don't give titles that look like they give out the ending.

pcyans' pet peeve #2: "I Love You" "Oppa Saranghae". Wait what. That's it. Is that even a title.

Connection with  the plot and the title is key, too. If you give out an elegant title and it seems like most of the readers don't know what it is, probably you could point out some hidden message in the middle of the story, or explain it in the description itself.

Putting symbols or special characters in titles (eg: ), but putting too much is quite straining for me, and possibly to others, so possibly, avoid putting too much special characters. This also applies to !! or ??. Like... "I'm Dating _______?!?!?!?!?!?". Doesn't that look too annoying. If you are putting some special characters, I don't know, but I think it's quite unnecessary  since designs go to  your poster, if you do have one.

So here's what I can say about titles, so far. I could put up a part two on titles if I could say more about these.

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PandaChux3
#1
Chapter 2: The thing about well-written, intriguing descriptions though, is that sometimes the actual contents/chapters of the story isn't actually as good as it is shown in the descriptions. Writing-style wise, grammar-wise, etc. and you just feel that pang of sadness because it doesn't meet your expectations /sobs.
erasedseal
#2
Chapter 1: Thank you very much for this :)