Fantastic entry about titling your work.

[valis2]

painless_j discusses titles, why some work, and why some don't.

As some of you might know, I have an English major. One of the most formative classes I took was a Shakespeare class. The woman teaching the class continually took off points for having boring titles for papers.

I'd always had boring titles. I always felt like it was kind of...showing off, maybe? to have fabulous titles. I mean, what if it doesn't live up to a cool title? But this teacher really pushed me, so I started naming my papers wildly, and she gave me full points.

I've kind of gotten out of that, but J really made me think about it. The title for Retribution was pretty boring, but at the last moment I froze, and went back into that old don't-make-the-expectations-too-high mode. Now that I read her entry, I realize that I'm not doing myself any favors by naming things so vaguely.

*resolves to name wildly in the future*

Comments

[svartalfur.livejournal.com]

As a reader, I'm with Aucta. I'll look for pairing, summary, warnings, and then I'll read the first paragraph (sometimes the ending, I have to admit) and decide if I go on reading. For example, pir8fancier's story This Boy's Life (http://archive.skyehawke.com/story.php?no=14247), that I love to pieces - I had to look up the title just now, but I'll always remember it as the "Snape as Scheherazade"-story.

As a writer, the title is important for me. Sometimes I have a title long before I have a plot, and I work my story around it. But that does in no way mean that these titles are better or more significant than those I add to a story later on. I love them better, though. ;D

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I'm not much into titles...I can't ever remember them, I usually remember plot. But J's entry did make a great point about how you will get an extra handful of readers who might normally not have clicked on it if your title is interesting enough, and that makes me want to work a little harder at it.

In the case of prose, I usually have the title last; for poetry, the title is usually first, oddly enough.

[auctasinistra.livejournal.com]

In the case of prose, I usually have the title last; for poetry, the title is usually first, oddly enough.

I don't write poetry but I wonder if this is because in a poem you have your theme more firmly set in your mind than in a story? That is, a poem is generally a more tight encapsulation of a single theme than a story is, so sometimes a story can take turns you don't expect, modifying the theme, I don't know if you title things for that reason, based on theme - I do - but if so, that might make sense.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I think in the case of poetry...the title unifies it (just as you are saying), whereas for me in a story...the plot unifies it, so sometimes it's a little more difficult to put it together for me. ;)

[auctasinistra.livejournal.com]

That makes sense to me.

[auctasinistra.livejournal.com]

Please don't think I'm suggesting titles are unimportant. I give serious thought to all my titles - but not from a marketing standpoint. I want my title to reflect the story's mood or theme or point. Whether it makes the rest of the world go "Ooh! Great title!" Well, it never enters my mind. What would be the point, anyway? How can I predict what other people will consider a good title?

[svartalfur.livejournal.com]

I never thought that you suggested anything in that direction. I guess my phrasing was off. I meant that I'm with you as a reader, but not that I oppose you when I think about titles as a writer. I never believed that your titles are unimportant to you. Scratch, Bottoms Up, Pariah ... those are all titles that I remember well. They fit and are obviously chosen with care.

Let's take "Snape: The Home Fries Nazi" for example. Is this title so good because it's so catching? I'd say no. What I'll never forget about that story is bald Snape with sunglasses, terrorizing a whole town. The title just fits. If someone had chosen a title like that and told a boring, unimaginative story, I'd forgotten all about it and would remember it as "the story with that odd title."

[auctasinistra.livejournal.com]

And for people like me who didn't get the reference (It's from Seinfeld or something, right?), it was just a weird title. :-) I heard about the story via recs anyway, so I can't say whether, had I seen the title and summary, etc., cold, as it were, I would have read on. I might've. Hard to say. But the writing would have hooked me whatever the title. :-)