A Question about Chapter Titles · 12:03am Mar 6th, 2016
Got a question for my readers.
From the wiki
One of the things that I had envisioned for this story was to be a repository of ideas about ponies reacting to the real world. I think it's fair to say that there are a lot of HiE stories on the site, but not so many PoE stories, and that's a shame.
With that in mind, I imagined that some of the chapters could be a starting point for a different author to take things further, or little details here and there could make their way into other stories, or some little interchange could inspire a PoE.
Maybe not in the way I envisioned it, either. Let's take airplanes. My though as to why Silver Glow doesn't like being in one is threefold: it makes her ears hurt because of the rapid pressure change as the plane flies to altitude, it's confining (pegasi would probably be claustrophobic), and she'd instinctively be trying to 'fix' the airplane's flight, by banking the opposite way it went, trying to climb when it's descending, and so on. And she'd be doing all that while strapped into an uncomfortable chair.
Could be that I'm completely wrong. There might be a perfectly valid argument for why a pegasus would actually enjoy flying in a commercial airliner. Or what about a private plane? Who would like to see a story where a pony was a pilot?
A lot of us, that's who.
Of course, the format of the story makes it hard to find particular things.
Let's assume that the whole project is successful, and I average one chapter a day for a full year. That means that there are going to be 366 chapters, each with a title that was quite literally taken from a calendar.
And let's imagine that I said something that inspired you for a story. Maybe something small, but it's something you want to use, but you want to re-read to refresh your memory.
How are you gonna find it?
You aren't. Plain and simple. So you're going to give up, and move on to something else.
Now, realistically nobody would title their journal with something memorable that happened that day. They'd put the date on it, which is why I did it the way I did it. But I think I could probably re-name the chapters to at least give a hint at the content.
If that's something that you'd prefer, I'll do it. I've already had one person comment that he would prefer that, and in all honesty, it'll probably be easier for me, too.
Give me your thoughts!
Chapter titles are the bane of my existence. I hate coming up with them.
Also as to the whole titles in diary's thing. Some people put something as a sort of header, usually a single sentence or thought. However this causes problems as my ex did this and often repeated herself or would use an inspirational quote or even just something she heard that day as a header.
Oh and no, I wasn't reading her diary without permission, sometimes she found it easier to write a problem down objectively in her diary then show it to me before asking for advice.
Why not both? Date each chapter and then give them titles as well describing roughly what happens i.e. First day on earth, first day of classes, Feeling homesick, Halloween, etc.
It will be very impressive you do manage the whole year, particularly without at least some of the days coming out a bit samey, my diary isn't that interesting a read most of the time, got up, went to work, did stuff, got home, watched some TV, did some internet stuff, went to bed, rinse, wash, repeat.
I do agree with you 100% there needs to be more POE story's
as o a story pumping out 1 chapter a day for a full 365 days, I would not do chapter titles so to speak I am do more like a (I hate my self for this) a star date log to day would be 163.5 .
or something along that line.
I have a good idea for a POE story it will have clop and may be long but as I can't wright for a hill of beans it is stuck in my head.
One could hypothetically do both.
Or set the subtitle off another way of you prefer.
I would go with Talon and Thorn's suggestion of using both. Something like 30 February - "Today didn't exist", the date and a "meaningfull" (feel the air quote) title.
I love title, they are fun to came up with, there is so many thing you can do with it. In fact, I often find it easier to write when I have already found my title. It is like the base of what I wan't to do with my text.
Now I've got Cherry Berry learning to fly a 767 stuck in my head.
Hmmmm......
Again, Our Girl Scootaloo. She gets her pilot's license
You may be interested in an existing case study -- when that was first uploaded, it had only the first four chapters, and they were only titled by number. The parenthetical titles were added later; if you're willing to comb through the comments, you can probably find Eakin mentioning it. Also, using [square brackets] for editorial addenda is a convention in many contexts, so if you want to maintain a sense that the titles aren't Silver Glow's but keep the epistolary-ness, that might be a good compromise.
(N.B.: I am not actually following "Silver Glow's Journal" -- although my recent read of "Pinkie Pie Vs. the TSA" certainly made me enjoy your approach to PoE.)
I'm a fan of either ( ) or [ ] subtitles for the chapter titles as well. Or you could go the even more work route and just put a table of contents in the story description, such as how CiG does it over in I'm Afraid of Changeling (and other short stories).
3793257
This. Dates, followed by parenthetical or bracketed subtitles was the first thing that came to my mind as being a relatively unobtrusive way to accomplish what you're after, AB, but Pterrogrine presented the case better than I could hope to do - and did it first.
3793296 Ooh -- I forgot about that. The real lesson here is the utility of case studies, I think.
A-hem.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I learned how much your friends can help you when you're struggling with a new problem. When you have a writing question about a situation you haven't encountered before, sometimes your friends will have experience with a similar problem. Even if the fic isn't quite the same format, asking your friends how they've solved problems before can help you solve your own.
Your faithful student,
Pterrorgrine
I concur with the previous suggestions. And if you were to err on the side of titles with voice, per
3793184's suggestion, that would be delightful.
The parenthetical subtitles are probably the best option.
That being said, if I have trouble finding a specific moment in a story, I usually download a text copy of it and start combing through that with the find function. It works quite well.
Personally I don't mind the dated chapters, because I'm reading the story as a whole story. I don't reckon I'll need to re-read a particular section, but if I do, that's what Ctrl+F is for.
But if it bothers you, wondering about the theoretical person who might like it another way, why not do both?
3793155 3793158 3793167 3793179 3793184 3793257 3793296 3793336 3793382 3793464 3793568
Well, the consensus appears to be add some brief notes in brackets, or ideally add a note in the character's voice.
For right now, it's quickest to do the bracket notes (which y'all probably have noticed I have done); I may yet go back and change some or all of them to being commentary in Silver Glow's voice.
3793192
I want to read that.
I really, really want to read that. I want it to be authentic, I want her to struggle with all the instrumentation (and I want to know who's crazy enough to actually let her fly a 767), and I want her to fly the damn thing.
3793229
It's on my to-do list.
I have a secret weakness for Scootaloo + human machines.
3793641 Oh, and apparently ponies were engineered (her DNA is described as having essentially a readme.txt sequence) and highly adaptable (flight is achieved through magnetic resonance with metallic organs in the wings, and she "adapts" to roboarms that were designed for her)
It kinda goes off the rails hardcore, but it's a good read.
3793634
looks good I will have to add this story to my list.
I like the idea of having both.
I also thought, maybe an index page with the key plot points for each chapter? Then you can have simple/short titles but if someone needs a particular one they can search on the index page.
3794270
That's not a bad idea, but if I achieve my goal, it's probably going to be unmanageable.