[Insert Title Here] (or What You Will) · 2:45pm Jan 21st, 2017
The title of a story is arguably the most important bit. It is the first part, and in most cases, the only part a reader will look at. Somehow, in just a handful of words, you need to convey what it is about and grab the reader’s attention enough to get them to read more. But while it is easy to spot one you like, it is rather harder to think of the perfect title yourself. And when you have found what you think is good, how do you know your readers will think the same as you do?
I am a fan of clever titles. I’m always drawn to books which have a particular intriguing line on the front cover, something like Janna Levin’s How the Universe Got its Spots. It is a bit of a riddle, which makes you want to read the book to figure out what it is about. But that’s not enough, as it also has to sound sufficiently appealing to convince me that it will be worth my while. Really wacky titles and blatant clickbait can have the opposite effect.
This seems to be a popular style for popular science books. Janna Levin’s title refers to the anisotropies in the cosmic background radiation—the pattern of hot and cold spots across the sky of the relic light from the big bang. Of course you don’t know that until they’ve read the book. But it just sounds intriguing—enough to get someone to pick it up and read. And the reference to Kipling’s ‘Just so stories’ seems very appropriate for a story of what happened moments after creation. She also used that title for a scientific paper. Her other titles include: A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space and Bright transients from strongly-magnetized neutron star-black hole mergers.
An example from the fiction section is Peter Høeg’s thriller: Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow. Some credit is due here to the translator. When you first read the title it is a mystery exactly what it means, but it still tells you something about the book. The name Smilla conveys a sense of the exotic, feeling conveys a certain warmth, which contrasts with snow. It just sounds good enough to get me to read the back cover, which then builds up the intrigue by explaining that the Greenlandic glaciologist’s ‘feeling for snow’ allows her to read tracks in the snow, and interpret a crime scene.
Yet there is no shortage of very good books with boring titles. While it is believable that an author is capable of writing 100,000 of near-perfect prose, but still have a mind blank when it comes to writing the title, it seems in many cases brilliant authors are perfectly content with a straightforward boring title and don’t feel the need to try to think up something clever. Perhaps they feel as serious writers they need a serious title to make reader aware that it is a serious book?
Picking the perfect title is tricky as all readers are different. What some think is clever, others may find cringe inducing, and others may just be baffled. If your title includes a reference to some bit of popular, or not so popular, culture, it’s always worth thinking about how something will come across to readers who don’t get it.
My strategy is to start with a working title, then every time I open the document I am working on, I look at the title and try to think of something else. Even if I don’t like it, I write it down, so by the time I finish writing the story, I have a long list of possible titles, and usually one of them is okay. Often I end up using is the one I started with, but sometimes I find something better.
The Art of Rainbow Engineering started off just as Rainbow Engineering, but I always felt it needed something more. While tidying my bookshelf, I noticed the textbook The Art of Electronics, and I had it. It is possibly also a reference to the brilliantly titled Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Looking through my old notes, Rock Farms and Nuclear Reactors went through a lot of title changes. Starting off as: Pinkie Power, then: The Earth Pony Guide to Nuclear Physics, Pinkie Pie and the Ponyville Pressurised Water Nuclear Reactor, Nopony will get hurt—Pinkie Promise, Dr Pinkie Pie and the Ponyville Nuclear Power Plant, The Strange Case of Dr Pinkie Pie and the Ponyville Nuclear Power Plant. I think at that point I got a bit nervous that a wacky title would put readers off. I thought this was one of my best stories and I didn’t want it dismissed a silly crackfic.
Early draft title and cover art.
In contrast to the amount I worried about that one, the title of The Brightest and the Best was just chosen quickly under time pressure as it was a write-off entry. But it has lived up to its name (currently ranked no. 5 on Fimfiction).
What really good Fimfiction titles are there? Scanning down the top story list, the two which stood out to me were Skywriter’s Derplicity, and Georg’s In Celestia We Trust, All Others Pay Cash.
I like to think I'm good at titles. But then, people usually don't comment on titles.
Here are some of my favorites:
2+2 = 5
Dash Gets an Extra Hour in the Ball Pit
Tales from the Cryp-salis: Bakin' Bits
March to the Scaffold
The Hanging of Twilight Sparkle
This Story is Brought to You by Taco Bell
You Can't Have Everything Your Way
The Guard Dog Paradox
(too lazy to link)
All of them seem interesting without being click-bait (as in, why in the world would Twilight be hanged?). Some are just too funny to ignore.
I'm not all that good at coming up with titles (or short descriptions, for that matter), so the only really good ones I've got are the ones that lead into trollfics/crackfics, or the ones someone else gave me.
You'd think by now I'd have figured it out, but nope.
Titles are always fun; they give me a chance for wordplay, like the story about ludicrously long strings of honorifics entitled Appellation Mountains, or story/chapter title combinations like You Can Lead a Horse to Logic/"But You Can't Make Her Think," a response fic to "Applejack's 'Day' Off."
On a less egotistical note, some personal favorites include The Rise and Fall of the Dark Lord Sassaflash for its wonderful contrast with the average pony story, Petriculture for its instantly grokkable nelogism, and the brilliant subtlety of Martial Bliss.
I'd consider my personal bests to be Apple Boom and Cleave, and from my bookshelves:
Making an Old Lady Cry (and other hazards of espionage)
My Sediments Exactly
Safe
Dreamflow
I typically start with a working title as well, usually just to give the new file I've created a name so I can get on with the fun bits. Stressing out over the formal title and the chapter names comes later… except once. One time the story and chapter names sprung fully formed from the aether, and still make me laugh.
4390581
I thought A Taxing Evening was a rather good title.
4390653
I liked Appelation Mountains. And a good use of a writeoff prompt.
4391092
Apple Boom worked for me the second time I read it. On the first skim through my feed I missed the missing letter.
4391109
Understandable, and much better than where I often myself: routinely calling dropping the L when I'm referring to the character. Poor AB…
I really like The Silver Standard as a title, but then again, I like everything about The Silver Standard.
Author Anne Valente (who's a brilliant woman) has a book of short stories titled An Elegy for Mathematics. Sounds like the kind of title that's right up your alley.
4723901
That does look interesting. Added to my 'Read It Later' list.