Titles

[BellaLestrange87]

A story's title is just as important as the summary in determining whether people are going to click on your story. It can also give an indication about the content of your story - a story titled "Harry Potter and Death Death Death" is not going to be happy, for example, unless you're into irony and reader confusion.

 

For me, how I create titles has varied for each story. For stories that have been based off of a song, the title has often been a lyric from that song ("While Our Blood's Still Young" "The Awful Sound of Nothing" "Killer in Me and the Killer in You"). Some of them have been puns ("Seek and Chase", referencing Jacob and Lily's respective Quidditch positions). Some of them have been references to character descriptions ("The Man With the Twisted Face", which focuses on Antonin Dolohov).

 

How do you come up with titles?

[Vilja]

Oh, titles

I'm glad you opened this topic, I would sooo love to see people's opinion on this

 

I tend to give 'clever' titles, but then I always run the risk of readers not getting it after all we all think differently and associate to different things...

For example. One of my one-shots in entitled 'Burning secrets' and it is about two secrets that Severus Snape keeps (one about her mother and one about Draco), the story is made up of five (I think five...) little scenes, and all of them end with a reference to Snape's Dark Mark that is burning, and this is of course key to everything that is going on with the secrets.

Anyway I love when the title doesn't give everything away, but then again I prefer dark and mystery stories, so this might not be appropriate for other genere

 

(I hope to get a lot of 'new' notifications from this topic )

[PinsandKneazles]

I really like an imaginative title which plays with the words a little, with the meaning becoming apparent as the story is being read.

 

On saying that, it doesn't apply to all of mine. "Finding Courage" will one day get a re-write and a sharper title. I couldn't think of anything to call it.

"Why Everyone Should Hate Coffee Creams", "Witching Hour", "Witchful Thinking", "Roses Are Red, But Sometimes They're Blue", and "Crouching Parasite, Deathly Agenda" will probably keep theirs, though

[lovegood27]

Omg, my first fanfic had the most appalling title ever of "Stolen Love"

 

I'm never very good when it comes to titles, and I can't seem to come up with anything clever that plays around with words. Titles and summaries...the two essential things which interests a reader that I lack the skills to create. For my titles, I usually just use a few words which pretty much sum up the entire story. (E.g. My story "Present and Future", which is about the present and Future meeting lol) No hidden connections or anything for me.

 

Or similarly, I use a phrase which is repeated a lot in the story, or what my story mainly focuses on. My one-shot, "The Heir of Slytherin" is focused on...you guessed it, the heir of Slytherin. I have another one-shot called "From The Ashes" because I use those three words in that story a lot. It references a phoenix, which is reborn from the ashes once it 'dies'. It's called that because I use a phoenix being reborn as my metaphor for the main theme of my story.

 

It usually takes me ages to come up with something even close to decent, though, so that's kind of all I have to say

 

 

[Archer Rose]

My titles are always short and sweet. I guess I don't think that deeply into them. Only one of my stories has more than a one word title. I'm not a ravenclaw so I guess clever titles aren't my thing.

 

I love the title 'witchful thinking' brax!

[hedwig1751]

Or similarly, I use a phrase which is repeated a lot in the story, or what my story mainly focuses on. My one-shot, "The Heir of Slytherin" is focused on...you guessed it, the heir of Slytherin.

 

Cough, creds to me

 

My title deciding skills are, let's say, less than you would expect of an average 'Claw. That is to say, really bad- my first fic's title (lol, I'm still working on it) is Forbidden, and I feel that it conveys a sense of darkness and whatnot, when it's just a humourous novella about dealing with life in Hogwarts. I suppose it could be a play on words because the Forbidden Forest plays quite a bit part in it, but eh. I feel like it's a bit late to change it, since it's already been 4 months writing into this fic, so yup.

 

My one shots consist of badly matched alliteration (Midnight Mishaps) and cheesy quotes from the actual fic (Friends from birth...or so we say) MAJOR CRINGE.

 

My Lockhart one shot (validating) is called Gilderoy Lockhart: A Snippet Of My Fabulous Life, which I guess is just reflecting the main character's strange way of thinking, since the entire one shot is in his point of view.

[TidalDragon]

My titles tend to be short - normally one to two (1-2) words - that are centered on capturing the major plot and/or character arc(s) or themes. Occasionally they use some sort of theme or idea from a particular discipline (like Schrodinger's Cat and Escape Velocity). Only occasionally do I grab a key line of dialogue or something (see Merlin! Stupid. What?).

 

That being said, I am completely obsessive about titles and there are certain one-shots that to be perfectly honest I have spent more time cooking up a title for than I have actually writing them. Whether that's good or bad I guess depends on what you think of the stories/my writing

 

Ultimately I'm of the mind that a great title can really elevate a story (in terms of reads and reception) and a bad one can really mess things up so I place enormous importance on them.

[Professor McGonagall]

I'm terrible at titles. I float between titles. Generally though, I like titles that link to another piece of work that inspired the fanfic, titles with wordplay or multiple meanings (such as my own Lord in the Shadows- Is it Voldemort? Is it the Great Evil in the Legislature? Harry? Dumbledore? Is it even an actual Lord?), or the classic The ___ <preposition or adjective> ___ : The Land Before Time, The Once and Future King (I love that title), The Phantom Tollbooth.

 

I dislike titles that follow the canon structure of Harry Potter and the ____ of ____. I also dislike titles that are just one word or a short and corny phrase in general because either I don't think it fits with the fic or because I'm simply mad jelly that I can't come up with a one-word title.

 

Titles are endlessly important, though less so than the synopsis. They're usually the first thing someone reads, and I know I can't just whip up a title (or a synopsis for that matter) without thinking about what potential readers might glean from it.

[mydearfoxy]

I actually really loves picking titles, and I'd like to think I'm decent with them. But then I always wonder if what sounds good to me sounds stupid to others so idk

 

Oftentimes I really don't know where the title comes from. For my story Invisible Horses, the title came to me first and was the inspiration for the story. Similarly, for one of my current projects, Some Kind of Hero, the title came to me very early in my planning and inspired a lot of the story. Does anyone else draw stories out of title ideas?

 

If I'm stuck on a title, I usually read through and look for lines with punch, and use them for the title. This is how I found the title The Center of the Sun. Several of my titles come from songs as well.

[FlamingQuilltips]

This topic is so apt for what I'm thinking right now. It's usually varied for me. Sometimes the title comes to my head before I even start forming the whole story, like with 'Hat's Dilemma', I knew I wanted to write about hatstalls. But it's usually the toughest part for me.

 

I spent days trying to come up with "Once Upon the Marauders". I wanted it to be just right, and even now I'm not so satisfied with it and thinking of changing it. I kind of love witty titles that have multiple meanings but unfortunately I've never come up with anything like that!

 

My first ever fic's title (when I wrote it 11 years ago) was "To Love or to Hate". And yes, it was a horrible teen drama all about romantic relationships (*cry with laughter*). I did get better when I came up with "Forced Enemies" for a fic I co-wrote with my best friend 12 years ago, but that had nothing to do with the plot of the story! 

[FireOpal]

Ugh, titles. I love me a good title, so in theory I understand how important they are, but in practise I have a real hard time coming up with them.

 

My latest title, "A Sudden Bi-alisation," is just the most awful pun - not particularly funny and a bit hard to understand. Meh. Not that my modus operandi of naming my fics after the place where they're set is much better. The only fics that I have named completely on my own and actually like the titles of are "Eyes Like Skies" (love the poetic evocativeness and the rhyme) and "Sorgesång" (for a fic in Swedish - the word means "Song of Sorrow" and has a beautiful, old-timey feel).

[velajune]

I feel relieved I'm not the only one who has a tough time thinking up titles.

For me, titles come after the first chapter or after I've broken the MC down. For example, I had a short about Theodore Nott and I titled it "Twirl Me" because that was the song playing when I first thought of the idea. It later, after the first half was written, changed to "To Theodore & Bianca" because I liked the idea of the story feeling like an intimate letter without actually being a letter (if that makes sense).

In comparison, I had a story I'd been writing for a decade, an original fic, which went through maybe ten titles? Or more! Before I landed on its final title. Even the long fanfic I have, Tale of Juniper wasn't ToJ until this year. It was The Tale of the Juniper Tree. And before that, it was Rewriting Ancient Stories (because I thought that was cool at the time and I didn't have a specific MC). Technically speaking, I came up with the idea but really, it was through one of the characters in the story.

When it comes to pretty names, I like to use them as titles. Why? I'm not really sure. If I particularly like the name, I like hearing it over and over again. lol

Most of the time, I start with Untitled  ##. A short story of mine called, Moon and Back, started out as Untitled Neville Longbottom Story... very uncreative.  But it was like that until the end of the story. I took it from a song that I played on repeat while writing the story.

I guess I come up with titles depending on how I feel, my surroundings, what happens in the story, and character/s.

And since others revealed their first story title... I shall reveal mine: Serenade. Though not embarrassing on its own, it was going to be part of a series called: Fall Asleep ... and I'm glad that this title came to be something else (my decade-long novel). The series idea fell through also.

[Stella Blue]

Ooh, this is a great topic.

 

To be honest, I don't usually spend much time thinking about titles; usually they just come to me as I'm writing it. But one of the primary things I consider is that it should match the tone of the story, so I have a minimalist sort of title to go along with my 500 word story, and a very wordy title to go along with Gilderoy Lockhart's story about himself.

 

I'm most proud of my titles that are a play on words - the ones that come to mind are Swept Away (which is about a janitor literally sweeping a floor who is then swept up into an adventure) and On Air (which contains a lot of references to floating/drifting/being blown by the wind and is about Potterwatch on the radio airwaves.)

 

But they don't all work out that nicely. While we're on the topic of first story titles... ahaha. My first fic was The Brave at Heart, which I do still love the story, but... that was only ever meant as a placeholder title and I just never came up with anything better! Now, of course, it's too late to change it, as I began writing the story in 2006 and after so much time, the ill-fitting title is part of its identity now  

[Nhaz]

I tend to avoid bluntly descriptive titles and instead use a lot of symbolism, so much so that sometimes I'm afraid I'd be beating people over the head with it. In my AU Snape/Lily story, I have a lot of concepts to refer to, including but not limited to: red (Gryffindor, blood, Lily's hair, Voldemort's eyes), green (Slytherin, Lily's eyes, Avada Kedavra), black (Snape, the Dark Arts, the Black family), white (Lily, Dumbledore), snakes (Snape, Voldemort, Slytherin), all kinds of severity puns (Severus, Sectumsempra, breaking up), titles (Snape, Voldemort, Regulus Black). It's so saturated with symbolic material that chapter names pretty much just write themselves. Often I think of a title first and then decide to add plot to it, most of the time it fits somewhere in the narrative.

It also happens that I generate a title that references canon events that have a parallel in my plot, such as "The Two Faces of Slytherin", a chapter that has Voldemort sprout out of a he-who-fight-monsters Snape's head (in front of the Erised mirror, no less) as a reference to "The Man with Two Faces" in Book 1, as well as to the question of what it means to be a true Slytherin. Sometimes it's too obvious what I'm trying to do, for example if I were to (and I'm not saying I have) name a chapter "The Lightning-Struck Flower", between the general plot, the changed noun and the events of the canon chapter referenced you'd be pretty much able to guess what is about to happen.

Puns are also an option if not overdosed. A chapter where Severus and James team up would be named "The Prince and the Potter", referencing "The Prince and the Pauper". One where Snape under the influence of alcohol, Veritaserum or both divulges a secret that leads to a disaster could be named "In Vino Severitas". Severus and Lily breaking up is just begging for a title that includes a "Sever Us" pun. Lily's name also gives me plenty of room to play - even for breather high school drama chapters such as "Silly Evans". Also her last name (Evan means warrior as far as I'm aware) could be used as a title ("Heart of a Warrior") in a chapter dealing with her confessing her feelings to Severus. On a lighter note, silly chapters could also use puns, for example something like "Severe and Serious Consequences" could do as a title for a chapter of Snape and Sirius, even if the Serious Black pun is tired and old.

 

[MeIsMoonie]

Ahh titles. They're something fun to come up with, something one can really go to town with. The interesting thing about a title is that so long as it's good enough to draw in a prospective reader, they don't especially matter. Well, they do - they're kind of personal, like a name - but there are a million lovely names out there and most names grow into people given time. I love to come up with titles - particularly because I never hang onto a story long enough to get it written down. It lets me differentiate between concepts.

A favourite of mine - it's also one of my first - "Nothing of Loss" the story is about revenge, from a different fandom. The origin of the name came from a line in the first chapter, which is something I frequently do. The full sentences are somewhere along the lines of, "He looked at cooly at the slumped figure before him. You know nothing of loss, said a voice contemptuously at the in the back of his mind, but he pointedly ignored it. Such thoughts now would prove counterproductive. There was a goal to be achieved, no matter the cost." ect... it might sound weird out of context. 

Another, more recent "Mirage" it's about a dead twin (as one myself, it's something I can relate to - no, I'm not dead, not that bit). I played around with the theme of a mirror until that as the result. It's currently a working title, however, and it'll probably end up scrapped or the concept folded into something else. Usually, I don't like using single words as a title - they tend to be too vague, and with the current fad - you can't deny it - it's almost guaranteed to have been used before, which isn't something one necessarily wants in creativity.

When I'm at a total loss, I generally write several haikus with the story as a theme, and then I choose my favourite line from one of them. They're pretty great, because they're short, often cryptic but also dynamic. This theory could work for other people, but of course, that depends on one's haiku skills. They took practice. Another cool tip I received for haikus, or really, poetry in general, was to, 'Describe the topic without naming it." I first heard those lines about four years ago, and they've immersed themselves in just about everything.

Additionally, the Harry Potter series has some of the worst titles I've ever seen. Honestly, I avoided reading it for many years due to this - something seemingly that devoid of inspiration can't be any good, right? (Wrong). But at least it's recognisable.

[dirigibleplums]

Ah. Titles. I probably put such little effort into titles compared to the rest of you haha  And by that, I mean that for the majority of my fics, I came up with them when I was uploading it. Sometimes, I scan the document for a particular phrase that stands out to me (see: The Song of Glory and Out of the Shadows). A couple of them have been a bit of a play on words (the evolution of pansies. and When Dahlias Bloom - jc I sense a theme here) while others are concepts or what have you that are central to the story (Dormitory 2.6A and Carina). I'm not sure why I leave my titling so late for most of my stuff. I think it's because titling it so early on makes it too official - I like to explore the story first before committing to one.

Also, my first fic was titled Happy which is pretty rubbish and probs fitting for a pretty rubbish one shot

[hotel california]

tbh i come up with titles based off of… what sounds nice  but i definitely think about them. i often just kind of come up with titles in my head and go through whether they’re That Level - i have several in my hpft google doc for stories that don’t even exist as ideas. i don’t like to use titles that would probably be really common (so i’m not someone who titles anything based on super popular songs, for example, and i used to not title anything with lyrics at all #edgy). and i don’t like to use titles that are too ‘simple’ (so anything that’s like... two Normal Words)? i tend towards ~poetic~ and ~symbolic~ titles bc i Like Analysis and Yes