Illumination: A Writing Guide

Picking a Title

So over the years I've seen some pretty awful titles here on Wattpad that just make me cringe. The In-Love-with-My-Best-Friends-Boyfriend's-Ex type titles. Wattpad is full of them and yes they put across what the story is about but they're not exactly very imaginative and a bit of a mouthful frankly. So, here's my piece on titles.

Ultimately, one thing that is generally necessary for all writing is the title. The process of coming up with a title is different for every writer. For me, I cannot start planning or writing something if I don't have a title for it. This is probably anti-productive but I feel weird working on something that is nameless. A lot of writers give their projects a temporary name, so they have something to call it. The best title might not come to you though until you have finished writing.

You may give something a title at the beginning but then as you plan and write the story heads in a different direction to your original intention. Or a theme or particular sentence might come up at the end and you go 'Yes! That sums this book up perfectly!'. With that, I guess I hit the nail on the head. The title has to sum up the book and represent what it is about. This is the function of the title. It can be a literal summing up, or a metaphorical one, both of which have their advantages. Examples of literal titles could be Uglies (it is an actual name for something in the book), Oliver Twist (a name, we know it will focus on this character), Journey to the Centre of the Earth (pretty self explanatory, the title says it all). Examples of metaphorical/symbolic ones could be Blood Red Road, Enduring Love, Lock and Key, To Kill a Mockingbird. There are some that fall in between, Lord of the Flies is a named thing in the book but also a metaphor. There are also short and long titles. Both can be catchy but be wary with long titles. You can have one word titles: Divergent, Cinder, Atonement, Gone. And ones with two or three words: Wuthering Heights, War and Peace, The Iron King, The Hunger Games, City of Bones, Throne of Glass. Then there are the long ones: Journey to the River Sea, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Break my Heart 1000 Times, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. I find that short titles always catch my attention, but summing up a book in one word isn't always that easy and longer titles actually sometimes represent the book better.

Along with the cover, the title is the first thing that person in the bookshop will see. It has to be catchy, captivating and original. First impressions do count and if the title and cover are attractive they will take a look at your blurb. You have to entice them to get to that stage.

So now I'm going to go through some good and bad titles. Please bear in mind this is fairly subjective and you may disagree with me. Apart from Romeo's Ex I had to look up bad book titles on Goodreads because I couldn't find any in my own lists. That must say something about the influence of titles.

You - this is one of my favourite titles. The whole book is written in second person, hence 'you'. It is really direct and certainly grabbed my attention. Especially once you have read it, it leaves you with this chilling feeling.

The Book of Blood and Shadow - this is an example of a long title that works well. I haven't read this book yet but the title grabbed my interest. It is tense, haunting, mysterious.

The Knife of Never Letting Go - another book I haven't yet read. I think this one is interesting because it doesn't really make sense, which is what caught my attention.

The Half Life of Molly Pierce - I'll admit, I'm torn with this one. There are so many title that are "... [insert name here]". However, the use of 'Half Life' really intrigued me. Why is it a half life? What is wrong that makes it not full? Hence it is on my TBR list.

The Last Winter of Dani Lancing - yep, it's that formula. Not a fan of this one. I don't think it gives anything to the book. Why not just 'The Last Winter'? Or something else entirely?

Romeo's Ex: Rosalind's Story - yes, this title exists. I've heard the book is actually okay but this title is horrendous. This is taking literal titles a little too far.

The Stumpwork Robe - um, okay. Why don't I like this? I don't have a clue what it means. Plus, it is really jarring when you read/say it. I don't even remember adding this to my Goodreads to read list.

Saving June - what is it with all these books that have the verb-name formula? There are so many of them.

It can be quite an interesting and useful exercise to look at titles of published books and see what it is about them that you like/dislike as it can inform your own titling.

What are some of your favourite titles? Titles you can't stand? And how do you come up with your own?