Things You Should Try to Avoid Doing as an Author

Titles and Descriptions

Titles and Descriptions;

Giving too much away.

       A lot of writers give away too much within their titles and descriptions. Titles and descriptions should be mysterious. If your title includes the storyline it takes all of the fun out of it. Short titles, and one word titles are intriging.

        A completely made up example of an uninteresting title would be; Mary-Sue Went to the Beach Where She Met a Boy and Fell in Love. That is not a title. It is a sentence that gives away a story line. This title does not intrige me, I already know what is going to happen, so why do I need to read the story? 

         A completely made up example of a better title for the same kind of story line; The Waves of Love. I really could not think of a title. This title tells me it is going to be a love story, but its the word waves that could change things. Think of the waves in a sea, what do you see? Calm and settled, or waves in a storm. The title leaves space for different things to happen. If you are writing a story on Wattpad and uploading as you write then you want a title that leaves room for something else to happen. A title that doesn't give a story line away and intriges the reader.

              Now that we've covered titles for this sub-catagory let's move onto descriptions. Now its not only titles that can give away too much. It's descriptions too. A description doesn't have to be short, but that doesn't mean it should  be pages long. If you're not sure what to write or how long it should then you should check out some of the blurbs on books you own. If you don't own any books, or they don't have blurbs, then go to a local library or look at some of the descriptions on Wattpad that draw you in. In fact you can look at descriptions on Amazon or Goodreads too. Now that you've got an idea, look at your own description. Is it too long? Does it give away too much? Is some of the information unnessecary? It is easy to change, and make better if you do feel this way. If you are having trouble with writing it yourself ask someone who has read your story for help. Most people are kind enough to give it.

Note; Snippets of your story in the description are completely different! They should be fairly short, but do not count as part of the actual description!

             A completely made up example of a non intiging, and storytelling, probably boring description; Sarah Bennett is thirteen, she has brown hair and blue eyes. Her birthday falls on January Seventeenth. She has braces even though her teeth are practically straight. Sarah Bennett is going to meet a boy, the new boy at school to be exact. They will meet as soon as the story starts. It's love at first sight. After only two hours they have already confessed their love. They are obviously in love. Follow Sarah for a week of her life as she falls in love, gets her heart broken, and then falls for his charm again. Oh, and then she gets pregnant because she had sex with him to spite his bitchy whore of an ex girlfriend. Then in the epilogue they get married at eighteen with two kids and Sarah's pregnant again. Swoon. But which boy will she fall for?

Okay, so that was totally over-dramatic and I'm sure no one's description is that terrible. This was all I could think of. This description tells you about the whole plot and story. It sounds terrible, and that question at the end! I see that question in so many descriptions and sometimes it is a valid question, here however I have only mentioned one boy, so which do you think she's going to "fall" for? There is plenty of unnessecary information there too. 

I'm terrible at real descriptions myself, but here is my attempt at the same story different discription. Hopefully a better one. 

A completely made up example of a better description; At only thirteen Sarah Bennett is falling hard and fast for the new boy. But not all love at first sight is easy, right? There are hardships and heartbreaks, but ultimately, there is love. Follow Sarah as she finds all of this out for herself. 

Okay, so this description sucks, I did warn you, but it sounds a lot better than the first in my opinion. Not as much information is given away, there are no stupid questions, and all the information is necessary. I hope. 

As an author you should try to avoid giving up too much information in your titles and descriptions.

Over-dramatic, including the overuse of unnessacary punctuation;

        Would you buy a published paperback copy of a book called; 'Sarah Bennett and the MONSTERS!!!!! Of High School!!!'? I sure as hell wouldn't! The overuse of punctuation marks including question and exclaimation marks is totally uncalled for. A punctuation mark indicates the end of a sentence. You only need one, unless you are using '...' because that, even though it is three full stops when typed, is its own punctuation mark. I'm not a big fan of '?!' in titles either. It is fine within a story sometimes, but it is unnecessary within a title. All punctuation outside of a comma, colon, or semi-colon is, and you shouldn't even need a comma because your title shouldn't be that long. 

                Overpunctuating is not useful. Not only should you avoid over punctuating your title, you should also avoid over punctuating your description and within your story. The same goes for underpunctuating. It should not be done.

As an author you should try to avoid the overuse (and underuse) of punctuation. 

Title and descriptions that don't relate to the story;

If your story is called Greg and the Invisible Dinosaurs and the description is about an adventure Greg has when he discovers that dinosaurs still live among us, they're just invisible, then I don't want to find the real story to be about Greg and Tracy who are fairies that are going to fall in love.

If your story is about fairies, then write a description about fairies, not dinosaurs!

As an author you should try to avoid misleading titles and descriptions!

Numbers and abriviations within your titles and descriptions;

         If you were to say that Amy is twelve years old, how would you write it? Would you write; 

A) Amy is twelve years old,

or

B) Amy is 12 years old? 

Personally I would go with A. Why would I choose A? Because it sounds more professional. Sure, we live in the modern age, but this is English class not Maths class. Numbers should be typed out in full. 

          The shortening of numbers brings me to the shortening of words. Abriviations. If you use "Text Talk" or abriviations that are not necassary in your description it doesn't make me want to read on. Some people may look at it and think "Wow, what a modern author!" I look at it and think "Wow, that seems illiterate, if that's how this story is going to be written do I really want to read on?" Abrievitaions annoy me almost as much as the overuse of punctuation. 

There is no need for the use of TTYL, LOL, LMAO, or any other abrieviations within your title or description. Especially the overuse of WTH and WTF within werewolf book titles. It is unnecessary and unprofessional.

As an author you should try to avoid a lot of "text talk" abriviations!

The Conclusion;

           Titles and Descriptions effect your story. They effect it a lot. How good your title is can depend on how many reads you get. As can the description. They are the main thing that draws a reader in. 

I am not saying I am the guru of Titles and Descriptions. I suck when it comes to writing such things, but these are the things I believe should be taken into consideration, and some things you should try to avoid when dealing with Titles and Descriptions. Anything I missed? Post a comment or message me and I shall add it if I think it relates and is nessecary to the topic as it may fit in with a topic I will write about later which is why I may have not added it to this particular chapter. I think I've got most of it, but please feel free to state your own opinion below! 

If you would like me to help you with titles and descriptions send me a message or comment below and I shall get back to you. I will try to help all of you to the best of my ability. 

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