The Journey to Writing a Successful Story: a tip book

Titles

Apparently, many people on this website are bad at making titles. May I ask why?

If you're one of these people who have trouble creating a title, here's your chance to understand how you can make one. If you're someone who doesn't have trouble creating one, but struggle with picking a title, then stick around.

Creating titles can be the easiest thing ever, but you don't want to make a title too long, boring, cliche, or senseless.

Typically, titles should be no more than five words long. Some novels may break this rules, but it depends on why. For instance, Harry Potter  breaks it mainly because the series holds the series' name inside the titles.

Making it boring or senseless would seem like it's bland, like it's not interesting. Something like Twilight. Why is it boring and senseless, you may ask? As far as I am concerned, it has nothing to do with the plot. You want a title that goes well with your story.

Cliche titles are the ones with "Bad Boy" in them or "Rejected Mate."

So how exactly can you make a title? Here's two ideas:

1) Think about your plot. As you're thinking about it, go through a list of words that seem to fit well with the idea or theme.

Or 2) Choose key words from the summary. If you don't have a well written summary, go find someone who will make one for you. But otherwise, look through your summary and choose specific words that go well with the idea or theme and you can make it a title.

Here is how I created my titles...

A Nightmare's Fate - The story is about a woman who had just lost her fiance in war, goes into a deep depression. Somewhere along the lines, she encounters a man who recognizes this and tries to get her happy again. Her depression is a nightmare; the man she meets is as if fate stepped in.

My Invisible Wound - The story is about an obese teenager in her last year of high school who is seriously losing the battles she faces with body confidence. She feels as if she's invisible and she constantly carries a wound that seems to never heal or fade.

Now, if you're having issues with choosing a title, you could do a number of things.

1) Rate all of your titles (as a reader), choose the one that is rated the highest. If you have a tie, see which ones fit best with your plot.

2) Go to those "Rate the Title" games and see which ones are rated the best. The ones that are rated low, throw away.

3) Write them down on a small piece of paper and put it in a bowl or a hat; pick one without looking.

Hey, it's nothing much, but it does get the job done... maybe...