April Theme: Choosing a Good Title
Once again, I’ve neglected summaries to tackle something else: choosing a good title. A title is the thing that makes many readers look at your work. Fair or not, it can make or break a reader’s attitude of your story, article, or whatever. Your title should capture the essence of your writing as well as peak the readers’ interest. This month I will be borrowing tips from Elaine Shimberg’s book, Write Where You Live: Successful Freelancing at Home. You can probably find it at your library, which is where I first found it.
Week 1: What is a Working Title?
Week 2: Types of Titles part 1
Week 3: Types of Titles part 2
What is a Working Title?
Ms. Shimberg started her section on titles by discussing working titles, so I think I shall too. A working title is what you call your work while you are working on it. It is also called a tentative title. While you should strive to make the best title you can in your work, don’t get too attached to it. As you work on your story, article, poem, what have you, you may find that the title needs to change. So change it. Don’t get too hung up on the things you write–titles or otherwise. Change can be good, and you can always change it back or save the title for another story.
Titles are important to let people know what they are getting into. I think that is the most important job for a title. However, there are title twists. For instance, there is a book on my shelf with the title In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. What do you think that’s about? Does it peak your interest? Would you pick it up just to see what it’s about?
Would you believe it’s a book about being brave in your Christian life? Even though that title seems way off, it still matches because the book is about tackling “lions” in your life and winning. It’s based off a verse in the Bible about some guy chasing down a lion into a pit on a snowy day and killing it. Isn’t that a provocative title for a book?
No matter what type of writing you do, take your title choice seriously. Whether you just want people to read your stuff on dA or if you want to be published one day, a title is a great way to bring people to your work.
In the next weeks we will discuss the title categories Elain Shimberg has detailed in her book.
Happy Titling!