Titles are so important. After noticing the cover and spine art, what’s the next thing a reader looks at? Maybe the author’s name, but certainly, the title. It’s got to catch the eye of the beholder. Which would you rather read: Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss or When to Use the Oxford Comma? Com’on, unless you’re a total punctuation nerd, you’ll head toward Eats, Shoots and Leaves. It’s a grabber. We don’t know if someone is shooting a gun—or what’s happening. There’s mystery and fun wrapped up in a nice short title that everyone can remember. (If you don’t notice the subtitle.) It’s a superb book title.
Whether it’s a book, a short story, play, song or poem. You need a title that isn’t shy. It may have to stand out in a long list like a table of contents, or an index. I have a poem titled Madonna with Potatoes. That’s catchy. If I had simply titled it Madonna (which would still be appropriate for the poem), many might simply skim past it in a collection. That’s not a unique title. There are many madonnas in the art world. Below are some titles I love—titles that catch your attention. (I have to admit, I’m a bit of a title nerd.)
Some good titles
- The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth.
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- Digger, Dozer, Dumper by Hope Vestergaard
- Teeny, Tiny, Toady by Jill Esbaum
- Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
- Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
- Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith
- A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
- The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks
Why they work
Surprise: When we are pleasantly surprised by the way a title uses unexpected juxtapositions, we want to explore a little further. Hence, combining weather with food works great for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, a fun children’s picture book. Surprise includes the yuck factor. Our attention can be drawn to something surprisingly gross. As in Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers.
Mystery: A good title grabs our curiosity. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil does that. From the get-go we want to know what happens in that garden. And what/where is the garden of good and evil? Same thing for The Hunger Games. It’s an interesting juxtaposition of concepts, so there’s also surprise. But a game? Hunger doesn’t usually play into a game—hence, the mystery.
Literary Connections: Our interest can be piqued when we read a title that references a work of art we know well. We immediately begin to wonder, what does this book have to do with Shakespeare as in Something Wicked This Way Comes. (What a beautiful line!) Or, OMG! Zombies and Jane Austen? What the heck. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies just begs for lovers of the offbeat to pick it up.
Science connections: For those who love nonfiction, some of these titles can cross over into surprise/mystery such as The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales. However, the fact that these tales are true, creates another level of interest. A Brief History of Time will grab any science-leaning reader. How did Hawking get his head around time? So nebulous, so important—and it’s a brief history! That’s the clincher.
Music/fit: This last category is how the title not only fits the subject but also sounds right when it’s said out loud. Like Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. There’s music, mystery and a literary connection all wrapped up in that title. To be a little clearer about this category, say the title Teeny, Tiny, Toady out loud. Yes! It’s beautiful. Why? Because the vowel sounds are all up in the high register and the title has all that alliteration going for it. Same thing for The Elements of Eloquence. The alliteration makes it eloquent. Now, say Digger, Dozer, Dumper slowly. This children’s book title just feels right, doesn’t it? It’s because—in addition to the alliteration—digger is said toward the front of the mouth, dozer is said in the middle of the mouth and dumper comes from way in the back. The connection to sound and the actual mouth feel of the title, as it’s said aloud, works. It’s wonderful! It would not work if the words in the title were rearranged. The titles in this category are just so beautifully musical they attract attention.
The necessary exceptions
You knew there’d be exceptions. These are the good titles that are as dry as dust but are still hard-working titles. Every title can’t be so mysterious, or musical, it takes our breath away. This is my conundrum as I write these blog posts. I want to put mystery in my titles, surprise, music! But … when writing for online readers who are doing research, etc., it’s always better to have a title that will be a typical key phrase for any Google search. Things like: How to Format a Paragraph. (Yawn!) But these titles do a good job of snaring specific readers.
FWA member Anne Hawkinson’s post Lasagna and Writing with the Five Senses manages to include surprise and a searchable keyword phrase. Kudos, Anne! It’s a fun title that grabbed me with the word lasagna. I’ve been told that my post, dryly titled, How to Create a Chapbook is among the highest hitting reads of the FWA blog. But, oh, how I wanted something snazzier. (Chocolate and Chapbook Craziness? Cha-cha-ing with Chapbooks? No …) When I do get creative with these blog post titles I get called back to earth. (Thank you, Mary Ann!) In fact, one of the comments on my chapbook post said this: “Title caught my attention … and I read more.” What can I say? There are times when you just have to go plain and simple. (At least I got two alliterative words in the title to this post.) Sigh…
Finally, let me say that there are plenty of title generators/AI generators on the web. You can give them a whirl and see what comes of it. Then ask if your results fall into one of the categories above. BTW: The title generator I tested came up with 20 titles for this post. Most were pretty good for a businesslike searchable title. (See the Good Content title-generator below.)
Niki Kantzios
Thanks for reminding us of the importance of the title — I”m kind of a title nerd too. Some are really beautiful and mystical-sounding. Others are so trite they sound out of a can, like my pet peeve when everyone riffs on the title of a best-seller until it becomes a trope. But you’ve helped us understand why good titles work.
Ed N. White
As always, Shutta, a great post. One of the joys of writing is creating titles. Sometimes, a title is my inspiration, and I write to the title.
Marie
Great post. Now I am questioning my title for Saving Porterville. Any suggestions?
Julia Terry
This post is for Marie. Instead of saying “saving Porterville, “what about “Is Porterville worth saving?”
Shutta Crum
Thanks all, for your comments. Here’s to great titles! And if you’re stuck, why not have a title generating party? Invite folks who know the piece and start brainstorming. If you pair that with some good wine . . . who knows what you’ll come up with?