7 Tips on How to Title a Story
Titling a story is a daunting task. When you write you get many words to describe what you want to say.
Titling a story poorly could mean fewer views and fewer reads. You could spend hours, days, months, and years on a story, and if your title is terrible all that hard work might have been for nothing. Less people would be interested in it than if it did have a well-thought-out title.
With a title, your words are extremely limited and you feel like there is so much to capture in just a few words.
Hopefully, these tips will help you narrow it down.
Look for an important town.
Many stories are located in one central place. The place doesn’t have to be pivotal to the story per se, but the name of the town can prove to be useful for the title.
If your story does mainly take place in one small town this can make for a great title.
Let’s say the town is called Oregon Heights, possible titles might be:
- Oregon Heights
- Midnight in Oregon Heights
- [Main Character] and Oregon Heights
Town names give titles a sense of authority and mystery. They can give the title a good foundation from the start and it sounds more catchy in most circumstances.
Use the main character’s name.
This is done often. When you use the main character’s name it’s an easy way to make sense out of the title.
No reader really questions it. Of course, it’s called this, it’s about the main character.
Let’s say your main characters name is Cara Dileto, possible titles could be:
- Cara Dileto
- Cara and the town meeting
- Cara’s Big Day
- Cara and the Creature in Her Locker
- Cara’s Knight
Using the character’s name in your title is an easy way to name a book as well as it is widely accepted and used often.
It is a tactic that has been used for a long time and isn’t going anywhere because it just makes sense and works.
Use a common phrase.
Sometimes the story revolves around an idea or a common phrase used in a culture.
- Stranger Than Fiction
- Do the Write Thing
- Friday Night Lights
- Knight Stalker
- Day Lite
- Cake Batter Up
- Failure to Launch
Readers like clever names because there is a sense that the writer is thus a clever person and thus this might even be a clever read.
Try to think of common phrases that have to do with your story and then think about whether the phrase by itself works out whether you can change one word in it to make it more clever.
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Use what is significant to the story.
If you have certain people, places, or things that end up being largely involved in the story, you can use them in the title.
Here are some examples:
- The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
- The Sorcerer’s Stone
- The Time Machine
- The Lost Locket
It lets you know what to expect from part of the story but doesn’t give anything away. It still keeps a bit of its mystery.
Give it some mystery.
People like to know that there is a good thing they can look forward to. They know they are about to find out about it, but it still has a bit of mystery around it. We like a good mystery.
A good title gives us just enough information, but leaves the book just mysterious enough that we must crack open the book to find out for ourselves.
Use an important event.
Most stories have a pivotal event occur in them. You can try to use that event to bring meaning to the title.
- I Know What You Did Last Summer
- Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream
- The Boys Night Out
- The Battle of First Street
It can be the main event or it can be one that has significant importance. It doesn’t have to be the climax but sometimes that makes more sense.
Use a specific time.
Some key moments in a story revolve around a certain time and this can give curiosity to the title but also reveal an element the reader is looking forward to finding out about.
- Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
- A Time to Die
- 7:00 PM Friday
- Friday the 4th
- St. Valentines Day
- Between 5 and 6
By using a certain time in the title we give our reader more intrigue. For potential readers, it can bring immediate curiosity to find out what happens in the story at that time. It gives the story a real point of significance.
If you go with this type of title be sure not to let the reader down. Be sure that the reveal is worth the time spent getting to it.
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That’s all for the moment.
Hope this helps!
Happy writing!
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