Choosing the Right Name for Your Story
So what’s in a title? Is it really that important?
You bet it is. Would you rather your job resume say “salesperson” or “marketing representative”? “Clerk” or “service specialist”? “Repairman” or “technician”? One sounds commonplace; the other sounds impressive.
Let’s go a step further. Imagine Boys’ Life billed as Youth Experiences. Or Nightline as Ted’s Late News Roundup. Loses a little something, right? And it’s hard to picture 007 introducing himself as “Dinkins. Arnold Dinkins.”
The same thing applies to story titles. An enjoyable short story or novel might never get read by the public (or, more to the point, by an editor or agent) if the title doesnÕt do its job. In the publishing world, a good title is like a good opening paragraph: it should be interesting. It should attract the reader’s attention. At the very least, it should be appropriate to the rest of the piece.
And remember this, too: the title will be what represents your work to the rest of the world, now and forever. When people see your story in bookstores or in an anthology, take it the beach with them, and talk about it to their friends the next day, the first thing they’ll read or speak will be the words in your title. Choose it wisely.
But that’s pretty vague advice. The question is, how do you do it? What makes a good title?
A Few Rules of Thumb:Titles should not be dull. When you browse a shelf full of novels, or a collection of short stories, aren’t you drawn first to the more unusual titles? So are editors, when they look over a stack of submissions. Not that “The House” or “The Tree” won’t be a good story; but titles with a bit more originality stand a better chance. Examples: Gone with the Wind, The High and the Mighty, “The Tin Star,” The Silence of the Lambs, The Maltese Falcon, Watership Down, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” Fahrenheit 451, The Color Purple, Atlas Shrugged.
