
Titles
Titles are important and quite frankly, not what I'm very good at. I mean, the three book series I'm created are literally titled, "Land of Armonia", "The Black X", and "The Lunch Wall Heroes".
But finding a title for your book it incredibly important. Other than the fact that it's required to have a name if you want it published, titles get you readers. Need me to repeat it? TITLES GET YOU READERS!
If it's really bland and cliche, people simply won't be interested in it. I mean, what are you going to be more intrigued in? Something titled "Into the Beyond" or "Witches, Dogs, and a Murder of Crows". Without a doubt, the second one is more intriguing. Mostly because it's eye catching because of how bizarre it is. While it is long for a title, it does a better job than the first option. But what if they were the same story? One title change could get you hundred of more readers if you can do it right.
Titles set the mood of your story. If it's the name of the main character, people will assume that it's a fantasy series because that's simply what a lot of fantastical books have already done. (Think Harry Potter or Percy Jackson).
If your book is supposed to be funny, have a funny titled. People who read comedies will notice! If your book is a mystery, give it a mysterious title. Things like this will get people to even pick up the book in the first place. A bad title can kill a great story.
Titles can be the name of the place the story takes place in (such as Fable-haven by Brandon Mull), the name of an event that the plot is built upon (The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins), the name of the main character (Harry Potter by JK Rowling), something commonly said or even said once in the book (Are you there God? It's me, Margaret by Judy Blume), something strange that only makes sense when you read the book (An Abundance of Kathrines by John Green), the name given to a person that isn't their real name (Purple Hycaninth by Sophism and Ephemerys (WEBTOON)), the name of an idea (The Croaking by Echorise (WEBTOON)), something seemingly random but eye catching (John Dies at the End by David Wong), and so on.
Though I don't personally believe the titles I've created are all that great, they follow this idea. "Land of Armonia" is the location in which the story takes place. It's just the name of a fantasy world. "Lunch Wall Heroes" takes the idea that the group of characters always sit at a specific wall together to eat lunch, which has no affect on the story at all. But the wall is significant to the characters, thus the title would make sense after reading into the book if one were curious. "The Black X" takes the name of an idea, which revolves around a rivalry. Most of the characters have a black X tattooed to their arms from this idea which was forced upon them.
Moving on to the other forms of titles in your book: chapter names.
Chapters can easily just be labeled by numbers. Or if your John Green writing "Looking for Alaska" you don't even have to have chapters, thus removing the idea of chapter titles. (By the way he used sectionals which had numbers of a countdown to some unknown event the reader was unaware of. "128 days before"... "110 days before" but they were not divided as chapters and some only lasted a paragraph)
Chapters can be the name of the character in which it follows. Rick Riordan used this in his second series, "Heroes of Olympus".
Or you can take creative liberty which I believe is the best way to go.
In some of my writing I like to be organized. I'm one series, all the chapter titles start with "The" which is followed by one or two words only. "The Cat", "The Grand Ball", "The Centaurs", etc.
In my other books I like to be more chaotic and sometimes funny. "Jason is an asshole... as usual", "The Fine Art of Being a Dumbass", "Even God wouldn't sit on that throne", "This is why Iisan is antisocial", "Lauren deserves epic background music", "The sky is crumbling and the normals are gone", "Jason got hit by a car and it's totally not his fault", "Lauren is a literal baby now", etc.
Sometimes you can be more flexible, depending on what you're writing. Chapter titles may set the mood, so if you fill the book with funny ones and have a sudden serious title, your readers will know that something goes wrong in that chapter and will feel more interested in continuing to read.
That's all I have at the moment. If you would like to add something or have any questions, leave them in the comments!
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