Title Attraction

He stared at me.

“I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but...you’re not doing it for me anymore,” I said.

“I am what I am." He tapped his toes on the floor.

“You don’t have the lure and excitement that you once had. You're making me look bad.”

"I was enough yesterday."

“In the beginning of this relationship, you were brilliant. You said what needed to be said, but I’ve found another... with a better story.” My voice had become shrill.  “You have to leave.”

“What does that even mean- with a better story?”

“Get over it, you’re a title for goodness sake and I've found a better one."

“In your mind,” Title said and stormed out.

What do blog posts, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and songs all have in common? They normally have a title.  A title should attract readers to the words you have authored and attract Internet users to your blog posts and websites. But have you given much thought on the technique of creating a good title? How is it done?

In his March 9th post, C. Patrick Schulze shares that your title should :

• Be a clue to your plot
• Sell the story to the potential reader
• Reflect the mood and meaning of your writing "your title needs to paint a picture"
• Be easy to pronounce
• Be five or less words

Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent,  recommends researching Amazon for book titles in the genre you are writing and make a list of those that attract you. Then, decide why YOU like them and why you don't. (Read more about creating a good title by clicking on her name.)

I would add to this, for bloggers, to list post titles that you think are clever and decide why they appeal to you as the reader. Did you want to read the post because of the title? What did it tell you about the post before you read it?

Elizabeth Spann Craig, who writes cozy mysteries and her blog posts on Mystery Writing is Murder wrote in  Titles and Names that she put thought into naming her first two novels by "punning Southern sayings". But, she adds that people misspoke the titles. Her new book due out July 6, Delicious and Suspicious rhymes and is, in my opinion, a delightful title. (Read her post by clicking on Titles and Names.)

Life Along the Dousinberry is my dad's latest writing. It happens to be about the adventures of a young boy who lives near a creek called the Dousinberry. The title gives a glimpse of the story.

The magazine that I wrote children's read aloud stories for in the 1980's kept none of the titles I wrote. Was it me or was it their policy? I don't know. What I do know is that my love affair with my current murder mystery title, When The Keepers of the House Tremble, is unhealthy. The title is way too long and really has nothing to do with my book. But, it's poetic and is... beautiful or something. No?

Sometimes as a writer you have to practice tough love and throw out the title and begin again. 

How do you create the titles for your writing?  Is a process?