Fifty Shades of White


I made a whale—a wooden whale to hang on a wall. I will make two because one doesn’t look quite right. I showed my sister. She seemed to like it. I told her it was a light green; she said it looked white to her, one of the fifty shades of white, in my house.
We both laughed at her saying “fifty shades”. I haven’t read the book Fifty Shades of Grey, not my cup of tea, but it’s a popular book and the title is well known. Ten years ago, if she’d said she thought my whale’s color was one of the fifty shades of white in my house, I'd probably have said, "How rude." Then I would have agreed. 

Titles are important to writing, as white is important to my house décor. (Trust me.)

If you’re writing an article or a blog post, a creative title will help draw in an audience.  In Four Strategies for Creating Titles That Jump Off the Page, Michael Hyatt says that titles should “make a promise, create intrigue, identify a need, or simply state the content.”
I think these four points would also work in creating a title for my stories because I'm not good at creating titles.

***
Do you know Rik Hall? Well if you self publish digital books then you should know his name. He formatted my Ebook, Grim Tales from the Ruralhood, created for the A-Z Blogging Challenge 2012. If you need a formatter, I recommend Mr. Rik. He’s been so understanding, professional and extremely helpful. I can’t even begin to tell you how much. Yep, he’s the one. You have my permission to check him out at rikhall.com.

I should ask him to format me a title. I wonder if he could (or should) do that.
***
Speaking of the A-Z Challenge, beginning tomorrow April 1, I will be participating in the Blogging from A-Z April Challenge again. As always, I have a theme—drum roll please: Remembering the Past. My A-Z will be hosted at The Ruralhood. The gist of it is this, I’m posting pictures of old things from around the house (no not me) and partnering them with a blurb. That's all.

So tell me: How do you come up with your titles? Have you used Rik Hall's services? Are you A-Z-ing this April?
 
 

Comments

I like your white whale! Maybe you should do an Ahab next. :)

I second the endorsement of Rik Hall! Fast, professional, great to work with.
Pat Hatt said…
I usually come up with the title half way through or at the end. Nice white whale
I see the light green in your whale.
Ready to rock the Challenge tomorrow!
JoJo said…
Well if it's a white sperm whale, you can name him Moby. Sometimes the blog title comes easy, other times not so much.
Mary Aalgaard said…
Yay, I'm excited for your A to Z postings. I'm using my new blog category, Dine off the Page, which can be found on my new website, Play off the Page. I'm really excited for this year's challenge!
Arlee Bird said…
When I was buying the white paint to repaint our house, my eyes hurt trying to figure out the difference between some of those whites. I think a lot of the shades were really the same and just had different names.

I love coming up with titles. They come from all different places. Sometimes I'll just come up with a title I like and then write something based on the title.

Lee
Wrote By Rote
An A to Z Co-host blog
Jade said…
Have fun with the A to Z challenge! I'm really looking forward to seeing your posts. Titles are so hard for me, I tend to make them either too obvious or difficult to pronounce, but it's fun... I try not to stress it too much! Those four points are excellent. :)
Hi Teresa .. love your whale - be it a white shade of pale, or a slight light green ... but the idea of seeing you over at the Ruralhood thrills me with spills from last year .. see you there - cheers Hilary
Leovi said…
Very pretty, I love that white whale! Good work!
cleemckenzie said…
Man, could I use that book on how to title things. That is sometime the hardest part of this writing business. BTW Your whale is definitely a shade of white in my eyes.

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