Given the many different ways of coming up with a story title – using a character’s name, using a line from the text or drawing from a conceptual object in the story, to name a few – just about any word or phrase would seem to serve as an adequate appellation.
Not so. In fact, you want to avoid writing an “adequate” title. You want something that stands out, something that grabs your readers, something that makes them wonder what the story is about and proceed to page one. While every reader has different tastes, some titles seem to appeal to the common elements of science fiction readers’ psyches and stand out: “I, Robot”, “The Stars My Destination”, “A Clockwork Orange”, “Fahrenheit 451”, “Lord of the Flies”, “Ringworld”.
To avoid creating an adequate (or even a god-awful) title, don’t use titles that are:
n Unpronounceable - Science fiction readers like to talk to one another about what they’ve read. But it’s difficult to talk about something that they can’t pronounce. Even worse, they might want to ask a book store clerk if that title is in stock.
n Embarrassing to say – Ditto.
n Difficult for others to spell - A number of book sales today are made online. But if you’re reader can’t spell the title at Amazon.com or in a search engine, the title may not be found. (Of course, “Fahrenheit 451” is one of those titles that is difficult to spell – almost no one knows how to spell “fahrenheit”. But the word is common enough that you shouldn’t let readers’ ignorance rob you of a truly memorable and apt title).
n Difficult to remember - If readers can’t even remember the title, forget about them asking a book seller or search engine to find it.
n Forgettable - Ditto.
Visit my Web site about writing science fiction, Inventing Reality.
(c) 2009 Rob Bignell
Tags:
gobbet title, style, titles
Posted at: 05:40 PM | Add Comment
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