Attention-grabbing titles

[dongsunpai]

Interested in hearing your opinions on these possible titles. Are they likely to grab a reader's attention?

Here's the list

1) Titles Never Lie.. Unlike You

2) Wings Touch Water

3) Melody of a Sore Throat

4) From Stalker to Wife

5) Tremor on the Cliff-side

6) Tiny Head Goes Crazy

7) From Men to Memories

8) Heroes on Parole

9) Arrested by My Ex

10) Bleeding You Out

12) My Heart on Auction

13) Sorry...Psyche!

14) An Author in Tears

[eloquent]

Hi!

1, 2, and 7 are my favorites. It's going to be hard for me to explain why, but it's a combination of the way the words sound (like, the cadence and rhythm of them), how many words you have, and what the words mean. All three of them have a bounce to them (TI-tles NE-ver LIE ; WINGS (pause) TOUCH (pause) WA-ter ; FROM (pause) MEN (pause TO (pause) ME-mo-RIES). See how a stressed syllable is either followed by a pause for the next word or an unemphasized syllable?

Adiditionally, they're a nice length. Some titles can become long and still be attractive, but I like short, snappy titles. 1-4 words is ideal.

Finally, they're just specific enough that I can tell that they deal with whatever the plot is, but they obscure enough that I'm curious. How My Stalker Became My Wife is too click-baity for me, and Melody of a Sore Throat has the cadence, but I'm not really interested in something that has Sore Throat in the title, especially contrasting the beauty of Melody.

I hope this was constructive--my goal was not to tear you down, but rather to help you find patterns in what I liked as a reader. I have a background in linguistics if you have extra questions!

[Iris-Grimoire]

Wings Touch Water and From Men to Memories are the most interesting ones to me. They give a sense of mystery and could get a lot of people to click just to see what it's all about. 4 seems to set up some yikes content, so I would avoid it on principle, though there are similar titles in a few popular comics here.

[Cavechan]

I think 2 is best and 7 is okay. I think the others are too wordy? Like 4, why not just make it "Stalker Wife" or something like that? And 3 could be Sore Throat Melody, for example.

And 7 could even just be Men to Memories. That sounds kinda interesting.

[Maps]

2 and 4 would get my attention.

[dongsunpai]

Good feedback. Thanks.

[Zaboem]

There is a theory out there that a good title uses an internal contradiction to trigger interest. It makes the potential reader think, "What's up with that?" Not every good title follows this formula of course. Two of your potential titles do.

Number 1 and 8 are those two titles. They might also be my favorites.

[sii]

I think it would also be worth considering what your novel will be about. Usually titles tend to convey to the reader what to expect. If not in an over way then in an ambiguous way where the reader can come back and be like "Oh so that's why this is the title."

From your suggestions I'm guessing your novel, if it's only one, would be a romance with a form of betrayal worked into it? If I'm following the logic I presented then 1, 2, and 12 would make the most sense and are the most eye catching to me.

[eloquent]

Now that it's been edited, I'd like to add that I also really like #8!

[NickRowler]

A lot if these sound like exploitation films...I dunno if you want that

Some of these could also be shortened/reworked

3) Sour Throat Melody
5) Cliff-side Tremor
6) Tiny Crazy Head

I think the worse one is number 4. Stalker to Wife would be a way to shorten it but I feel it is a bit on the nose.

[dongsunpai]

Yeah something along the lines of romance or drama