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Oct 2019

How to make this not awkward and instead, natural? I mean obviously, chuck it in when the right time comes so the delivery is smooth. But I might be missing something. T_T

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    Oct '19
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    Oct '19
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Most importantly, it's not a requirement for it to happen. It can introduce unintended humor because it's inherently funny to see the characters talking about the title, so always excercise judgement with those. With mine, for example, because it's a purposeful misspelling, it's not getting used in the dialogue - it'll be a chapter title, and in the story only images that evoke those words once the reader thinks a little about it.

If it's an artifact or place, you can use it for the reveal or exposition; if it's describing a character, you can either have it said during a dramatic moment or someone joke about it. Anything else, you just need to be careful.

Iris covered it well but I will add- don't try forcing yourself to push it in. If you are in the rough draft state, just getting all the basics written down in more than enough. When that's done you'll have an easier time stepping back and judging where you need to cut or add bits to make important moments highlight naturally.

Will say there are audiences out there who loves it being forced/dropped in its own cheesy or serious way. If your biggest worry is losing immersion, don't worry, some kinds of audience thirst for those blatant moments.

Also if your work is designed to be heavily themed with a rhythm to its symbolism, you could get away with multiple title drops.