What's in a title

NinaWrites 2021-06-24 15:08:51 UTC #1

I have a list of titles and I just can't pick.

I want my title to mean something, and I was never a fan of those long titles you often see in Japanese light novel (where the title is basically a whole sentence)

I want to know how people pick their titles? Is it symbolic? Related to a climax?

How would you make your title catchy?

Lastly, give me your title and I wil tell you if I would click on it, if you do that for me too?

Title: Just a Support Main
would you click this?

darthmongoose 2021-06-24 15:30:19 UTC #2

Titles are hard! In my case, I wrote loads of names down in a notebook, just any words I could think of related to the characters, themes and what the comic was about, and then while writing down words to do with knights, I wrote "Knight Errant" and then realised that just "Errant" on its own was a really interesting title because knights can be errant, but the word errant can also mean astray or out of place, not acting as something is meant to. It just clicked!

I feel like "Just a Support" might be a bit of a weak title that I might not be inclined to click, and let me try to explain why as best I can... The "Just a" at the start has a sort of weak, self-effacing "oh it's just a scribble, it's not important" sort of tone. If it was paired with a second word that was very powerful, like... I dunno, "monster" or "apocalypse" then it might work, "Just a Monster" or "Just the Apocalypse" set up a surprising contrast between the dismissive, calm tone and the really big scary concept. In this case though, the next word is "support", which without context could mean "a support character" like a healer or something in a game or Fantasy or Sci-fi setting, but might also be a support as in... a shelf bracket. In either case, these are already things that are not seen as very spicy or dangerous, so the title would be stronger if the word/s paired with "support" were more intense to create intrigue about what's special and exciting about this support, ie. "Blazing Support", "The Final Support", "Support Queen" etc.

SurvivALIST 2021-06-24 15:30:54 UTC #3

Sure thing then. I've always wanted to check if my titles work or not. I have two titles:

I would click if and only you add a noun after the word "Support". Support character? Support group? Support...? If you didn't actually mean support to become an adjective, then reword the title to make the Support a noun. Don't be offended but some words come off as both adjectives and nouns.

Ongoing novel title: Rebirth of the Unrivaled Water Specialist
Developing webcomic title: A Dryad's Secret
Will you click on any of these? _______________

NinaWrites 2021-06-24 15:55:16 UTC #4

Thank you so much for the detailed reason of what you thought about my title. To be honest, you honestly hit the nail on the head about how I came up with my title. My main character is a support class (fantasy setting) and I wanted to portray a weak tone - because she is weak.

But not to the point that wouldn't make readers what to click. Perhaps if I paired it with a cover that shows more of a powerful tone - the dichotomy would work better? But I'm glad that my thoughts came across to you!

I know you didn't ask for this but for your title:

Errant

I would only click on it if there was a cover page that shows a knight or a bit more detail of what it's about. The title give off a light hearted feeling/silly tone when I read it - thinking about a character just bustling about, running all over the place like an errand staff.

NinaWrites 2021-06-24 16:06:04 UTC #5

I'm not offended at all! Thank you for taking the time to leave me a feedback. Perhaps I should consider adding another noun and making the word "support" into an adjective! That's great!

Rebirth of the Unrivaled Water Specialist
-- when I see the word unrivaled, my immediate reaction is - will this character just be OP? I think this would come down to a matter of taste. If someone enjoys a story where the character becomes godly and strong - I could see them click on this title.

For me personally, I tend to turn away from titles that seems to promise a strong character right off the bat. I'm not saying your character will be strong right off the bat, but the title gives me that type of thought. I would also change the term "specialist" because I just think about a water bender from Avatar: the last air bender. If they were a mage, or if there is a term you would call people who specialize in the element, you could replace specialist to that.

Rebirth of the Unrivaled Water Mage - it gives more promise and interest could be better piqued - for people who enjoy magical world and etc.

TL;Dr i would be hesitant to click on it from the title alone. It may change from the cover and summary tho.

A Dryad's Secret
-- its a very straight forward title. You get the job done of telling the reader what they will be promised. The main character being a Dryad, and a secret we will hopefully find out in the opening scene.

I would personally change the word "secret" to something else - simply because it's a title that you often see - if you wanted to add more of a unique twist to it. You're already telling us the character is a dryad, give us something more. What is this secret? Is it a secret pact? Is it murder? There is definitely more room to spice it up!

Would I click this? I would - because I love fantasy, and "secret" is intriguing. But it would be after a second passing instead of a first (if you know what i mean).

SurvivALIST 2021-06-24 16:19:10 UTC #6

Thanks for the tip. Even when your crit has a bit of your taste differences, your explanation is reasonable for my revision process.

For RUWS, I'm hesitant because the magical ability in my story is called Specialism which was why it came to that. Might as well fix that since I placed it on hiatus.

For ADS, I did find the secret thing a bit off but thanks for pointing this out as this will be my current passion project before resuming RUWS (if it's still called RUWS).

rajillustration 2021-06-24 16:30:39 UTC #7

I learned the hard way that titles have to be easy to spell, short, and catchy. I had a business name that had the word "pthalo" in it, which is a common name in paint, but literally no one else can pronounce or spell. It was such a freakin headache, and all my friends had to keep texting me "hey what was the name of that thing you make again???" that ever since, I've done things that are phonetic and very direct about what genre they are. Titles are hard though, it sets so many expectations. I'm curious to see what genre and expectations you get out of my title, actually. One, in particular, I made a while back and was called "avu" but like you can't at all tell anything from it because it's a made up fantasy word.

for "Just a Support" the genre I expected is either sports related or maybe a slice of life drama. It's actually kind of hard to tell what type of story it is. Maybe it's a romance with a unrequited love? Hard to say.

NinaWrites 2021-06-24 16:40:46 UTC #8

At the end of the day, it's hard to crit remaining completely objective since consuming and producing art comes from the artist's subjective interest and/or intrigue.

I just hope that with my opinion, it would offer a different perspective? just like how your post is making me rethink about my title too!

NinaWrites 2021-06-24 16:44:51 UTC #9

Yes. Titles should be easy to spell, short and catchy! Ideally, we will be able to think of these titles, but they are very difficult!

Avu

Unless it's a characters name, I would personally, in my humble opinion, stray away from using made up terms as a title. I keep thinking your title is called Ava because that is a name I know of - and my brain keeps trying to make connection to what I am familiar with (maybe it's just me).

I wouldn't know anything from just seeing the title, and my eyes would gloss it over unless you have a really nice book cover.

But that means your book cover will be doing most of the work of drawing potential readers attention as opposed to your title

Thank you for your feedback. I'm going to revise my title now haha.

chestnutriceeee 2021-06-24 16:49:43 UTC #10

Japanese titles really shine in such cases. The titles are obnoxiously long but give you an exact idea of what you should expect from the novel. I think a Japanese author explained that people these days have lesser and lesser time and patience to read the blurbs of everything that interests them, and long titles consider that very thing!

In your case, I find "Just a Support Main" rather ambiguous. I thought it would be a slice of life work while others could interpret it as a fantasy novel. You should either use a short and impactful title or a long and clear one.

If I would click it? I am not sure. Since the title is not very clear, whether people will click or not will heavily depend on your cover.

NinaWrites 2021-06-24 16:53:15 UTC #11

I suppose if I were to give a Japanese inspired title to my title it would be:

I'm a support main, but I want to change class!

Hahahaha.

I'm trying to convey a game-like world - which maybe I should clarify in my OP. In the game world, people would call what they main in for their classes - but I know my friends who don't play mmo wouldn't know that if they read it.

Alot of the common point seems to be that it's too vague, so I really gotta brainstorm. I don't want my cover to do all the work - I want my title to share some burden to catch the reader's eye as well!

rajillustration 2021-06-24 17:38:23 UTC #12

Oh haha. I just realized I put that up as the only title for you (for some reason I thought you'd be looking at our library to see the other titles)--my actual title of what I'm currently writing is "the Shapeshifter's Wife."

MeltingCORE 2021-06-24 17:48:13 UTC #13

I usually make my titles symbolic or literal. My current series "Red Shift" is named after the astronomy term and is metaphor for many of the characters moving into moral darkness. I have an old story titled "Signal in the Atmosphere" which is in reference to the main character, Ember, coming from deep space. And then some of my titles are literal: Crystal (main character's name lol) and Mega-Egypt (the name of the alternate Earth, far future super-power country of Egypt).

BOMB 2021-06-24 18:35:55 UTC #14

I have a few titles:

Pitch The Adventures of Danger Rabbit - I wet with this title because it includes the main characters name "Pitch" as well as his nickname that he hates but becomes "Danger Rabbit. By including both the name he prefers and dislikes I'm creating a dynamic that's similar to what readers will find in story.

Meat Head and Loser - these are the nicknames of the two main characters.

My Other First Boyfriend - the main character is dating someone who at times seems to be two completely different people.

The God Of Summer Storms - I went with this name because one of the main characters has God like power, but also because of seasonal and weather related quotes inside the story.

The Pilots - because it's a collection of short stories similar to pilot episodes of TV shows.

Twig - the name of the main character.

Techno Devel - both the nickname of a main character and it informs the readers what to expect from the story.

And as for your title, I don't think I'd click on it, as it stands, Just A Suport Main feels oddly worded. Maybe if it were Just A Suport Character, or Just A Suporter, or Just A Suport Life, I think those would catch me in a better way, but Suport Main feels like an odd combination.

Bokyongyo 2021-06-24 18:47:01 UTC #15

Yeah titles can always be tricky.
With my comic it went through three actual changes regarding the title

First was Talestory
Second was Rewritten
and the final change was Rewrite.

I always like when titles can have a double meaning behind the title itself;
because Rewrite is in name reference to particular items in my story but it also can
be defined as "write (something) again so as to alter or improve it." which ties to themes
of the story and the climax.

As for your title I do think possibly looking at those light Japanese novels that you may dislike the names of and see why they work so well in getting a audience.

I do like your secondary title pitch of "I'm a support main, but I want to change class!" is better in this isekai like world you are trying to convey. It gets the point across quick which could help gaining a audience.

Kaydreamer 2021-06-25 00:54:44 UTC #16

I really dislike the current trend of long, light-novel style titles; they give of a very shallow, commercial vibe to me. It's not just the length either, it's the plain-language descriptiveness of them. I don't have adequate words to explain it, but I definitely veer away from them. I'm less inclined to click on those, because they give me the impression that the rest of the story will be equally shallow and commercial.

I like titles which are either short and catchy, or which, if long, have some poetry to them.

As for yours, I think the title is catchy, and combined with good cover art, will probably get a fair bit of interest! I personally wouldn't click, but that's because I don't like the videogame-isekai or videogame-sport genres. I think it'll do well with people who do like those genres, though!

I don't like the 'I'm a Support Main, but I Want to Change Class!' one at all, it's everything I tried to convey that I dislike above. That said, these titles evidently work at the moment, or they wouldn't be everywhere. I can't see the long-descriptive-title trend holding forever, though, and I think such titles will 'date' your work once the trend fades away, as trends tend to do.

Stories which really stand the test of time all tend to have short, memorable titles. Spirited Away. Harry Potter. Bladerunner. Mass Effect. Avatar: The Last Airbender. Kiki's Devivery Service. The Book Thief. To name a small few.

Here are my titles! You can see my preferences in each; one is short and to the point, and the other has a subtitle line which makes it longer, but it's phrased is a mysterious, somewhat poetic way.

Current
Title: Blue Star Rebellion

Upcoming
Title: Dragonfeathers: Echoes in the Leystream
(The second part is a sub-title, 'Dragonfeathers' is what that story will primarily be called.)

diamondactor 2021-06-25 00:58:21 UTC #17

Sometimes it could be a throwback. In my case my title goes back to the original story before all the edits. Full Moon King was a king werewolf story. It became a prophecy scenario about a special type of werewolf in a sense.

NinaWrites 2021-06-25 15:16:37 UTC #18

@rajillustration

I was responding via my mobile, so if people can just tell me their title in the forum, I would greatly appreciate that.

Title: The Shapeshifter's Wife
Would I Click This? I would, it instantly tells me that this will be a sci-fi/fantasy/supernatural genre which I enjoy, and it also promises a romance as at least a sub-genre. It definitely piques my interest. Even if my assumptions are wrong, the title still generate interest for me to want to click it.

@MeltingCORE

I do enjoy titles that are symbolic - especially where mid-read, my mind clicks as to why the author titled the story as such.

Title: Red Shift
Would I click this? I would click it if I read the summary to first see what it's about. On it's own, I would be confused as to what the story is about.

Title: Signal in the Atmosphere
Would I click this? This is more of a personal preference, but I do enjoy a good sci-fi, so I would def click it.

Title: Crystal
Would I click this? I think I would if I saw the cover and the summary. The name on its own doesn't tell much for me, and had it just been a title with no accompanying information, I would scroll past it as the title feels general to me.

Title: Mega Egypt
Would I click this? This is purely a personal preference, but from the title alone, I would not click it. The title seems like the two words were just slapped together, so it doesn't have that flow (where some words just naturally fit together) or incite any curiosity of wanting me to delve deeper into it.

(Btw, I really like Red Shift and the Signal in the Atmosphere)

@11keys

Title: Pitch The Adventure of Danger Rabbit
Would I click this? Personally, I would not click it. The title feels a bit juvenile so I feel that it would cater to a younger reader. Also, the title doesn't flow very well when I read it. Do you mean to say, "Pitch: The Adventure of Danger Rabbit"? Without the colon, it literally sounds like you are "pitching" the adventure of a character named Danger Rabbit. Unless that was your intention, but even still, it reads a bit awkwardly. From just a pure grammatical style, I would change it to:

Pitch: The Adventures of the (insert adverb) Rabbit. This is pure personal taste, so take it with a grain of salt. Some epithets can have two nouns put together, but an epithet tends to be used to describe a person. So if Rabbit is dangerous or evil or strong - I feel that using an adverb would suit better in this case.

Again, I haven't read your story - but that's the first thing that comes to mind If you have a reason as to why you title it - then I'm sure your readers will make a better connection than I would. But as far as first impression goes, that's how I would see it!

Title: Meat Head and Loser
Would I click this? I would be hesitant to click it. Again, due to personal preference. I would need to see the cover and summary. If it's an action adventure of a character named Meat Head and Loser and it's comedy driven, I probably would check it out.

If this story is about two characters in highschool who falls in love each other -- maybe? The reason why I assume the characters are in highschool is because the nicknames feel like something you would hear from young teens.

Title: My Other First Boyfriend
Would I click this? I would not click this because the title does not flow very well or really makes sense. It makes sense only after I read your description. But my immediate thoughts are - How does one have two first boyfriend. It doesn't incite enough curiosity from me to delve deeper though.

Title: The God of Summer Storms
Would I click this? I would click this. Your title promise fantasy which I adore. Summer Storms is also an interesting choice, and it paints a unique picture in my mind. It has an interesting dichotomy where when I think of Summer - I think of sunny blue skies and perfect little clouds. By adding storms - you add another imagery of violent winds and gloomy atmosphere - that polar opposite works well to incite interest.

Title: The Pilots
Would I click this? From the title, no. Simply because I wouldn't know what it's about. But from reading your short snippet, yes, because that's such an interesting concept.

Title: Twig
Would I click this? Yes and No, I would need to read your summary and see the cover to garner my attention!

Title: Techno Devel
Would I click this? Is Devel a short form of Developer? It's an interesting title, I wouldn't know what to think from it. I suppose the first thought would be - is this a sci-fi? I would have to see the summary and cover - the title alone would not grab my interest.

I agree with your comment - I did a test and ask my friend who never plays any game. She was confused as well I would have to brainstorm and think of a different title - or most likely, scrap the whole title altogether! Thank you for your input.

@Reveal

Title: Rewrite
Would I click this? First, let me say that your final change was definitely the best out of the three. However, I would also like to mention that there are many titles that says "RE:" because it just means repeat. Rewrite seems a bit bland as a title. If it's something to change a story that has already been pre-destined, I would choose a more unique word. Simply because it falls into a generic title category. BUT - if you had a really nice cover or summary - I would click it because I love the trope of changing a pre-destined story. Or a redo. I also am a fan of double meaning in titles. It's hard to do - but I try to think about double meanings as well

To be honest, the second pitch that resembles the japanes light novel took no time to create at all. I understand your point because there is a reason why longer title is doing well - and that it's a popular trend as well. But personally, I rather scrap my whole title and come up with another one rather than a long title.

Thank you for your input

@Kaydreamer

I definitely share your sentiment regarding long titles. I understand that for people who wants to know exactly what they will invest their time too - a long title will serve their purpose. But as you had mentioned, long title feels shallow and commercialized to me. I could see a long title being used as a parody or satire though which I don't mind reading. But, I had the unfortunate time of clicking a few long title light novel where the story reflect the title's message which was direct, shallow, and "tell it what it is" approach, which I am not a fan of.

For my title, I'm struggling to convey that the character was unfortunate to be rewarded a support class - but she wanted to be stronger and better than that. Back to the drawing board i suppose

Title: Blue Star Rebellion
Would I click this? Yes, I would. It promises Sci-fi/fantasy just from reading the title alone. As I like both genre, I would at least be inclined to check out the summary and go from there

Title: Dragonfeathers: Echoes in the Leystream
Would I click this? Yes and no. I would have to read the summary. I would be pondering if the author changed Lay Lines to Ley Stream - it's an unfamiliar term but it promises fantasy so, again, I would still click it and check out the summary first.

Those two titles are good because it gets the job done which is to get a reader to click the story and at least check the summary out!

@diamondactor

Title: Full Moon King
Would I click this? Yes it's straight forward, but still conveys alot of information with the three words. Full Moon King can convey a beast story or a a fantasy/magical story and even with a romantic twist. All in all, it will certainly encourage me to click and check out the summary.

Thank you for all of your input - please note that I was only sharing my personal opinion and do not mean any offence! Titles are difficult and I appreciate all of your opinions!

diamondactor 2021-06-25 17:01:28 UTC #19

I'm glad you like my title. I try to make them catchy and easy to look up (mostly cuz algorithms online). If you are interested here are two I am working on

Full Moon King (FMK): Silver Heart is a teen with a checkered past. His whole life he’s had to fight to survive, but it’s only in death that his whole world is turned upside down. He learns he is something known as the Full Moon King. A being that could lead everyone to their salvation, all to their damnation, or down a new path. The question is: what path is he walking down?

Witchy Wanderings: Angel is your average bookstore clerk in the heart of your typical downtown tourist trap. She's discontented with her life and knows something is missing. Vague memories rattle in the back of her mind and the occult beckons her to remember her past and explore her true future. A future full of gray choices, magical repercussions, and shadow work.

Links:
Tapas:

Webtoons:

Pop Comic:

Novel (Tapas):

Witch Novel (Tapas):

SurvivALIST 2021-06-26 13:21:13 UTC #20

If possible, can you critique this...

Title: The Elf and His Wife
would you click this?