Which title sounds the best?

[Elliart7]

For context. It’s a short-ish story about a well behaved 11 year old in 1960 who shocks everyone by volunteering to play a shepherd boy for her church’s Christmas pageant, spurred on by an imaginary friend she keeps secret. But this proves difficult when he increasingly longs to inhabit the space of reality, and she wants to let him.

The title I had was “Be Not Afraid”, which I LOVE but I found out it’s already the title of a decently read webcomic . I want it to keep its biblical theme. Which of these would be most likely to hook you in?

• This Will Be a Sign
• This Shall Be the Sign
• Shepherd Boy
• My Soul Knows it Well

[kyupol]

Shepherd boy (must be at least twenty characters)

[Elliart7]

Really? I thought that one might be too basic. I’m gonna be so real I kind of just included it in case short titles are typically better received

[BoomerZ]

I like "This Shall Be the Sign" if you are going religious. Or the first if you change it to "There Will Be a Sign".

[KevinReijnders]

If you want to keep "Be not Afraid" you could combine it with Shepherd boy and go with "Be not afraid, Shepherd Boy" or "Shepherd Boy, Be not afraid"

[jwabeasley]

Definitely include the word "Shepherd," whatever you end up with.

[Elliart7]

I'm not disagreeing, but can I ask why specifically?

[Elliart7]

I'm worried that'll be too long. ("This shall be the sign" is 5 words too, but less syllables). Do you think "Begin and Never Cease" would work? It's the name of the hymn I was pulling inspiration from when it comes to how the character's internal conflict is very enmeshed in their faith. I picked "Be Not Afraid" because it's comforting and encouraging, so I thought maybe "Begin and Never Cease" could fit that same logic.

[jwabeasley]

It's the only one that could be a keyword. I'm trying to take the perspective of some guy who might've heard of it once time three weeks back and is trying to find it.

[Elliart7]

Good thinking, I feel like if I forgot this story I would probably think "oh its the one about that kid playing a shepherd in their church play", lol

[wolflu66]

I personally like 'Shepherd Boy' the most too.
The other titles are actually quite good, but they could refer to anything, while only 'Shepherd Boy' is more specific. This is just my personal opinion.

[Amalockh1]

I vote for "Shepherd boy".

[faisalhussein394]

Shepherd Boy. Something short would fits better for a title.

[Lensing]

Shepherd Boy sounds like a self confident title and would be the only
one that would catch my attention immediately

[Elliart7]

Alright yah Shepherd Boy is the overwhelming favorite. Damn though, I LOVE sentence style titles, so I think I’m gonna keep shepherd boy but work shop it a little bit

[Kaira_Loi]

There are plenty of titles that are entire sentences on Tapas. "This shall be the sign" isn't that long. It'll just get cut off in the preview.

[Elliart7]

Ok! What do you think of “Mavis and the Shepherd Boy”? (“May and the Shepherd Boy” if it needs to be shorter, but I don’t think that rolls off the tongue as well) (Also if it wasn’t obvious that’s the girl’s name, lol)

It’s probably easy to remember, gets exactly to the point, and has a simple vibe which fits with the Christmas pageant setting and the characters being kids