Aug 21 2008
Ten Words That Will Ruin Your Title
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These words usually do not work in titles and will typically get a book rejected.
1) Time. Except for The Time Traveller’s Wife, I’ve never seen a contemporary title effectively use “time.” Unless time is a critical aspect of your story, it probably should not be in your title.
2) Man/Person. Generic nouns are usually vague, which makes them poorly-suited for a title. For example, Two Men and a Sword is bland and forgettable. Two Firemen and a Sword is more intriguing. Please try to avoid vague words.
3) Story (and variations like tale, legend, ballad, book, etc). Let’s say your book is named Carl’s Story. The word “story” insults the audience’s intelligence. We can see it’s a story. Furthermore, the word “story” fails to offer any information that would convince a reader to read this story. What sort of story is this?
4) Song. This is like “story,” but even more aggravating. Unless your book is literally about a musician, please do not use “song” in your title. Even then, I don’t recommend it.
5) Heart. This is usually a generic and ineffective way to suggest your story is emotionally driven. Which characters experience which emotions? Why should we care?
6) Night/Black/Dark/Darkness. These words are typically used ineffectively to suggest that the story is dark and foreboding. You can do better. For example, Requiem for a Dream.
7) Stranger. This word is often superfluous in a title and can usually be replaced with a more specific, powerful noun. Let’s say your title is The Strangers Among Us. You can replace “stranger” here with a more interesting and specific noun. If the title were The Soldiers Among Us, for instance, we would understand that the soldiers are strangers compared to “us.”
Boring adjectives. I’ve seen The Green Dragon… The Strongest Barbarian… The Forest Ranger. If you use an adjective, make sure it’s one that readers will care about. As a rule of thumb, unexpected adjectives tend to be most interesting. For example, compare The Green Dragon to Backyard Dragon or His Majesty’s Dragon.
9) Fictional place names. Readers aren’t familiar with your fictional kingdoms and cities. We won’t care about them. Please focus on the elements of your story that will engage prospective readers.
10) Fictional character names. We don’t know who your characters are, so they will probably not interest us much unless the name is extraordinarily evocative (Barbara Bloodbath). Instead of naming a fictional character, it’s usually more effective to refer to him by his profession or rank. For example, His Majesty’s Dragon is far more effective than Temeraire would have been.
Heart has a few definitions. One definition that usually works well in titles “the physical center of something”, like The Heart of Darkness or Death in the Heartland.
I agree for the most part! I don’t think I’d pick up a book with “song” in the title, that’s definitely a turn off….I’m here for a story, not a song. And I wouldn’t pick it up if it had “story”….maybe “tale”.. I mean look at “Tale of two cities” which is so famous, we’re still forced to read it [in school] today!
However, I disagree with 9 and 10. I think sometimes these names can make the book more appealing – especially with sci-fi or fantasy type books. Also, unknown words that are from a fictional or real language, are pretty cool too. Check out “Eragon”, which has some of such titles in it…and is (or was?) a hit.
9 and 10, IF creative, can make a hit of a book for the simple reason that they get the reader curious – they pick the book up and read the blurb – if it sounds good they buy it! I mean if it was called “Matthew” or “Claire” I wouldn’t give it a second glance, but if it were something creative (without sounding too foreign) I’d pick it up and flip it over!
Just my two cents!
Jade Elizabeth,
You make a very good point, but I’d like to point out that Eragon does all kinds of stuff wrong, but still managed to gather a massive fanbase, so it’s common consensus that Eragon is the exception rather than the rule.
i need help with my new book about the young Banshee and her group keeping the magic book out of danger and saveing a kindome
so far all i got is Book quest and its rubbish i know any sujjestions?
So far the story is pretty vague. Let’s start with general ideas.
What the mood of the story?
What is your target age group?
What do you have planned so far?
Neither of the sides seem very evil, so it may be slightly difficult to make one side bad. I think this may be especially difficult if the main villains are the Angels.
What exactly are the roles of Cara and Michelle in the story? Are they both main characters? Are they friends? Are they rivals?
If the main villains aren’t the Angels, I think the story would go something like this:
The Angels and Banshees are at war because the Banshee Book of Ultimate Magic is lost. The Banshees think the Angels took it and the Angels are sore about the accusation. What they don’t know is that a third party has the book. The main villain wants to unlock the powerful arcane magic of the book, but needs a Banshee to read it.
Cara and Michelle are friends between warring nations. They stumble upon some clue that leads them to a dark, foreign land, the home of the main villain. Cara, Michelle, and Ra venture into the land, finding new odd and strange creatures while unraveling some evil plot. They are stopped by your Valkyrie character who warns them of the danger ahead. They trio is stubborn and refuses to give up, so the Valkyrie fights them or joins them (your choice) and they go off to stop the bad guy, retrieve the book and end the war. But by doing so they are helping the villain by basically sending him the Banshee he needed.
What do you think?
I kind of had it like this.
It starts off with Cara’s 106th birthday, so we can learn a little about her Ra and her guardian the Valkyrie. But the celebration is stopped short with an attack from an evil overlord from another land. The overlord manages to surprise them because of the celebration.
The King uses a transportation spell to send Cara with Ra and her Guardian to the other side of the otherworld. After figuring out what happened, Cara stubbornly refuses to just run away and wants to save her parents. Because none of them know any magic, and Cara cannot yet understand the book, they set off by foot on their travels. Michelle arrives and says she’s been sent to help keep the book safe because the overlord will threaten everything if he gets his hands on the book. After a few heated words between Banshee and Angel, she joins the party. Soon they arrive at another town where Cara gets a change of clothes. Anyway, they continue traveling and find the castle in ruins. Searching the castle, they find their parents and fight to rescue them.
As for the theme, I’m thinking dramatic with some laughs mixed in.
That sounds good so far. What would you like to work on next?
Ragged Boy, could you read my storyline under Five Story Arcs?
well as for the Chraters
Caras Goal will be to search and save her parents
her personel gorth wil be from a childish person intorarnent of other speiesh “naimely Angels” to a matrue confadinet indepente Tornarent woman
Michielle being the daugter of an Angel and human and not the creaction of god she needs to rise to be accepted in heaven and her goal is to make sure the books safe
due to her need to prove her self it could make her Zelies or Recless what you think?
I’ve read and commented your story overview Psycho Child, looking in Story Arcs.
i still need to work on there personaitys a bit