Choosing Titles

[Earniel]

I've always thought titles were very important for books and stories, as it's the first thing people will look at, and if the title can't grab their attention, they can pass on to the next book or story pretty quick.

What do you look for in a title, to either read a story, or in finding a good title for your writing? Do you go for straight forward titles, that give a good hint of the topic? Let's say The Fellowship of the Ring? Do you like puns or clever play on words? Or perhaps you prefer titles that make you go 'What?' like Do androids dream of Electric Sheep?

What do you think are the good qualities that a title must have? I'd be very interested in hearing people's thought about this.

[Mari]

Titles that draw me are titles that make me fantasize in a positive way about what could be in the book.
To keep Lord of the Rings as an example: it makes me think of claims for a title, wars, fantasy (because normally you're not a lord of rings), what could these rings be, what magic do they posses, etc.

There are some titles I will never forget even though they don't attract me to actually read the book.

Interesting topic!

[Jonathan]

I like quirky titles. Newspapers and magazines that are in English tend to have clever headlines. Headlines like: The High Cost of Low Fares - (European budget airlines offer great deals, but what are you giving up?)
I'm often impressed by English headlines and I think headlines are seldom as clever in magazines written in other languages. English is of course very nuanced and rich and thus perfect for smart title making.
Another quirky title would be: For Sail - (when someone is selling their yacht )

I'm an even bigger fan titles that offer various shades of meaning. For instance, the titles of the tv series "Grey's Anatomy" and "Mad Men".

"Grey's Anatomy" is of course named after the show's main character Meredith Grey. She's a surgeon, hence the Anatomy part. However the title also refers to Gray's Anatomy, the famous book that has set the standard for all anatomical textbooks to come.

"Mad Men" suggests that the main characters are a bit crazy. They also work in advertising, so they're ad men. And they work in the heart of the American advertising industry, i.e.. Madison Avenue - also known as Mad Avenue.

How deep isn't that!

[Coffeehouse]

I agree whole-heartedly with Jonathan. I'm often impressed too by titles of many English newspapers, particularly British newspapers for my part. Economist, BBC, Independent Herald Tribune, Sunday Telegraph.. lots of good one's all the time
Washington Post is pretty creative too, with several layers of meaning.

Titles for books are important, but it's of course hard to escape with the title when the subject just isn't very interesting That said, the books I like the most usually have titles that have a depth to it and that invoke many thoughts.
The flipside of that are some of those books that are called '10 things..', 'Why this' and 'Why that'. Immediate turn-off

[Earniel]

I hadn't even thought about newspaper articles when I made this topic! I agree they're often very good. Although I get annoyed when you actually read the article and the title, however clever or attractive it is, turns out to have absolutely nothing to do with the contents. One get's that more often with newspaper articles than with books or stories.

Originally Posted by Jonathan

"Grey's Anatomy" is of course named after the show's main character Meredith Grey. She's a surgeon, hence the Anatomy part. However the title also refers to Gray's Anatomy, the famous book that has set the standard for all anatomical textbooks to come.

Aha, interesting. I never knew, but I did wonder somewhat where that title could have come from. My initial thoughts was X-files inspired with all those autopsies on little grey men. But the bits I saw from the programme didn't include aliens at all, it left me a bit confused.

[Jonathan]

When it comes to a headline's correlation with an article's content, there's a huge difference between tabloids and quality newspapers such as those Coffeehouse mentioned
I agree that British journalists in particular, in my experience, seem to come up with the best headlines.

Oh, as for the X-filish reasoning about the "Grey's Anatomy" title, it's actually revealed in the last episode that Meredith is indeed -

an alien‼