What’s it called?

Blog by Paulina Harrison

There isn’t a way that man could survive without titles. Yes, this is quite a grand statement to make, but students have been taught that a creative title is the first step to getting a higher grade, ergo our society holds titles on quite a pedestal.
“A title should be a creative, precise, concise set of 10 or less words to attract the reader,” said any and every high school teacher. In a sense the title is the introduction before anything begins. It’s what will get anyone interested. In a sense it is truly a defining factor. Don’t judge a book by its cover, but titles a fair game. How does one truly capture the essence of a piece of writing with such a limited amount of words?
Gordon Mennega, one of the fiction workshop teachers, has a thing about titles. What I’ve learned in the month or so of being in his class is that one word titles seem to be a risk among story writing. I can say that I agree with this for the most part, some one word titles that don’t seem to have anything to do with their content, for example Twilight. Below is an article on one word titles, that mentions the good and bad.
I find that titles are a bit frightening. Rarely, I come up with a title before a story is written. Having a title before a story almost frames the story which stops the subconscious flow of words. For me, naming something after I know it is easier than making a story conform to its name.
However, I must say that titles are really fun to play with once the time comes. I must say that my favorite title was for my poetry portfolio: “What the Taxi Driver’s Thinking.”
Here are some great titles of actually published work.
Babbity Rabity and the Cackling Stump by JK Rowling
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
A Dog named Kitty by Bill Wallace
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

For more interesting articles on titles
From the NY Times blog
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/is-this-title-ok/

One Word Titles Article
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-07-25/entertainment/ct-ae-0725-lit-life-main-20100725_1_one-word-titles-film-thrillers