only idiots who don't know what the fuck they're doing name their books after words they find on "Twenty Beautiful and Rare Words" lists that aren't even from Merriam-Webster (did I mention that Merriam-Webster is my baby? never diss MW in front of me or you will not see the light of day again.)
and like, even if the title is a normal word. why would you. what purpose does this serve. now I just know that you don't know how to title.
granted, I did title a oneshot book with just "Promising" (it's on my ao3 it's on my ao3 it's on my ao3 i'm inkk_splatters check me out on ao3), but. that's oneshots and I don't know how to title oneshot books and I would never title any multi-chapter story with only one word.
what's a good title, then? I think the vast majority of fiction books have titles with two main words, and a collection of little words (the, and, of, etc.) and/or series name floating around that. is a title formatted like this automatically good? no, but it's a pretty safe bet if you don't know what else to title your book. generally, you want to name your book after something important in it—be that a repeating metaphor/symbolism within the text, a character, a place, an event, etc.
that was just some general advice. long titles, though, are where it gets fun. I feel like long titles are more common in real-fi (and nonfiction, of course, but that doesn't really count because you usually need the extra words in nonfiction book titles) than other genres, meaning I NEED TO SEE MORE FANTASY/SCI-FI NOVELS WITH LONG TITLES. fanfic sites like AO3 abound with unnecessarily long titles because no one there needs to fit the whole, over-twenty-word title onto a TINY ASS COVER, WATTPAD >:(
ahem
but yeah. unnecessarily long titles of fanfics, when they're not just song lyrics, are one of the most awesome things to ever exist.
other than the fact that they are SUPER COOL, long titles, I feel, also help the reader get a better look into what the fuck you're writing. the tone of the title is probably the tone of the book as a whole; if the title is good, then it's pretty much guaranteed that the book will be good.
uhhhh idk what else to say; whether a title is good depends a lot on the content of the work to be titled, as well as what kind of title you're aiming for, so it's really a case-by-case basis. (feel free to ask me for titling help??)
oh and nonfiction books, just make it accurate first, then you can make it interesting. that's straightforward enough for my dumbass brain to process so hopefully it's good enough for you too.
aight okay that's it for this chapter, next will probably talk about characters and actually be a reasonable length
YOU ARE READING
Silk's Complete Fucking Guide On How To Write Like You Know What You're Doing
Non-Fictionheyyyyyy. so~ I keep seeing "how to write" books that claim to be all-encompassing and the BEST for EVERYONE but then I read them and it's like, no??? wtf??? because it's all stuff that I could never possibly do, and I'm sure there are other people...
