I've been playing with this for a while. I have a few really cool chapter titles but I dont know about the rest.
Basically: What do you think about chapter titles?
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
If you have chapter titles for some chapters, it might be confusing if you don't have them for the rest. But, then again, why not?
You could also just have the cool chapter titles for book sections, as in "Section One: First Cool Title" with "Chapter One" starting on the next page and "Chapter Two" starting when chapter one ends.
Or, you could have "Chapter One" then "Chapter Two" then "Chapter Three: First Really Cool Chapter Title" then "Chapter Four" and "Chapter Five" and so on.
It's your book. You can pretty much do what you like for chapter titles.
Posted by Wordcaster (Member # 9183) on :
For some reason Moby Dick comes to mind. Melville had fantastic chapter titles in that novel (and there were many). Some were plain, others fortold the chapter's contents, others were clever.
It is such a great novel on so many levels and it doesn't seem Melville followed any rules or examples when he named his chapters.
Posted by History (Member # 9213) on :
I haven't used them--recently.
Perhaps because I have only competed one novel, told in the 1st person, designed to (hopefully) be a page turner. Each chapter ends with a cliffhanger intended to coax the reader to keep reading. Chapter titles would slow the story's pace, and I did not wish to give anything away--which is something I feel titles may do.
Long ago, I began an epic fantasy. Each of the first three chapters had different characters with different subplots that took place in different locations. I had chapter titles for each, as there was a deliberate break at each chapter's end.
What purpose do you propose for your chapter titles?
Respectfully, Dr. Bob
Posted by Utahute72 (Member # 9057) on :
Here's another thought. I'm currently reading Bernard Cornwall's series of early england, and he uses section titles. This could be used to break up sections, without having to come up with specific chapter titles.
Posted by Montag (Member # 9421) on :
Sections dont really work with what I am doing . I know chapter titles can be useful. As in (I will probably be hurt for reading this but :P) Rick Riordan's The Lost Hero. It changes POV every 2 chapters and rotates between 3 characters. However, I want to focus on one character. It really depends on the pace I guess....
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
Just so long as you don't have titles that give everything away, I still remember one book where one chapter was titled "Captured" and two chapters later was called "Rescued."
Posted by EVOC (Member # 9381) on :
I have never used chapter titles or really even toyed with the idea. But, when I have read other works, I did enjoy reading the Chapter Title and then seeing what it meant in the context of the Chapter. However, having or not having them has never really made me enjoy a book any more.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
I'm for it.
Posted by Josephine Kait (Member # 8157) on :
Best Chapter Titles ever – (from the master of course ) 1) An Unexpected Party 2) Roast Mutton 3) A Short Rest 4) Over Hill and Under Hill 5) Riddles in the Dark 6) Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire 7) Queer Lodgings 8) Flies and Spiders 9) Barrels Out of Bond 10) A Warm Welcome 11) On the Doorstep 12) Inside Information 13) Not at Home 14) Fire and Water 15) The Gathering of the Clouds 16) A Thief in the Night 17) The Clouds Burst 18) The Return Journey 19) The Last Stage
A good chapter title should be like a good riddle, it doesn’t make a lot of sense until you know the answer.
Posted by Grayson Morris (Member # 9285) on :
I like the way George RR Martin uses his characters' names as chapter titles in the Song of Ice and Fire series: you know instantly whose point of view is guiding that chapter. Important in a series that uses upwards of twenty POV characters.
Posted by micmcd (Member # 7977) on :
I love my chapter titles. They help color my story, and giving each chapter a meaningful title helps reinforce (to me) the concept that each one should be a miniature story in and of itself; it needs a beginning, a middle, and an end, not just a piece of the main narrative. In writing, it helps me give each and every chapter a specific purpose.
Sometimes I'll use themes depending on the point of view character or those who are present. I try not to smack the reader over the head with it, but when I first named a character's POV title "Choir Boy", subsequent chapters focused on him started getting musical titles: "Savage Song," "Low Notes," "Lullaby," and "Gambler's Tune."
Coming up with titles is fun for me, and I think it adds to my book. I'm all for it.
Posted by MartinV (Member # 5512) on :
I see chapter titles like titles of episodes for a TV series. Often unnecessary but puts a nice touch on it. I don't use chapter names in my current story. New story can bring new perspective.
Posted by posulliv (Member # 8147) on :
I rarely even notice chapter titles unless, as Grayson says, they seem to telegraph the impending action.
I've never considered using them since making up good ones seems time consuming and unimportant to me as a reader.
I'm curious to learn what others think as readers.
I do agree that the G.R.R. Martin method of calling out POV names in chapter headings is useful. However I found it incredibly difficult to avoid flipping forward to see when the next character I liked reappeared. If it was many pages and I was tired I would put the book down. I'm not sure this is a desired reader effect.
Posted by enigmaticuser (Member # 9398) on :
I used to use numbers to avoid giving anything away, but in my last work I've been using titles and I find them satisfactory as long as I'm referencing:
A) Something already revealed like "Pirates" after they were already revealed so the reader hopefully is thinking "this will be exciting."
B) Something not story-shattering, as in "The Burning of Manhattan" when the reader has pretty much come to see that was coming. So it becomes kind of a preparation for perhaps a slower less driven portion but kind of a reward of detail. More picturesque I guess.
C) Or ambiguous. This was mostly because I couldn't think of anything in that chapter that the reader had already been lead to. My example would be "Captain", at this point there is one character who might be considered a "captain" but he's already had a similarly titled chapter (which I may have to change now that I think of it). So in this case the reader will probably think of him, but then have an "Oh..." moment. So the ambiguity sets up surprise.
IMHO.
Posted by Montag (Member # 9421) on :
I was thinking about this: days. Kind of a diary idea. Would progress through days like Day 1, Day 3, etc. Allows for a time frame. Cant have years though because of the nature of most of the stories here being non-Earth years and a different year system throws a reader out of their frame of reference.
. I know chapter titles can be useful. As in (I will probably be hurt for reading this but :P) Rick Riordan's The Lost Hero. It changes POV every 2 chapters and rotates between 3 characters. However, I want to focus on one character. It really depends on the pace I guess....
)