Having a good title meant everything in 18th century england, where the fate of lovers often hinged upon whether or not the man could claim a stately rank like duke or baron. For the fiction writer of the 21st century, a good title of a different sort is just as crucial. Unfortunately, too many aspiring writers spend years perfecting their manuscripts, only to tack on uninspired titles as afterthoughts. I encounter this casual approach to titling in my own fiction workshops, where talented students undermine first rate stories with second rate labels. Fortunately, this is one of the easiest pitfalls for the emerging writer to avoid.

I urge my students to think of their titles as the first opportunity to stand out in the slush pile. After all, while we are told not to judge a book by its cover, when confronted with thousands of submissions, what editor won’t be drawn to a clever or alluring title? devoting even a small amount of creative energy to naming your work can vastly improve your odds of publication. While anton chekhov could afford to tack dull titles home, the student onto vivid stories, modern audiences want something more memorable.

At the same time, anything as complex as the effect of gamma rays on man in the moon marigolds may draw attention to itself at the expense of the story that follows unless, of course, you’re paul zindel. The trick is to find a happy balance between the all too forgettable and the truly over the top. You want to choose something that makes your readers think: what a fantastic title! why didn’t i come up with it? here’s how to do just that. Google it. the easiest way to ensure you have an original title is to type the phrase into an internet search engine, or even amazon.com. Some great titles will produce matches, of course but if you are the first person to coin the phrase you’ve chosen, then you know you’ve hit the originality jackpot. While titles are not copyrightable, and in theory you could name your novel gone with the wind.

Maximize your choices. i tell my students to approach naming a story as they do seeking a mate: while some people meet their perfect partners during their teenage years and live happily ever after, the vast majority of us have to date lots of people before we find what we’re looking for. I suggest making a list of at least five different titles before deciding upon one. There’s also much to be said for asking friends and family which title they prefer. Don’t forget voice and point of view. every fiction writer knows that strong prose requires a distinctive voice and a consistent point of view. If you’re narrating a story in the third person, don’t call it my summer vacation. On the other hand, if your story is told from an unusual vantage point, you can use the title to announce this fact to the reader.

Academic English Writing Skills Ugent

Robert olen butler, for example, uses his title for exactly this purpose in the modern classic jealous husband returns in form of parrot. Include precise nouns and active verbs. computer programmers have tried for years to create the perfect algorithm for naming a book for example, claiming that three word titles sell best, or insisting that the most marketable titles contain verbs. If this approach actually worked, of course, these programmers would be publishing moguls. Eugene o’neill’s desire under the elms is far more compelling than love under the trees would have been. Craft two meanings. most readers consider your title twice once before they start reading your work, and again after they have finished.

Many successful titles gain hidden layers of meaning as they’re read, so they pack an extra punch when reflected upon for the second time. Noteworthy examples include shirley jackson’s the lottery and john cheever’s the swimmer. Avoid sabotaging your plot with your title. if you’re writing a mystery novel or a suspense thriller, make sure you don’t give away the ending on the cover. Also, refrain from using either the first or last lines of your story as your title, as such double duty takes away the surprise of the opening hook or the dramatic conclusion. Make certain your title matches your story. this is the most important rule of titling, probably the only one no writer can afford to break. Often we start off with a promising title in mind for our work and assume, once we have finished writing, that this title still fits. Unfortunately, the human imagination does not always conform to our expectations, so it’s essential to ask yourself, once your manuscript is complete, whether the original title still matches the story you’ve told.

After all, any writer who has completed a story or novel realizes that a title serves one more purpose that primarily benefits the author: typing a solid title onto your manuscript is a way of patting yourself on the back and taking pride in a job well done. For more tips on writing fiction: wd online course: write better fiction in just 6 weeks: accelerated fundamentals of fiction writing a theme based essay is an essay where you write something based on a theme which can be derived from a novel, drama, short story, song, poem or any other literary object that has some form, or plot and story in it. The first part in writing a theme based essay is to identify the theme s in the literary piece of work you are thinking writing about.

Without properly identifying suitable and appropriate themes, you won’t be able to write a good theme based essay. So, the first and foremost step in writing a theme based essay starts with identifying the underlying themes that you have read in your literature work. They lie deep within the piece of literature and need to be unearthed, as they are never presented in a direct form. They need to be extracted from the characters, their actions, the settings, the plot and everything else that is present in the novel, story, drama or any other piece of literature. Finding the right theme for the theme based essay is one of the major pre requisites for writing a theme based essay and students are urged not to overlook this part as incorrect or wrong theme can weaken the essay.

The first step in finding the theme of a literary object such as a short story or a novel is by looking at its title. For example, if we take the novel ‘blood wedding’ by federico garcнa lorca, we will see that it evokes a feeling of bloodshed and violence in us by just reading its title! the novel has such a plot that it is replete with violence and bloodshed from the beginning till the end. Even the second phrase of the novel’s title looks like there is an element of wedding and marriage in the novel and is true to a great extent, as there is a vivid depiction of wedding between a prospective bride and bridegroom. In the midst of the wedding ceremony, there is a sea of violence and bloodshed and hence the title ‘blood wedding’. So, by looking at the title of the novel itself, we come to know that the prevalent themes in the novel would be both violence and wedding as they are reflected in the title itself. Similarly, if we take a look at the novel ‘chronicle of a death foretold’ by gabriel garcia marquez, we will find that the title of this novel also presents a picture of death and violence just like the previous novel, which was mentioned above in this passage.

The title also reveals that there is some amount of foreshadowing in the story or plot narration and we can get a hint here that the underlying theme in this novel is going to be composed at least of death, violence and foreshadowing. If you read this novel, you will find that the author, gabriel garcia marquez, has written the novel in such a way that the underlying theme is basically based on these three elements, i.e. Even if we take the novel ‘the house of the spirits’ also known as ‘la casa de los espгritus’ in the original spanish version , we will find that the title reveals a lot about the underlying theme present in the novel. Spirits can mean ghosts, demons, and angels – anything that is not physical in nature but appearing as supernatural or occult. The house of the spirits is true to its title as there are plenty of ‘spirits’, ‘ghosts’ and supernatural forces that encircle the house of the main protagonist. Since a house holds a family, there is also a lot of talk about family members in the novel. So, the novel essentially consists of themes that are related to the spirits, family members and houses.