How to Write Story Titles That Pull Readers Like a Magnet

writing craft

Story title that pulls readers like a magnet

I have a story, but what should I call it? My "working title" feels uninspired, and I know that titles are important to catch readers' attention.

How do I write story titles that catch readers' attention? Follow these 5 Rules for a Great Story Title:

RIGHT LENGTH - count words and syllables
EASY TO SAY - use the "read it out loud" test
GENRE CLUES - signal the type of story that will appeal to your reader
MEMORABLE - use vivid words, invite curiosity, tease a promise
CREATIVE - give your title a creative twist, spark the reader's imagination, and feel free to break all the rules

With these 5 Rules for a Great Story Title in mind, use 2 Tools to Write Great Story Titles: Story-Mining and Title-Storming.

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5 Rules for a Great Story Title

Your story title should be the right length, easy to say, provide genre clues, be memorable, and (optionally) creative.

1. RIGHT LENGTH

Measure the words and syllables:

Syllables - 2 - 6
Total Words - 2 - 6 - this includes all the words, counting even the "little" words — the articles ("a", "an", "the"), conjunctions ("and", "as", "but", "for", etc.), and prepositions ("as", "at", "by", "for", "in", "of", "on", "to", etc.)
Major Words - 1 - 3 - these are the words that carry the meaning: nouns, verbs, adjectives.

Some examples:

"The Silence of the Lambs" - 6 syllables, 5 total words, 2 major words — "Silence" and "Lambs."
"To Kill a Mockingbird" - 6 syllables, 4 total words, 2 major words — "Kill" and "Mockingbird."
"Gone Girl" and "Wolf Hall" both have 2 syllables, 2 total words, and 2 major words.
"The Force" - 2 syllables, 2 total words, 1 major word.

Some exceptions that prove the rule:

One-word titles are usually too limiting for novels — but not always (ex. "Dune", "Spellmonger", "Beloved", "Atonement", "Coraline", "Dracula", "Carrie", "Annihilation".) For shorter fiction, they can work well because they can focus on a simple strong image that aligns well with the narrow focus of a flash fiction story (ex. "Getaway")

Long "Creative" or "Quirky" titles can work, but they usually signal a literary and/or humorous (or in some cases a "cozy") genre, so be sure that is what you want to convey. Some examples of successful, memorable titles include:

"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" - 14 syllables, 9 total words, and 4 major words ("Curious", "Incident", "Dog", "Night-Time")
"Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe" - 12 syllables, 7 total words, 5 major words
"The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" - 11 syllables, 7 total words, 5 major words
"The Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" - 17 syllables, 8 total words, 6 major words

Again, these are the exceptions that prove the rule. You are in safer territory if you stay at or below 6 syllables, 6 total words, and 3 main words.

2. EASY TO SAY

Say your title out loud. Does it roll off the tongue easily? Does the title "sing" — I mean, can you imagine that it could be the title of a hit song?

Also, make sure that the title doesn't cause confusion, such as including a word that the reader will not be sure about how to pronounce. Did you know that F. Scott Fitzgerald's original title for "The Great Gatsby" was "Trimalchio in West Egg"?

Trimalchio? How do you say that? What does it mean? Why would I want to read a story about someone or something I'm not sure how to pronounce taking place in some town I've never heard about with a weird name like West Egg?

Now, "The Great Gatsby" — that sings!

3. GENRE CLUES

You want your title to draw the reader that is looking for the type of story you have written. For example:

Crime Fiction: Mystery, Case, Murder, Death, Killer, Evil, Terror, Corpse, Clue
Romance: Heart, Love, Sin, Stolen, Bride, Kiss, Affair, Duke, Duchess, Heiress, Billionaire, Stranger

I know, you can write a great title in either of these two genres without using any of these words, but you get the point: if you want to attract a reader who wants to read the type of story you have written, then give them a clue right in the title that this is exactly the kind of story they will love.

4. MEMORABLE

There is definitely more art than science to making a title memorable, but here are some ideas:

Vivid Words - If you have a title in mind, but it feels a bit flat, consider using a thesaurus, looking for words that are stronger, more vivid, and more precise. Imagine for example that Eugene O'Neill's working title was "Love Under the Trees" and by looking for more vivid words, he ended up with "Desire Under the Elms".
Invite Curiosity - For example, Gillian Flynn's "Gone Girl" title makes me curious to know who the "Girl" is, why she is "Gone", and what happened to her.
Tease a Promise - Think about John le Carré's "The Spy Who Came In from the Cold" (of course it breaks the "Right Length" rule at 8 total words and 8 total syllables, but who's counting). It teases a promise — "if you read this story, you will learn all about this spy, why (and how) the spy came in from the cold, and what happened next." Also, the title has a great genre clue — "Spy."

5. CREATIVE

I love the example of Italo Calvino's "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler," not only because the title is weirdly creative — in that it's an unfinished sentence (If on a Winter's Night a Traveler ... If? What do you mean, if? If? Then what, how does that sentence end, what happens to the Traveler?) — but also because it launches the reader into a head-trip of a novel which involves the reader as a character, and the book is (in part) about you, the reader, reading the book. So, the weird (slightly unsettling) title has given you, the reader, a clue that the story is going to be strange and creative. Here's how it starts:

"Chapter 1.You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade. Best to close the door; the TV is always on in the next room. Tell the others right away, "No, I don't want to watch TV!" Raise your voice — they won't hear you otherwise — "I'm reading! I don't want to be disturbed!" Maybe they haven't heard you, with all that racket; speak louder, yell: "I'm beginning to read Italo Calvino's new novel!" Or if you prefer, don't say anything; just hope they'll leave you alone."

This fifth rule is clearly optional. If (on a winter's night) you already have a title that is memorable, has good genre clues, is easy to say, and is the right length, then it might be too much to also make it creative. Seriously, "creative" could be the wrong type of title. So, it's optional.

But if you want to give it a try, here are some ideas:

Twist - Take a look at the title you have so far. Can I "twist" it by changing out one of the words with something unexpected? Can I cut it off mid-thought (like Italo Calvino)? Can I change the order of the words to something unusual?
Spark - Can I add something to the title that will spark the reader's imagination?
Break - How can I break with the reader's expectations? Should I make a really long title? Should include a word that is difficult to pronounce? Should I take away the word that is the main genre clue and replace it with something else that is perhaps counter to the genre convention?

2 Tools to Write Great Story Titles:
Story-Mining and Title-Storming

So how do we do it? How do we write a great story title? Let me introduce you to Story-Mining and Title-Storming. These two tools in concert will help you to write great story titles.

STORY-MINING

As you write your story, use a "working title," something that may — but probably won't — be the final title for your story. That way you can write the entire story and then, afterward, get ideas for the title by mining the story itself. What are you mining for? You are looking for inspiration from the characters, phrases, and settings in your story, as well as the research you did to write the story.

Characters

Characters can be an inspiration. If, for example, you have a main character with an unusual, memorable (but still easily pronounced) name, like Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas, then you can build the story title on this name, perhaps even multiple stories. For example, Dean Koontz has to date written seven novels featuring Odd Thomas, and each of them includes the word "Odd" (ex. "Forever Odd," "Brother Odd," "Odd Hours," etc.)

Phrases

Find a phrase from within the story itself. For example:

"But the face on the pillow, rosy in the firelight, is certainly that of Clarice Starling, and she sleeps deeply, sweetly, in the silence of the lambs."

That is the last sentence of Thomas Harris's novel "The Silence of the Lambs." There have been multiple mentions of "lambs" throughout the novel (starting on page 19), and the "screaming lambs" has developed as a theme with deep meaning between the protagonist Clarice Starling and antagonist/mentor Hannibal Lecter, so the last sentence where the lambs are finally silent has meaning.

That is the key, don't just pick a random phrase. Select a phrase that has the makings of a great title as well as significance within the story. In my flash fiction story "What Could Be Worse?", the phrase is spoken by one of the characters, and it's also important to the story because it represents the turning point in the structure of the story.

Settings

Is the setting itself interesting? Does it have an evocative, memorable name? For example, Joan Lindsay's Picnic at Hanging Rock.

Research

As you are doing the Research/Outline step in the R/OUTINE(S) writing workflow, you may come across something that strikes you as interesting enough that it could be included in the story as well as for the title.

Challenge yourself to write 10 potential story titles from your Story-Mining.

TITLE-STORMING

After the Story-Mining (or, if you prefer, in parallel with mining your story for ideas), open your mind to other inputs in a form of brainstorming — "Title-Storming" — using freewriting, quotes, and title generators.

Freewriting

Set a timer (ten minutes should be plenty). Write down words and concepts that come to you until the timer goes off. You may want to consider handwriting instead of typing on a keyboard. If you complete this step AFTER you have done your Story-Mining (and I recommend doing it in that order), you should already have primed your brain, but don't look at your Story-Mining ideas, just let your subconscious flow through your pen onto paper.

Circle 10 possible words or phrases.

Quotes

In addition to looking for phrases within your own story, you can also look at quotes from outside your book. For example, John Green's The Fault in Our Stars. It is inspired by a quote from Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar:

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves..."

- William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene 2

As you see in this example, it's not necessarily that you use a quote just as it is, but you can be inspired by it and work with it.

In my flash fiction story "His Wounds Green", the full quote which was the key inspiration for the story was:

"A man that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green."

- Francis Bacon

I started with the title as "His Own Wounds Green" which would have been a direct quote, but it felt clunky with the "own" in the title, so I shortened it to "His Wounds Green".

How do you find quotes? There are a lot of websites with quotes (I've included links to a few in the Resources section of this article). Search for words or phrases you have come up with both from the Story-Mining and from freewriting.

Make a list of 10 possible quotes.

Title Generator

I have included links to a number of random title generators in the Resources section of this article. There are title generators that are specific to a genre (or can be set to filter for a specific genre), which will help you to include appropriate genre clues.

Am I suggesting that you rely solely on the random title generator? Well, sometimes that can be fun, and you can use the randomly generated title (along with some randomly generated character names) as a form of writing prompt. But in most cases, you should view the randomly generated titles as just another input in combination with the other ways of generating ideas for your story title.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Generate 10 or more random titles and write them all down
Review the 10 titles you came up with from your Story-Mining
Consider the 10 quotes you found
Look at the 10 words and phrases you circled on your list of freewriting ideas

Now, with all these inputs in front of you, craft 1, 2, 3, and maybe even as many as 5 alternate story titles.

Test your story title candidates against the 5 Rules for a Great Story Title that we discussed above. Are they the right length, easy to say, providing the appropriate genre clues? Are they memorable? Which one would be the most memorable? Are they creative (optionally)?

Give them a little bit of time to settle down in your mind (at least one day), then return to the list and ...

... pick one!

(I'm sure it's great!)

Resources

These are some resources I have found helpful in writing story titles that follow the 5 Rules for a Great Story Title: right length, easy to say, genre clue, memorable, creative.

MY FAVORITE ALL-PURPOSE RESOURCE

The Writer's Treasure Chest - everything in one place, curated, organized

QUOTES

TITLE GENERATORS

In order to write that great title, you should first write the story (so you can Story-Mine it). Here are some articles that will be helpful:

FREE COURSE, GUIDE AND WORKBOOK

Do you want to write fiction faster, while practicing your craft and your writing process to consistently get better? Check out this link to the "Write Fiction Faster ... and better" guide and workbook, which comes with a companion course with 23 bite-sized video lessons and 4 worksheets.

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