How to Title Your Book | Writing Tips

These ~three-ish words will be the most difficult of your entire novel :) why :)

MY SHORT FICTION:

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro
0:56 - Title from concept
2:58 - Title from line (cool title hack!)
4:08 - One word titles
7:16 - Double meanings
8:46 - Compelling contradictions
9:56 - My favourite titles

OUTRO MUSIC: "l u v t e a [acoustic]" by Autumn Keys

SOCIAL

[YTEdy]

I love it when you're writing your book and one of the characters says something and you're like "holy shit, that's the title". I didn't see it coming but there it was.

[some]

Trying to compute the optimum Shaelin title from this...

You Too Can Be Wolves With Birds In Your Mouth

[ctrain]

I have a book idea I'm holding out for several years until I'm good enough to write it, and when happened for me was that I knew inside that it had to be one word, and something glorious and majestic sounding, as well as unforgettable and iconic. I strung together a couple root words, and after several hours over a couple days of trial and error I found it. Can't share it here, of course, but thats how I created a title recently.

[annlillyjose]

Thank you for the video! I'm the kind of person that gets title ideas for novels or short stories and then never get stories for them. But some of my favourite book titles are:
1. Radio Silence, Alice Oseman
2. The Sun Is Also A Star, Nicola Yoon
3. Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng
4. The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
5. This Song Will Save Your Life, Leila Sales

While making this list, I realised what you meant by how one word titles can be less impactful if the word itself is not very catchy. I'm scanning through my bookshelf trying to find a book with a good one word title, but can't. Pareidolia is a title I absolutely love, though!

[allgem]

ooh this is exciting! i have a lot of trouble with titles lol

[prairiebutch]

I keep thinking about Akwaeke Emezi's forthcoming romance novel "You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty", after a lyric in a Florence & the Machine song!

[ringlófa]

Thank you so much for this video <3 The titles I enjoy the most are: 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' (Milan Kundera), 'Satantango' (László Krasznahorkai), 'The Secret Life of Bees' (Sue Monk Kidd), and 'What We Talk About When We Talk About Love' (Raymond Carver).

[janemack]

Favorite one word titles: HOWL by Alan Ginsburg. DUNE by Frank Herbert. FEED by MA Anderson. (Even HAMLET by WS is an unforgettable and unique title). I love children's picture book title MONSTER MAMA by Liz Rosenberg, Stephen Gammel. (Not what you're expecting for little kids). Ban This Book by A. Gratz. No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty. Your Robot Dog Will Die, by A. Greenwood.

[jackgaffney]

The title is the cherry on top. I can never find the right one. But it looks sweet when it on top of the sundae when I do.

[rockbelisa]

I'm on the team of titling before writing too much of it. It helps me wrap my head around the story, feels like something solid after I do.
I wrote a fanfic called Say Goodnight Before You Leave, and I can't remember why I titled that but it worked. My favorites of mine are The peculiarities of wrath, Death as Seen from Above, and Max is gonna die tonight. But I have a title dear to my heart that is just Hoverfly, even being one word since is not a very talked about insect, I thought it could stand on its own.

[KrisMF]

omg I adore titles but hate titling my own work so I always put it off for as longgg as possible. but some of my fav titles are A RIVER DIES OF THIRST by Mahmoud Darwish and THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone :)

[rev]

I remember the baby Shaelin video on Titles. We love to see growth 🖤

[robertmurrhee]

My two favorite titles among my own stories are Child of Spider Island, a sci-fi horror story, & Nobody was here, a story about an assassin whose name is Nemo, which means nobody, & who always leaves a calling card on the body of his target, that only says "Nobody was here".

[bookmark]

My favorite title from my books is Christmas Train Home. It's my one book which gets sales yearly.

[authorgreene]

I often have a title before I've finished the story. It's fun and fairly easy for me. Sometimes my titles are better than the story! If that's the case, it doesn't cross an editor's desk until the story meets the artistry of the title.
Some titles of my own work (only because you asked):
-Descriptions of Heaven
-Viagra for a Pariah
- Medea Naked on the Golden Fleece
-A New Kind of Mother
-88 “Spice Up Your Date” Shimmer Palette
-Aunt Phyllis is Yours This Christmas
- When the Dog Gets Ready to Die
-Beyond the Blue Curtain

All of these are published pieces. I'd love to hear your thoughts on any of them nonetheless, Shaelin!

[greblaksnew]

Some great advice here. The title for my book (see name) took me a long time. Thanks for making the video.

[kallielatham]

i feel like its worth noting that no one is looking up "betty" without putting book after it and when you do put book after it, it comes up immediately haha. amazing tips, that just made me laugh :D

[MadailinBurnhope]

the current working title of my verse novel is "A Brace of Sulphur Crests"; I've been through three or four as my story and style has evolved, but I think it's the closest to "right" so far

[Mark-fznm]

My book is called "I Don't Want To Be Antagonist" and idk. I think it's a tryhard. Another is called "Delusion In Faith" which is I like but I feel like it's basic.

[lulu_]

Not a book but one of my favorite titles is from an anime, revolutionary girl utena. It’s similar to the double meaning technique but it uses two symbolic meanings in the word revolution that are contradictory. Revolution as in great change and revolution as in a repetitive cycle (like the earths revolution around the sun). It so brilliantly reflects the characters conflict between their desire to “revolutionize” their present condition and the reality of their behavior as cyclical and unchanging. The structure of the episodes also reflects the dichotomy. It’s a very repetitive show but when it breaks form it illuminates something.