Friday, February 5, 2010

What's In A Name? - To Title Chapters or Not


At the onset, let me say that titling chapters is purely a personal choice. When I was working on my first novel, I did not title the chapters. The little numbers looked so lonely up there by themselves. After awhile, I decided those little numbers needed their own names to keep them company.

In my second novel, Lane & Finn’s Big Book of Adventure the majority of chapters were named for the particular adventure my characters were experiencing. For example, “The Jelly Bean Juice Experiment”, “Fire Sticks”, or “Lemonade Frogs”. Only the opening and closing chapters varied. It was fun and assisted in heightening (a tiny bit) the anticipation of what was to follow in that chapter. My work in progress is a young adult novel. It’s been great fun naming the chapters as I go along. Being creative and interesting can be entertaining even in the most minor ways, such as titling of chapters.

In my opinion, giving chapters titles adds interest. It may give the reader a tiny sneak peek into what might happen. Or I may title the chapter after some item within it or a word or two that eludes to the emotional flavor. It’s a fun little game I play, that I’ve come to enjoy.

1 comment:

  1. My poor chapters don't even get numbers! I just do a page break & skip down a few lines. I like your titles - makes me anxious to read your book!

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