On titling fics

[themostepotente]

I'm hard pressed to admit -- sometimes the title of a fic is the deciding factor on whether or not I read it.

Titles can be very eye catching, and sometimes I need that stimulus (can I call it this?) to attract my attention.

Witty, clever, thought provoking -- anything really. I just need to make that connection.

To me, there is nothing worse than a poorly titled fic. Does anyone else share these sentiments?

Do poor titles affect your judgement? Does the word 'Untitled' tend to turn you off?

How do you go about choosing an appropriate title for your fic? Song titles, catchy phrases?

What about sharing story titles with a well-known author? So many fics out there. It has to happen more often than not.

Share your thoughts, please :-)

--P

Comments

[maelwaedd.livejournal.com]

I'm terrible with titles. I'll sit there and IM with somebody until I get something that sounds... passable. I have a few fics on my webpage that I feel I should retitle (Harry Potter Can't Find Snape? Oh dear. This is what I get for titling things whilst babysitting), because they're just so bad.

Untitled puts me off. I know that titles do take a bit of effort, but it just speaks, to me, that somebody was too lazy to bother titling their fic. And I know I'm bad and wrong for thinking this, but it's similar to somebody putting an a/n saying 'oh, this story is so crap, don't read it!' before their fic. I just--don't read it.

That said, I've recently discovered that I often forget to put summaries in front of my fics. I guess it could just be a matter of forgetting.