The reader hook starts with a title, so here are five tips for how to write a good one.
1. Know your audience of one. Your ‘audience of one’ is the precise target your work is written for. You never want to write horizontally, which means hoping your piece will appeal to everyone. It very well may; but in order to really zero in on your content, message, and target market, write it for your perfect audience. Visualize that man, woman, or child. Craft the work for him or her.
2. Write your story first. Really good titles bubble up from the body of work you have produced. Books, articles, and stories all tend to germinate during creation. Write it first, name it last. This guideline holds true regardless of genre.
3. Laundry-list potential (descriptive) titles. Your list should include not just potential titles, but also possible subtitles that clearly explain exactly what your piece is about. “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” tells the reader exactly what the book is about. “Managing the Worry Circle (How to Improve Your Life by Worrying Less)” also tells the reader what to expect, as do “Profiles in Courage” and “Portable Dad (Stuff to Know without the Lecture). If your story is character-driven and features a very strong lead, subheads or clarifications often help. When I wrote “Tuki Banjo, Superstar,” the challenge was taking an odd name (Tuki Banjo, the heroine) and clarifying for the reader that the novel was about a person’s journey and not a musical instrument. In film adaptation the title has been shortened to “Tuki,” which the movie poster will visually explain, which leads us to point number 4:
4. Strive for a hook. Catchy names, whether centered around characters or subjects, pique interest. The advantage of your laundry-list falls here: The more ideas you spin to mix, match, edit, and have to choose from, the better your chances of crafting the perfect title.
5. Seek opinions before making a final decision. From your laundry-list, cull the ones that don’t work until you’ve boiled them down to a final few. Share them with confidants whose opinions you trust. Do not bias their thinking. Explain in a single sentence what the book is about, and share your short list. If you cannot explain your work in a single sentence, you do not know it well enough. Net it out and seek the input and ideas of others.
In closing, naming a written work is a fun part of the creation process. Passion projects are our creative children; but since naming is a process, make sure you invest enough time into discovering your ideal selection so you will be just as excited about the end result as you are about the content of your work.
The world needs more skilled writers, explainers, and storytellers, and a perfect title will help maximize your audience. Best of luck with all you take the time to carefully create.
About Ocean Palmer: A multiple award-winning author across a variety of fiction and non-fiction genres, Ocean has authored or co-authored a dozen books and optioned multiple motion picture screenplays.