The Surprising Fanfiction Secret That Transformed My Story Titles Forever

The Short Of It

As part of my unofficial “Everything I Learned About Writing, I Learned From Fanfiction” collection, I figured it was time to start right at the top: the title.

See, the first time I ever had to worry about titling something with an actual audience of readers in mind was in fanfiction. And in the years and years I spent writing and reading fanfiction, I’ve seen the good, the lazy, the bizarre… and have learned some lessons from it.

A flag on a hill

Fanfiction doesn’t rely on book covers or other visuals to promote to its readers. Or, at least in my heyday of my writing, it didn’t.

Rather, when I wrote, published, and read fanfiction, the title was the first big thing you have to advertise and brand your story to entice potential readers into clicking on yours amongst the mass of other self-published fanworks.

While everything in mainstream publishing is published with a book cover even if it is ebook only, when you stop to consider it, its very often that the title is separated from the cover image. In conversation, or in review, or when writing about a book. Never mind that a book could have more than one cover in its life span, and thus the title is the unifying factor ultimately.

The title must be able to standalone.

Put in the muscle

You need to put in effort when creating a title. Which sounds obvious, I know. But we’ve all been in those ruts where you’ve finished the hard work of the writing and editing— whether a novel or short story or something else — and the perfect title eludes.

You may get to the level of frustration to say, “Why I do have panic over figuring out a good title? It’s a good story that stands on its own if people just give it a chance!” But, of course, without that title no one is going to give it a chance.

You’d be surprised how many folks on fanfiction.net would leave their story as “untitled.” And did I ever click on one of those? No.