Recently
we looked at:
- how to most effectively begin your memoir’s chapters (click on “Your chapter openings: Do they intrigue readers?”), and
- how to successfully craft your chapters’ endings (click on “Give your chapter endings extra love.”)
Today we’ll
look at how to develop excellent chapter titles.
You could
take the easy way out and just give your chapters numbers. But how boring is
that?!?
Instead,
create curiosity in your readers, entice them to keep turning pages. Increase their
enjoyment of your book by crafting intriguing chapter titles. You want to hook
your readers—make them want to know what comes next without giving it away in
your title.
Keep in
mind that with each new chapter, you’re introducing either new information or a
shift in information. A new chapter can indicate a change in time, location,
topic, perspectives, plans, emotions, success, well-being, and so on. Your
chapter title can signal to readers what to expect and help them transition
into it.
Use
chapter titles to propel your memoir’s story arc (narrative arc)—the trajectory
of your account. (What’s a story arc? you might be asking. “A well-written
memoir utilizes the same elements of a novel, including . . . a
beginning-middle-end structure,” writes Cate Macabe. “A story arc moves the
main character . . . from one situation to another, one state of being to
another.” Learn more by clicking on this link to our earlier post, “Do you know what a story arc is? And why it’s important?”)
Tension
and foreshadowing (a setback, disaster, or danger) captivate and motivate readers to keep reading. For example, in my recent memoir, Please, God, Don’t Make Me Go: A Foot-Dragger’s Memoir, I entitled one chapter “Terrorism was to
affect our lives very significantly.” Here’s another title from my memoir: “A
matter of life and death.”
A chapter
title can be a phrase from within the chapter. For example, again from my memoir, “Three vulnerable women, three small children—easy targets.”
Or you can
use a quotation or proverb that highlights the significance of the chapter’s
contents. For example, I used this Winston Churchill quote for one of my titles: “Failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.”
Another quotation I used is this from Walt Whitman: “Happiness, not in another
place but this place. . . .”
You can
also fashion a title from dialogue within the chapter, such as this one from my
memoir, Please, God, Don’t Make Me Go: A Foot-Dragger’s Memoir: “We’re coming
back later and if you’re here, we’ll kill you.”
And
sometimes it’s okay to choose a title that simply tells readers what the
chapter will be about. It might seem boring but I encourage you to develop a
title that makes them wonder what they might miss if they don’t keep reading.
Get creative with your word choice—add a little spice or sparkle—or maybe even
a shock. I entitled such a chapter “Another bomb threat, and a dead pig on the
kitchen floor.”
Give
yourself time to craft just the right chapter titles. Experiment as you write
your rough draft. You will probably change your titles several times during the
rough draft stage. That’s good.
Here’s a
bit of advice from memoirist Matilda Butler:
“Try writing
four titles for each chapter. Then ask your writing group, or even friends, to
tell you the ones they like the most and why. Even if you don’t take their
advice or suggestions, you will learn a lot about how readers of your memoir
may react to your titles.”
Your goal,
then, is to create chapter titles that will:
- grab your readers’ interest,
- enhance your story, and
- add to your readers’ enjoyment.
Creating
chapter titles can be fun.
Enjoy the creative process!
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