“A title that tolls off the reader’s tongue”

Choose a title that’s easy to pronounce and easy to remember.  Jerry Waxler points out that a good title helps a reader recommend a book to a friend.  I hadn’t thought of that before, but his point caught my attention. He says, “…the title should roll off the reader’s tongue when friends ask for a recommendation.” Good stuff, Jerry!

Denis Ledoux says a memoir’s title is “about the reader not about the writer.”

Choose a title that reaches out to readers and hooks them because, Denis points out, “Many things are competing for the reader’s attention [so] a title needs to be a player in the competition.”

Think about what your potential readers need. In his post, How to Choose a Title for a Memoir, Denis asks:

• “What is your ideal reader struggling with? Where is his pain? Place a word or two that describes that pain into the title….
• What outcome will the reader achieve when she reads this book?...
• How can you involve the reader’s curiosity?”

Analyze other memoirs’ titles. Study advertisements. Examine article titles in newspapers, magazines, and blogs. Ask yourself “What makes them work?”

And then have fun crafting a few possible titles for your memoir.

Have you crafted the perfect title for your memoir?

Traditional publishing companies usually choose titles for their books, but most of us here at SM 101 won’t be working with traditional publishing companies. Instead, we will self-publish our memoirs—and that means we choose our titles.

Because a book’s title is so important, expect to work hard on crafting the very best title for your memoir.

Let’s step back a minute: How do you decide whether to buy a certain book? The first thing you notice is the title, right?

If the title doesn’t appeal to you, you put the book back on the shelf. You want a book that makes you curious, draws you in, and makes it impossible to put the book back on the shelf.

If the title does grab your attention, if you’re like me you’ll read the back cover for more info, and you open the book and read endorsements that might be at the beginning of the book. But remember, it was the title that inspired you to do so. That’s why your title is so important.

So how do you piece together The Perfect Title?

Rachelle Gardner suggests you “identify what kind of feeling or tone you want to convey in the title” and ask yourself, “Does the tone of the title match the tone of the book?”

What is tone?

YourDictionary.com says, “The tone in a story can be joyful, serious, humorous, sad, threatening, formal, informal, pessimistic, and optimistic…. Tone in writing is really not any different than the tone of your voice. You know that sometimes it is not ‘what you say,’ but ‘how you say it.’…The definition of ‘tone’ is the way the author expresses his attitude through his writing.” (Don't miss all the good stuff in Examples of Tone in a Story.) 

Daniel Scocco offers additional tips—seven methods of crafting your title.

He suggests listing nouns, verbs, and adjectives that describe your story and “combine them into different phrases.”

Daniel also suggests describing an important turning point or climax of your story, noticing key words. “Mix and match these words,” he says, “to see what works for you.” I like that: “Mix and match.”

Read the rest of Daniel’s seven tips in his post, “Picking Your Perfect Title.” They are intriguing.

With Rachelle and Daniel’s tips in mind, begin jotting down ideas—lots of ideas. Use a thesaurus to look up key words and find alternative, more interesting words.

Then take a break from your title ideas. Over the next days and weeks, you’ll be surprised at new ideas that will spring into your mind at the strangest times of the day and night. Add those possible titles to your list and again distance yourself from them.

Come back later and take a fresh look. You’ll spot some titles that you can eliminate. Polish the other possible titles and again set them aside for a while.

Next time we’ll have more advice 

on crafting a compelling title for your memoir.

For now, have fun playing around with title ideas.

Craft your memoir’s best title, Part 2

“A clever title is great if it is clear,” writes Judy Cullins, “but a clear title is always preferable. The best? A clear and clever title.”

Does your memoir have a title yet? If not, I hope last Thursday’s post and today’s will inspire you to work on it. Remember: It’s good to give your memoir a working title until you can pin down the just-right title.

Why? Because:

The process of writing

often takes the story

places the author never expected.

The process of writing

can take the author’s story

in a different direction

than she planned.

Denis Ledoux explains it this way: “Over the time that you linger with your story, it will frequently begin to change—not the facts and the dates, but the interpretation and the metaphors and images you use, the vignettes you choose to include or omit.  You will see your stories in ways that you may not have seen it before….”

With that in mind, choose a working title, knowing you might change it later, depending on what you discover as you continue to write. In fact, you might not pin down your permanent title until you’ve finished writing your memoir, but your working title can help you reach your final title.

Daniel Scocco offers seven interesting methods of crafting your title:

He suggests listing nouns, verbs, and adjectives that describe your story and “combine them into different phrases.”

Daniel also suggests describing an important turning point or the climax of your story, noticing key words. “Mix and match these words,” he says, “to see what works for you.” I like that: “Mix and match.”

Read the rest of Daniel’s seven tips in his post, “Picking Your Perfect Title.” They are intriguing.

Choose a title that’s easy to pronounce and easy to remember. Jerry Waxler points out that a good title helps a reader recommend a book to a friend.  I hadn’t thought of that before, but his point caught my attention. He says, “…the title should roll off the reader’s tongue when friends ask for a recommendation.” Good stuff, Jerry!

You might consider giving your memoir a one-word title.

A title with a visual component works well in catching potential readers’ attention.

Analyze other memoirs’ titles. 

Study advertisements. 

Examine article titles in newspapers, 

magazines, and blogs. 

Ask yourself 

“What makes them work?”

Or, how about a Shakespeare quote? Or a phrase from an old hymn that’s in the public domain? (Avoid using copyrighted materials. Check out the laws thoroughly if you’re tempted to use anything copyrighted. Click here to read Virginia Lloyd’s How to Get Permission to Use Song Lyrics in Your Book.)

In her excellent book, The Writer’s Portable Mentor, Priscilla Long tells us to craft titles that “give readers an extremely accurate idea of what’s behind the door they are about to walk through…. [S]hun lyrical flourishes, obscure metaphors, and anecdotes with delayed points.”

She urges writers to avoid being fancy. Instead, she says, we should be direct, accurate, plain and simple.

So, now, put on your thinking cap and craft a working title, or maybe even your final title. And come back next Thursday for more tips on putting together a title for your memoir.

NAMW’s free memoir teleconference, plus other great resources for you

Today I’m excited to share these helpful, inspirational resources with you:

The National Association of Memoir Writers is showcasing talented authors and teachers who are experts in Creative Nonfiction and memoir for a FREE, one-day Teleconference on Truth or Lie—On the Cusp of Memoir and Fiction, scheduled for Friday, October 21, 2011. Everyone who signs up will receive an email with a link to listen to replays. Click on this link for more information: http://www.namw.org/teleseminars/national-association-of-memoir-writers-announces-guest-speakers-for-fall-2011-day-long-memoir-writing-teleconference

At The Heart and Craft of Life Writing, Sharon Lippincott offers a long list of free writing resources. Her freebies include blank timelines. (See my two earlier blog posts about using timelines.*) Sharon offers a blank printable timeline (for filling in by hand) and a blank on-screen timeline (for filling on using your computer). Here’s the link: http://sharonlippincott.com/freebies.htm

Use this index to find articles about memoirs and memoir writing throughout Jerry Waxler’s Memory Writers Network blog: http://memorywritersnetwork.com/blog/index-to-the-essays-about-memoir-writing-on-this-blog

The Writing Academy is a community of Christian writers who share a passion for telling the story of God's good news for a hurting world. The Academy offers a ministry of encouragement to Christian writers including a unique at-home study program in writing. Look into it at this link: http://1stwrites.blogspot.com/2011/09/writing-resources-christian-writing.html

Be sure to check the right column here on my blog for other excellent blogs and their resources.

What is your ultimate purpose in writing your stories?

The Bible says, many times,

that God did things for people in the past

so that

they would see Him, know Him, believe in Him,

praise Him, and glorify Him.

He does the same for us today

so, here at Spiritual Memoirs 101,

we write stories about what He has done for us

so that others—our kids and grandkids, especially—

will see Him, know Him, believe in Him,

praise Him, and glorify Him.

Happy writing!

*Related posts:

Your personal timeline will help your memoir’s readers   

http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/09/your-personal-timeline-will-help-your.html

The BEAUTY and BONUSES of memoir

http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/10/beauty-and-bonuses-of-memoir.html