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Thoughts on chapter headers?
- Thread starter The Maven
- Start date
ScribeScipioSmith
Sage
The business end, you mean publication? If it's a sequel and the first one is coming out I'd advise sticking to the same pattern as you used in book 1, whether chapter titles or just numbers. Changing mid-series might look strange.
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- #3
I'm self publishing the novel so waiting for the company registration to go through and then need to organize my banking details with a business account.
I agree with you, consistency is best for a professional appearance. However, as a self-publication still to be released, I do have the option to go back and add chapter headers if need be to the first story. What are your thoughts on chapter titles vs numbered chapters ScipioSmith?
I agree with you, consistency is best for a professional appearance. However, as a self-publication still to be released, I do have the option to go back and add chapter headers if need be to the first story. What are your thoughts on chapter titles vs numbered chapters ScipioSmith?
I think chapter headings work just fine. The may be more prevalent in works for younger readers, but I've seen them in novels for adults and I don't have a problem with them.
ScipioSmith
Sage
Personally I like chapter headers, since they can tease at what is to come within the chapter. That might be why some people don't like them, but I prefer headers to bland numbers. Apart from anything else, it's easier to remember what happened when if each chapter has a memorable name.
While your here, can you give us the name of your soon-to-be-published book?
Gryphos
Auror
I love using chapter titles, but you should always be important when coming up with them. In my view, a chapter title should never spoil what happens in the chapter. If you head a chapter 'Betrayal' you've spoiled it for the reader because they know that some dude's gonna get betrayed. I also don't like bland chapter titles like 'The Arrival' or 'The Dragon' which just state what the chapter contains. I try to be a bit more imaginative with my chapter titles and come up with something that (I hope) intrigues the reader into reading on.
Some example chapter titles from my WIP:
'Honourable Zebedy'
'To have Faced Magicians'
'A Shepherd Through Fire'
'Seven if You Count the Rat'
'So-called Titanium'
'Something Really Stupid'
'Three Eyes and Goldsalt Wisdom'
Some example chapter titles from my WIP:
'Honourable Zebedy'
'To have Faced Magicians'
'A Shepherd Through Fire'
'Seven if You Count the Rat'
'So-called Titanium'
'Something Really Stupid'
'Three Eyes and Goldsalt Wisdom'
- Thread starter
- #7
Hey Scipismith - the title of my novel is The Anmorian Legends: Wrath of the Exiled. Will post more in the relevant forums as I approach publication.
Thank you for the feedback Gryphos, its almost like the titles for episodes in a series. They need to be catchy and memorable yet not tell too much of what is to come.
Thank you for the feedback Gryphos, its almost like the titles for episodes in a series. They need to be catchy and memorable yet not tell too much of what is to come.
I use chapter headings in my WiP, so it looks like this:
3 Inchiostro e Ceneri (Ink and Ash)
I used Italian because my setting is a parallel to Venice 1576, and I liked how it sounded, but added English so people weren't confused. Each title holds special meaning to what is in the chapter, and I usually have a sort of hidden secondary meaning. For instance, in Chapter 4 Marchio del Tradimento (Marks of Betrayal), the scene opens with a woman visiting a gravestone, where she visits with her child, killed by a man who betrayed her, but the scene soon switches to another MC, who sees her best friend and servant, his back streaked with welts because he lied to cover for her. So the title holds double meaning to both scenes.
In another novel, I did this:
4
A wise man never trusts a wax seal to protect his letters. King Aethan was a wise man.
-Same place as last time. Ten ‘o clock.- A
My hope was that quotes would not only give a hint about the chapter in places, btu also impart information I wanted the reader to know without having to show it. For example in this chapter, I didn't want to show the recipient receiving the letter to meet the king in private. After struggling with it for an hour, I decided to scrap the attempt to show him receiving the letter, and simply use it as a sort of chapter quote. That way, it told the reader the man got the king's summons, but I avoided the stupid, boring scene, and began the chapter right with the meeting, without having to explain how he arranged a private meeting with a foreigner.
I think chapter headings and quotes work very well, like in Prince of Thorns. I really loved those ones, because every time one came, it gave insight into the men Jorg traveled with, things we didn't know from their actual interactions.
3 Inchiostro e Ceneri (Ink and Ash)
I used Italian because my setting is a parallel to Venice 1576, and I liked how it sounded, but added English so people weren't confused. Each title holds special meaning to what is in the chapter, and I usually have a sort of hidden secondary meaning. For instance, in Chapter 4 Marchio del Tradimento (Marks of Betrayal), the scene opens with a woman visiting a gravestone, where she visits with her child, killed by a man who betrayed her, but the scene soon switches to another MC, who sees her best friend and servant, his back streaked with welts because he lied to cover for her. So the title holds double meaning to both scenes.
In another novel, I did this:
4
A wise man never trusts a wax seal to protect his letters. King Aethan was a wise man.
-Same place as last time. Ten ‘o clock.- A
My hope was that quotes would not only give a hint about the chapter in places, btu also impart information I wanted the reader to know without having to show it. For example in this chapter, I didn't want to show the recipient receiving the letter to meet the king in private. After struggling with it for an hour, I decided to scrap the attempt to show him receiving the letter, and simply use it as a sort of chapter quote. That way, it told the reader the man got the king's summons, but I avoided the stupid, boring scene, and began the chapter right with the meeting, without having to explain how he arranged a private meeting with a foreigner.
I think chapter headings and quotes work very well, like in Prince of Thorns. I really loved those ones, because every time one came, it gave insight into the men Jorg traveled with, things we didn't know from their actual interactions.
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- #9
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- #10
psychotick
Auror
Hi,
I just use chapter 1, 2, 3 etc. But then some of my books have seventy or more chapters, which means seventy names I'd have to come up with. However one advantage of using them is that it can make a Table of Contents meaningful. I don't use them because for me it would read something like Chapter one ... Page Five etc, and that would just look stupid.
Cheers, Greg.
I just use chapter 1, 2, 3 etc. But then some of my books have seventy or more chapters, which means seventy names I'd have to come up with. However one advantage of using them is that it can make a Table of Contents meaningful. I don't use them because for me it would read something like Chapter one ... Page Five etc, and that would just look stupid.
Cheers, Greg.
cupiscent
Sage
As a reader, nine times out of ten I couldn't tell you the title of the chapter I'm currently reading. So numbers (or letters, or time-and-date markers, or anything form of delineating sections) works just as well. I was also quite taken with the nested numbering of The Lies of Locke Lamora.
As a writer, I've dabbled with all sorts of nonsense. I've numbered my chapters in chronological order while telling the story out of order (best only used for shorter pieces or it becomes hard to remember the ordering). I've named parts but numbered chapters within them. I've appeared to number chapters with words, but had both "TWO" and "TOO" and "FOUR" and "FOR". (...I have been known to be an over-experimental smart-arse in my time.)
As long as you have a system, and it's either invisible or adds something to the book, you're all good, I think.
As a writer, I've dabbled with all sorts of nonsense. I've numbered my chapters in chronological order while telling the story out of order (best only used for shorter pieces or it becomes hard to remember the ordering). I've named parts but numbered chapters within them. I've appeared to number chapters with words, but had both "TWO" and "TOO" and "FOUR" and "FOR". (...I have been known to be an over-experimental smart-arse in my time.)
As long as you have a system, and it's either invisible or adds something to the book, you're all good, I think.
I agree with that^
The problem isn't that people hate chapter titles in general, but that when an author feels the need to add something for the sake of adding, rather than because the sum with the addition will definitely be greater than without it.
I forget which book I read now, but one had chapter quotes like I mentioned in my last post, but the quotations weren't pertinent to anything in the book. Rather, they were seemingly random quotations pulled from random characters in the book. If your story is about a mage student, it would make sense to have all the chapter quotes be passages from an ancient magical text he's reading. Then you can impart a few tidbits to the reader, things your MC knows but you don't want to show by writing into an actual scene, let's say. But if your story is about an airship pirate captain and his crew, searching for buried treasure, quoting a magical textbook makes a lot less sense than each chapter quote being a short captain's log entry or something. Randomness is really not the way to go, with assigning meaning to chapters, and the less the quote/ title means about the story, the less readers care and the more annoying and misleading the titles feel. Which can be counterproductive.
I hope my chapter titles intrigue, as someone mentioned earlier. My goal is to have a reader engrossed as a chapter closes, and when they read the next chapter's title, they are ready to read "just one more chapter."
Here's my list so far. A few are a bit plain for my liking, but most of those one-word titles have multiple scenes sharing the same core theme, like Invisibility, where one MC is hiding under a table to eavesdrop on a conversation, and another is feeling invisible in her marriage. I really got excited when I found ways to group scenes together under one title and make them a chapter.
1. Vendetta (Revenge)
2. Dono del Cielo (Gift of the Sky)
3. Inchiostro e Ceneri (Ink and Ash)
4. Marchio del Tradimento (Marks of Betrayal)
5. Odore di Ratto (Smells Like a Rat)
6. Lettera senza Firma (Letter with no Signature)
7. Corvi Pallido (Pale Ravens)
8. Morte nella Notte (Death in the Night)
9. Il Casetta con una Fregatura (Cottage with a Catch)
10. Anime Inquiete (Restless Souls)
11. Seconda Impressione (Second Impression)
12. Una Rosa Legata in Ferro (A Rose Bound in Iron)
13. Invisibilità (Invisibility)
14. Il Anatra Deludente (The Disappointing Duck)
15. Una Gabbia Lussuosa (A Lavish Cage)
16. Rivelazioni Ubriaco (Drunken Revelations)
17. Generosità (Generosity)
18. Anticipazione (Anticipation)
19. Dono Inestimabili (Priceless Gifts)
20. Delusione (Disappointment)
21. Sospetto (Suspicion)
22. Il Cacciatore (The Hunter)
23. Prove Inconfutabili (Irrefutable Proof)
24. Il Battesimo del Fuoco (Baptism by Fire)
25. Bei sogni (Beautiful Dreams)
26. Nobiltà (Nobility)
27. Ballo Formale (Ball)
28. Onestà Dolorosa (Painful Honesty)
29. Macchia di Sangue (Bloodstains)
30. Devozione (Devotion)
31. Motivazioni Segrete (Secret Motivations)
32. Fare Innervosire il Toro (Angering the Bull)
33. Verità (Truth)
34. Libertà Negata Freedom Denied
there are four to six more titles which haven't been decided upon.
I considered another point I kept in mind as I thought of these titles originally. My novel is a complex story with twists and turns and many betrayals and secrets. My goal was to let the story unfold subtlety, and the chapter titles are one more tool in that goal. The words I chose also sort of play on what I hope the reader is feeling and the things he potentially is expecting to happen. I feel like readers feel good when they're getting close to figuring things out.
The problem isn't that people hate chapter titles in general, but that when an author feels the need to add something for the sake of adding, rather than because the sum with the addition will definitely be greater than without it.
I forget which book I read now, but one had chapter quotes like I mentioned in my last post, but the quotations weren't pertinent to anything in the book. Rather, they were seemingly random quotations pulled from random characters in the book. If your story is about a mage student, it would make sense to have all the chapter quotes be passages from an ancient magical text he's reading. Then you can impart a few tidbits to the reader, things your MC knows but you don't want to show by writing into an actual scene, let's say. But if your story is about an airship pirate captain and his crew, searching for buried treasure, quoting a magical textbook makes a lot less sense than each chapter quote being a short captain's log entry or something. Randomness is really not the way to go, with assigning meaning to chapters, and the less the quote/ title means about the story, the less readers care and the more annoying and misleading the titles feel. Which can be counterproductive.
I hope my chapter titles intrigue, as someone mentioned earlier. My goal is to have a reader engrossed as a chapter closes, and when they read the next chapter's title, they are ready to read "just one more chapter."
Here's my list so far. A few are a bit plain for my liking, but most of those one-word titles have multiple scenes sharing the same core theme, like Invisibility, where one MC is hiding under a table to eavesdrop on a conversation, and another is feeling invisible in her marriage. I really got excited when I found ways to group scenes together under one title and make them a chapter.
1. Vendetta (Revenge)
2. Dono del Cielo (Gift of the Sky)
3. Inchiostro e Ceneri (Ink and Ash)
4. Marchio del Tradimento (Marks of Betrayal)
5. Odore di Ratto (Smells Like a Rat)
6. Lettera senza Firma (Letter with no Signature)
7. Corvi Pallido (Pale Ravens)
8. Morte nella Notte (Death in the Night)
9. Il Casetta con una Fregatura (Cottage with a Catch)
10. Anime Inquiete (Restless Souls)
11. Seconda Impressione (Second Impression)
12. Una Rosa Legata in Ferro (A Rose Bound in Iron)
13. Invisibilità (Invisibility)
14. Il Anatra Deludente (The Disappointing Duck)
15. Una Gabbia Lussuosa (A Lavish Cage)
16. Rivelazioni Ubriaco (Drunken Revelations)
17. Generosità (Generosity)
18. Anticipazione (Anticipation)
19. Dono Inestimabili (Priceless Gifts)
20. Delusione (Disappointment)
21. Sospetto (Suspicion)
22. Il Cacciatore (The Hunter)
23. Prove Inconfutabili (Irrefutable Proof)
24. Il Battesimo del Fuoco (Baptism by Fire)
25. Bei sogni (Beautiful Dreams)
26. Nobiltà (Nobility)
27. Ballo Formale (Ball)
28. Onestà Dolorosa (Painful Honesty)
29. Macchia di Sangue (Bloodstains)
30. Devozione (Devotion)
31. Motivazioni Segrete (Secret Motivations)
32. Fare Innervosire il Toro (Angering the Bull)
33. Verità (Truth)
34. Libertà Negata Freedom Denied
there are four to six more titles which haven't been decided upon.
I considered another point I kept in mind as I thought of these titles originally. My novel is a complex story with twists and turns and many betrayals and secrets. My goal was to let the story unfold subtlety, and the chapter titles are one more tool in that goal. The words I chose also sort of play on what I hope the reader is feeling and the things he potentially is expecting to happen. I feel like readers feel good when they're getting close to figuring things out.
K.S. Crooks
Maester
I like using chapter headings as a way to set the tone or even remind the reader what the chapter is about if they flip through the book again after they have read it. What you should also consider is the length of your chapters. If the average is 4 or 5 pages, then you probably want to use only numbers for chapters. And consider your audience. YA and younger readers generally enjoy chapter headings.
At the very least I like chapter headings when I write, as a reminder of the most important aspect of this section of my story. Good luck.
At the very least I like chapter headings when I write, as a reminder of the most important aspect of this section of my story. Good luck.
As an author, my problem with chapter headings is a simple one: it forces me to be clever again.
I wind up writing chapter headings mainly as a way to remind *myself* what the chapter is about while I'm writing it. I tried just numbers and it was like reading a cipher. But the titles are not catchy. Once the novel is finished, I may well revert to numbers, if I'm unable to be clever forty-five times in a row.
I wind up writing chapter headings mainly as a way to remind *myself* what the chapter is about while I'm writing it. I tried just numbers and it was like reading a cipher. But the titles are not catchy. Once the novel is finished, I may well revert to numbers, if I'm unable to be clever forty-five times in a row.
