HOW TO PICK A TITLE FOR YOUR WRITE UP

Choosing a title for your piece of writing is as important as the write up itself.

Now, picking a title may be different for both Fiction writers and Nonfiction writers.

Still, a reasonable and attractive title is needed in both cases to draw readers attention, after all you ain't writing for yourself.

Let's explore some writing tips.

Creative Titles: Creativity is obviously the core of any write up. You just have to be creative about everything while writing even your titles. Your title shouldn't be dull.

Ever noticed that the books or articles with unusual titles get more attention than ones with ordinary names?

I mean if you visit a library and see a book titled;The Tree and another one titled Gone with the wind which gets to catch your attention?
I bet the gone with the wind. Why because it's out of the ordinary.
So first tip, be creative with your titles whether fiction or nonfiction.

Short and Simple Titles: It's safer to make your titles short and simple enough for anyone who comes across it to always remember.

Now, think about all the novels, articles or compositions you've ever read, I can bet the ones you still remember are ones with simple titles. From The Drummer Boy , to Things Fall Apart down to The gods are not to blame etc they were simple titles that stuck like glue.

So even if you write a masterpiece and give it a title like The Iroko Forest Reserve Festival in Okubushuyu trust me, it wouldn't sell much and your readers might be few.


The truth is, its hard to tell somebody about a story or an article if the title is too long to remember, complicated to comprehend or hard to pronounce. Not matter how good the information is, it might not really go far.

The Question title: You should always be in search of compelling titles and one of this is phrasing your title in form of a question!

This could really pay off for nonfiction writers. It makes your readers curious.

Don't be in a hurry to use just any question title because not just any question will work. You've to use "open ended questions" that assures your readers that they would definitely find the answers to the questions.

Also don't settle for easy questions that can get easy reply.

For instance, instead of using "Do You Know that Children are More Cheerful than Adults?" You could use, "Have You Ever Wondered Why Children are more Cheerful than Adults?"

For the first title, we all know that children are more cheerful than adults but for the second title, we will be a bit curious as to know why it is so. So you see you've got to make your readers curious.
Under the question titles, you could try the Why titles. This is all to get your reader inquisitive about your write up. See most people are curious are always want to know why!

Let's say you have a title like, "Ginger is able to cure cough" adding a why to it makes a difference, "Why Ginger is able to Cure Cough".

The second title will definitely draw more curious readers to your write up.
Titles with Hidden meaning: These type of titles are usually used by some fiction writers who tend to hide a deep truth within their titles. Eg "the Da Vinci's code"
Most times, these authors don't want their message to be easily decoded so they go with something that might be quite simple but have a lot written within.

Titles from popular expressions You could get your title from popular expressions,  like "Two to tangle" or "Grass to Grace" etc. So long as it's in line with your write up, the opportunities are endless.
In the end, the main idea is to get your readers' attention, to draw them to your piece of art and make them curious.

But most importantly, you should make sure that the whole of your write up is worth reading and can be able to keep the tuned throughout your work, else your  catchy title might just be in vain.

Written by Amadi Jennifer Chioma