Entitled: Giving your story a name that resonates by donalee Moulton
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Let’s talk titles – not king, queen and my
personal favorite, goddess – but the titles that alert readers to what is about
to unfold before their eyes.
I’d like to start by telling you a bit
about myself – and my experience with titles. I am a freelance journalist and
have written hundreds, actually thousands, of articles for print and online
publications across North America and beyond.
One of the things you soon learn as a
freelance reporter is that editors write the titles of articles. This is not
always the case, but it is usually the case.
There are a number of reasons for this, and we’ll discuss those. In a minute.
First, I’d like to share with you the
options article writers have when it comes to titles. One, you can come up with
a title that you think reflects the article, is clever or straightforward or
funny – whatever attribute you think will appeal to readers. If the editor
likes it, they may use it. If they don’t, they will write their own. More often
than not, they will write their own.
Years ago I did an article on a trademark
dispute involving use of the Bluenose, Nova Scotia’s famous schooner. My title
went something like this: Ship disturbing trademark battle erupts in Nova
Scotia. I thought that was very clever. My editor did not. Well, she may have,
but the title she used ultimately went something like this: Nova Scotia
businesses barred from using Bluenose name.
On the other hand, I wrote an article on
champagne and called it “Liquid Bling.” My editor wrote to say she loved the
title, and she used it.
My feeling was it never hurt to include a
suggested title, and no one usually knows the story as well as the writer. But
good titles take time to craft, and on many occasions the articles I submitted
did not have a title. They had a descriptor: Profile of Donald Duck, Article on
the pros and cons of ducks vaping, Conference report from Ducks Unlimited. I
was leaving the work to the editor.
And here’s what editors are looking for in
an article title. (1) Something that grabs the reader’s attention (2) Something
that describes what the article is about (3) Something that is not longer that
the first paragraph of the article itself (4) Something that makes them want to
read the article or shows them why they should
Are you likely to get all that in one
title. Probably not. But that is what is behind the words that introduce an
article. Often those words are more dramatic or more urgent or more intense or
more gripping than the article itself. Indeed, most of the time someone
objected to an article I wrote it was the title that set them off.
And I didn’t write it.