A week of questions, this. For myself and for you. At least, that’s how it feels from the vantage of Monday morning.
I wake, these days, rarin’ to write. Lemme at it. Takes all that I can do to complete the tasks that stand between me and the story–the exercising, the cat-feeding, the transcribing the arc of an idea, that I got while re-watching Capote again last evening.
That re-watch got me thinking. About the things that move us and inspire us; that grow bigger ideas out of fragmentary ones. The thinking was what may well turn this into a week of questions and conversations in this space.
Let me start with this one: What is/are your favorite chapter title(s)?
Chapter titles are among my favorite things about writing; a challenge I delight in. They are tricky little things. I’ve written about them before in this space.
They are the headlines for the ad, the story unit, that follows. They hint. They tease. They compel. They clarify and describe. Read a ToC with a well-written progression of chapter titles, and you (reader and writer alike) should find yourself panting to unwind their mystery. They are tiny songs; motifs of the grander work.
In my case, they might take the form of a tease (in this work: “The Last Days of Carson McCall”). They may describe a bigger plot point (“The Wars in Heaven”). I may even make you go to the dictionary to discover the title’s clue to the chapter’s greater revealings (“Eidolon”).
So…again…the question of the day: Your favorite chapter titles? They might be yours. Or somebody else’s. Today is the day to share the what of it. And the why.
8 comments
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March 26, 2012 at 11:13 am
jasondegray
Wait…you RE-watched Capote?
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March 26, 2012 at 11:18 am
lynnbiederstadt
Jasonnnnnn… Yeah. Did. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is amazing in it…and although it moves slowly, the subtlety and depth of the emotional arc fascinates me. Not sure that it’s a movie I’d watch 9,000 times…but it was right for the moment. Have you lost all respect for me, now? 😉
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March 26, 2012 at 11:36 am
jasondegray
Of course not! Just an interesting choice of movie to re-watch. 😀
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March 26, 2012 at 11:19 am
C.B. Wentworth
I’ve never titled my chapters! As a general rule, I tend to prefer untitled chapters in both what I write and read. 🙂
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March 26, 2012 at 11:27 am
lynnbiederstadt
CBW…Explain the thinking. Interested to hear what you feel!
-Lynn
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March 26, 2012 at 11:31 am
C.B. Wentworth
In some cases, chapter titles give away too much. I like to be surprised as a story progresses. Chapter titles foreshadow a bit too much for my taste. In addition, when the titles are listed in the table of contents its like the whole story is laid out before I even read it, which kinda bugs me! I know I’m in the minority on this, but I’ve always been that way. 🙂
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March 26, 2012 at 12:16 pm
Alexander M Zoltai
I’m going the biased route and listing the chapter titles from the book I published back in May:
Splendour, Glory, Beauty, Grandeur, Light, Mercy, Words, Perfection, Names, Might , Will, Knowledge, Power, Speech, Questions, Honour, Sovereignty, Dominion, Loftiness
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March 26, 2012 at 8:06 pm
lynnbiederstadt
AZM…words like his soul, like gems, like exquisite tasty tidbits…I’m so pleased by these…
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