Can't decide on a title. Can you help me, please?

Which title do you think is the best?

  • An Education

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Hard Measures

    Votes: 4 28.6%
  • Bad Student Fucks the Super Tutor

    Votes: 3 21.4%
  • The Bad Student

    Votes: 1 7.1%
  • The Best Tutor You’ll Ever Have

    Votes: 2 14.3%
  • The Key to Educational Success

    Votes: 1 7.1%
  • The Tutor in the Teenager’s Lair

    Votes: 2 14.3%
  • To Give Your Bra, and Then . . . ?

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Tutoring Isn’t for Prudes

    Votes: 1 7.1%
  • Unseemly Pleasure(s)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    14

Auden James

Erotist
Joined
Aug 13, 2008
Posts
2,209
(I hope I'm in the right section of this board to post my question. Anyway, I'd be grateful for any advice. Many thanks in advance!)

So, I want to post a story but cannot decide which title to chose. Hence, I thought, it'd be worth a try to take the public route for a change (from brooding by myself) and appeal to you guys and vote on which title would compel you the most to read the given story!

Plus, I'd like to know (since English isn't my 1st language) which one of the following four sentences you'd consider to be superior to the others in terms of intelligibility and style. (By the way, should the brackets be replaced by commas?)

  • XX adjusted her glasses (which she wore purely for optical reasons) and took a deep breath.
  • XX adjusted her glasses (which she wore solely as part of her tutor persona) and took a deep breath.
  • XX adjusted her glasses (which she wore for no ophthalmological reason) and took a deep breath.
  • XX adjusted her glasses (which she wore for decidedly unmedical reasons) and took a deep breath.

I'd greatly appreciate your help in this matter.

Sincerely,
AJ
 
Last edited:
Of the four options - and definitely commas! - the first has a different meaning to the others. Nos 2 & 4 work for me, I suppose, though some explanation could improve it, e.g.:

XX adjusted her glasses, which she wore mainly for the air of professionality they lent her, and took a deep breath.
 
I voted for #3 since I think it would get you the most views. Option #1 is also nice, though it'll get you less views.
 
Hey, thanks so far!

AlinaX, would you be so kind and clarfiy the differing meaning of the first sentence option? I guess, for a native English speaker it might have the sense of 'wore glasses only because she needed to due to her bad eye sight', am I correct?

HeyAll, is it true that the boldest and most pornish titles get the most views?

Greets,
AJ
 
Well, the first one says she wore glasses because she needed to, which seems redundant. The others say she wore them for other reasons.

As for titles... I often avoid stories with titles I consider offensive. (Words like 'whore' and very often 'slut', for example, suggest blatant misogyny.) For my own stories, I like titles that aren't overtly sexual.
 
Re question no. 1: You don't say much about what your story is about, but, if my assumptions based upon the title options are correct, the best choice, by far (especially if you want lots of readers) is Bad Student Fucks the Super Tutor.

On this site, if you are interested in getting readers (I am) make it simple and direct and make sure the title hits the key points the reader is looking for. This will make a BIG difference in terms of how many people read your story. Forget artsy; this isn't the place for it. If you want to see examples of this, look at the stories by author HeyAll. He's a master at this sort of thing and his stories do well.

Re question no.2: I wouldn't choose any of the four. First, use commas, not parentheses. I would write it this way:

XX adjusted her glasses, which she wore solely for effect, and took a deep breath.
 
XX adjusted her glasses, which she wore because she thought that they made her look more intelligent, and took a deep breath.

I try, usually unsuccessfully, to avoid titles that start with 'A' or 'The' because when the stories are listed in alphabetical order it is difficult to find one that intrigues me. Especially when I fancy something of a particular subject.
 
Well, a problem—possibly—could be that the story in question isn't 'pure stroke,' hence readers who click on a story titled "Bad Student Fucks the Super Tutor" where the super tutor in question isn't getting fucked on the first LIT page may be a little disappointed by then . . . so do you think the—probably—higher click count would still be worth the stymied readership?

Anyway, thanks "SimonDoom" for your suggestion of re-shaping the sentence. Would you be okay with me adopting your version for the story?

Greets,
AJ
 
The catchiest title there, having been given no idea what is in the story, would be "Hard Measures," I think. It suggests a double entendre. Some of the other title choices might be too long to be accepted at Literotica. If it's a pure stroke story, some of the cruder versions might be best.
 
Well, a problem—possibly—could be that the story in question isn't 'pure stroke,' hence readers who click on a story titled "Bad Student Fucks the Super Tutor" where the super tutor in question isn't getting fucked on the first LIT page may be a little disappointed by then . . . so do you think the—probably—higher click count would still be worth the stymied readership?

Anyway, thanks "SimonDoom" for your suggestion of re-shaping the sentence. Would you be okay with me adopting your version for the story?

Greets,
AJ

Of course! Glad to be helpful.
 
"Bad Student Fucks the Super Tutor" will probably get you the most views, but it's not exactly a good title...

"Hard Measures" and "Unseemly Pleasure(s)" sound really generic to me, definitely not those.

"The Tutor in the Teenager’s Lair" and "To Give Your Bra, and Then . . . ?" are just clumsy.

"The Best Tutor You’ll Ever Have" is fine.

I voted for "The Bad Student", I also like "An Education"; but those may not necessarily get you the most views, since they don't tell us that much about the story content. Personally, I prefere a nice title over click-bait, views be damned.
 
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