Good and Bad Story Titles

[NuclearFairy]

I think my worst title is probably The Moon's Daughter. It really fits the story, and I'm not sure what else I would've named it, but going off of several of the favorites list it was put on, it seems a lot of people mistakenly think from that title that it's an incest story when it's not.

My best title is probably Lunacy on Set. It has werewolves, and happens on a filming set and the description makes it clear that there will be one girl and two wolves. I could've been clearer with a couple more words but I still think it's my best title.

 

[NotWise]

Not surprisingly, this topic has come up before, and there are several How To articles on the subject. There are opposing points of view.

Earlier threads have convinced me that I am terrible at titles. My catalog is full of examples of what not to do. I've had a number of learning experiences, but I have a problem with knowing when to apply the many lessons.

How you should title a story varies from category to category. If your story is in EC or I/T, where you struggle to get eyes, your title needs to grab the attention of someone scanning the New list, and it needs to convey information about the sexual content of the story. It can be salacious. If you were to publish the same story in a different context, then you would probably want to use a different title.

Escape from Cimarron, for instance, might be a good title outside of Lit, but in I/T it does nothing for you.

I'm sure you could assign different guidelines to different categories. If your story is in Romance, then maybe you should avoid salacious titles. Stories in Mature might need to convey whether the story is an age gap story or a November/November story. I have no experience in LW, but it seems like an obvious case where it could be important for the title to convey the story content to the readers. In categories with a narrow focus (Anal, Toys and Masturbation for instance) maybe you don't need to convey a lot of information in the title.

The title is sometimes presented with the short description. In other cases you see the title, but not the short description. You can't always depend on the short description being there as a guide to readers, and you shouldn't use the short description as a subtitle unless the title can stand alone. For instance I combined the title Her Bodyguard and the short description and his dirty Valentine and I thought they worked very well together, but then they aren't always displayed together, so my cleverness was wasted.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I don't disagree. But when it comes to setting reader expectations these are pretty effective. Not just in terms of plot -- as they are just mini plot summaries -- but in terms of what the stories are trying to do. I would guess that stories titled like this are essentially just porn scenes. If you want to see a football player fucking a florist, you're in the right place. If you want them to learn something essential about what it means to be human, you're probably not.

I agree completely. That's why I said that our views will likely be very subjective.

What personally puts me off about the title A Football Player Fucks A Florist is:

1. Tastes vary, but for the life of me, I can't see anything particularly erotic or attractive about these two professions. Why they had to be emphasized and appear in the title I have no idea.

2. The title implies bluntness and even vulgarity of the story. I know I am unlikely to find subtlety, depth, character development, and any other things I find important in a story.
Such a story may even be well written, but it's still likely to be about some one-dimensional John and some one-dimensional Jane, doing it among the flowers or maybe in the football field, the end.

I am well aware that a number of readers are looking for exactly that kind of story, maybe even a good number of readers, so in that sense, the title might be useful, but from my point of view, it's as bad as it gets.

 

[ScrappyPaperDoodler]

My titles are generally awful, with the exception of "Airtight Aunt." Two words and it tells you exactly what to expect.

 

[Erozetta]

I'd personally go with Florist Caught in an Offside Trap.

...

Wait, which football are we talking about exactly?

Hand egg is what I had in mind.

 

[Bazzle]

A bit ago I was chatting to @Bazzle about his story Wife Watches On. We were both surprised, and a little disappointed, that it wasn't rated higher. It's the kind of setup that voyeur readers tend to love, in my experience.

But we decided after some discussion that the word "Wife" in the title probably brought in some readers who were expecting some cheating or cuckqueening. And there's none of that, so presumably those readers expressed their disappointment by voting low.

If I had used "She watches on" or "For her viewing only" or something, I am sure it would have been better!

 

[dirk2024]

s is a series title followed by "Ch. #".

My series "Lifestyle Ch ##: ____" was a mistake. Although it says "this is about a "lifestyle" and the rest of the title alludes to swingers, I've come to realize by my own story reading selections that I don't want to click on "Series Ch 10: ___", because I haven't read the first nine chapters and I don't want to spend the time going through older stories to catch up.

Huh. If I find a story and its been judged as HOT by readers, and its labeled ch 10, I figure that the odds are good there will be nine more hot stories somewhere. So I pull up that author and check out ch 1 of that collection. If I enjoy that, I have nine more stories to read.

 

[Lifestyle66]

Huh. If I find a story and its been judged as HOT by readers, and its labeled ch 10, I figure that the odds are good there will be nine more hot stories somewhere. So I pull up that author and check out ch 1 of that collection. If I enjoy that, I have nine more stories to read.

That probably depends on the category you frequent.

In Loving Wives, that's rarely the case. One Red-H for Ch 10 probably means the bitch was finally burned to the haters' satisfaction. And I don't need to go back to see how those stories evolve.

 

[Erozetta]

If I had used "She watches on" or "For her viewing only" or something, I am sure it would have been better!

Possibly.

Other factors like day of the week, placement on both the new and category new lists, and mood of readers on that specific day can play into it as well.

Sometimes a good story just falls through the cracks to no fault of the author. The only way to truly gauge that would be to release the same story with different titles on the same day in the same category under the same username and back to back on both the new and category new list. And that won't fly.

 

[Bazzle]

Possibly.

Other factors like day of the week, placement on both the new and category new lists, and mood of readers on that specific day can play into it as well.

Sometimes a good story just falls through the cracks to no fault of the author. The only way to truly gauge that would be to release the same story with different titles on the same day in the same category under the same username and back to back on both the new and category new list. And that won't fly.

Nah, I've had over 100 votes, which is A LOT for me...
4.49....

It's a blinking good story (in my opinion!)

 

[Erozetta]

Nah, I've had over 100 votes, which is A LOT for me...
4.49....

It's a blinking good story (in my opinion!)

So out of 100 votes 49 likely voted 5 and an unknown number of 4-1s exist, but there are clearly more 5/4/3 votes than 1/2 votes, which means more people liked it than didn't. I wouldn't call that a failure of a story by any means.

 

[Bazzle]

So out of 100 votes 49 likely voted 5 and an unknown number of 4-1s exist, but there are clearly more 5/4/3 votes than 1/2 votes, which means more people liked it than didn't. I wouldn't call that a failure of a story by any means.

I know... but I think it is better than 4.49...

It's been edited, so it's actually readable.

It's been beta read.

It's good.

But I think the 'wife' sets the wrong expectations of plot.

 

[Erozetta]

I know... but I think it is better than 4.49...

It's been edited, so it's actually readable.

It's been beta read.

It's good.

But I think the 'wife' sets the wrong expectations of plot.

That's certainly possible.

As to whether it's more deserving of over a 4.5, quality of a story doesn't always correlate to score. It can, but we aren't being voted on by literary critics looking for style, form, and function only. We are being voted on by readers who will dock you a point because they wanted x to happen instead of y, or because you wrote arse instead of ass. Which is their right, but that doesn't indicate the writing quality of the story.

I have a fair few comments that are essentially "This is well written, but I don't like it." Which is fair enough and I can't and won't argue with that. Hell, I had one story where the comment was "style and grammar wise it's a 5, but because of the age gap being the same as me and my wife, I'm giving you a 3." Like, dude, really? But again, fair enough, at least he told me why I got docked points, lol. (Oh, and I would've apparently won points back if brother and sister had fucked.)

 

[THBGato]

For me, the best titles give clues as to content but don't give the game away. Even better if once you've read the story the title makes sense in a whole new way.

Best example I can think of off the top of my head is careythomas' A Ghost of a Chance, where the title has a double meaning that becomes clear as you read. It hints that this will be an unlikely relationship with a potential supernatural element, but is ambiguous enough not to plot spoil (in my view).

Also, shout out to @TheRedChamber for The Demonization of Humberstone Rd, which is just brilliant and whose title also works in (at least) two ways.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I think that we can collectively agree that my titles for stories on this site suck. Six of them have one-word titles.

But you know what? Every one of them is a hit with the readers (Red H) that found them and my votes-to-view ratio is higher than the average here.

The title choices here are intentional because it helps me differentiate their publication on Literotica versus on other sites where they might get posted, such as Goodreads, Wattpad, Draft2Digital, Amazon, Smashwords, etc.

Name (Category)
1990 (Novels and Novellas)
Before They Were Stars - Addie Andrews (Celebrities)
Before They Were Stars - Amy and Ali (Celebrities)
Before They Were Stars - Angie Harmon (Celebrities)
Before They Were Stars - Deborah Norville (Celebrities)
Before They Were Stars - Michelle Pfeiffer (Celebrities)
Before They Were Stars - Scarlet Red (Celebrities)
Betting on the Aces (Novels and Novellas)
Change (Novels and Novellas)
Courtship by Proxy (Novels and Novellas)
Elements (Novels and Novellas)
Family Fornication Contest (Incest/Taboo)
Heavy Traffic (Novels and Novellas)
His Daddy's Car (Novels and Novellas)
Justice (Novels and Novellas)
Little Differences (Novels and Novellas)
Made (Romance)
Murky Water (Novels and Novellas)
No Names Necessary (Erotic Couplings)
One Friday in February (Loving Wives)
Our Love Saga (Romance)
Putting the Lit into Literotica (How To)
Remote Miscommunications (Romance)
Searching (Novels and Novellas)
The Voice in my Head (Loving Wives)
Trish's Tush (Incest/Taboo)
Uncle Sugar Daddy: Eloise (Incest/Taboo)
Uncle Sugar Daddy: Luna (Incest/Taboo)
Uncle Sugar Daddy: Terra (Incest/Taboo)

 

[NC_Coastal]

Titles take me back to my newspaper days when the refrain to disgruntled readers was "I don't write the headlines." That's probably why I suck at titles.

 

[Writer61]

I think that we can collectively agree that my titles for stories on this site suck. Six of them have one-word titles.

But you know what? Every one of them is a hit with the readers (Red H) that found them and my votes-to-view ratio is higher than the average here.

The title choices here are intentional because it helps me differentiate their publication on Literotica versus on other sites where they might get posted, such as Goodreads, Wattpad, Draft2Digital, Amazon, Smashwords, etc.

Name (Category)
1990 (Novels and Novellas)
Before They Were Stars - Addie Andrews (Celebrities)
Before They Were Stars - Amy and Ali (Celebrities)
Before They Were Stars - Angie Harmon (Celebrities)
Before They Were Stars - Deborah Norville (Celebrities)
Before They Were Stars - Michelle Pfeiffer (Celebrities)
Before They Were Stars - Scarlet Red (Celebrities)
Betting on the Aces (Novels and Novellas)
Change (Novels and Novellas)
Courtship by Proxy (Novels and Novellas)
Elements (Novels and Novellas)
Family Fornication Contest (Incest/Taboo)
Heavy Traffic (Novels and Novellas)
His Daddy's Car (Novels and Novellas)
Justice (Novels and Novellas)
Little Differences (Novels and Novellas)
Made (Romance)
Murky Water (Novels and Novellas)
No Names Necessary (Erotic Couplings)
One Friday in February (Loving Wives)
Our Love Saga (Romance)
Putting the Lit into Literotica (How To)
Remote Miscommunications (Romance)
Searching (Novels and Novellas)
The Voice in my Head (Loving Wives)
Trish's Tush (Incest/Taboo)
Uncle Sugar Daddy: Eloise (Incest/Taboo)
Uncle Sugar Daddy: Luna (Incest/Taboo)
Uncle Sugar Daddy: Terra (Incest/Taboo)

I suspect that longer works attract higher scores.

If somebody keeps reading something, they must be enjoying it. If they bail, will they skip to the end to give a low vote?

 

[NuclearFairy]

If they bail, will they skip to the end to give a low vote?

If the reason they're bailing is because it upset them sufficiently to feel the need to vote low, then yeah they'll skip to the end and vote.

 

[iwatchus]

I suspect that longer works attract higher scores.

If somebody keeps reading something, they must be enjoying it. If they bail, will they skip to the end to give a low vote?

I always felt that some of my stories got better ratings than they deserved for exactly this phenomenon -- most of the readers got bored before the end of the store.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

What seems like an eternity ago, there was a movie title thing like 'I Was A Teenage Werewolf'. I have no idea how many there were.

Sooo .....


I Was A Nerd's Hired Plaything

I was a Live Nude Mannequin

 

[MK_Whimsy]

One thing I can say with certainty about titles is that I am terrible at coming up with them. It's like, I've just described this lengthy scene, now I need to actually call it something. It's hard!

Normally what I aim for with titles is to have them encapsulate and allude to the story's premise in some way without overtly explaining what happens. Importantly, I don't want the title to be a summary. Sometimes there is just not a clear way to achieve this, so I end up with an underwhelming or unhelpful title that I hope is made up for via the summary. In any case, no, I am not happy with all of my titles and realize many could be better.

Regarding my own story titles, I think "Sphinx and Mouse" is pretty good. It is short and sweet, and sets the tone appropriately. "Bound Futility" is functional--it's just okay (this did enable me to call a similarly-themed story "Bound Company" though). On the other hand, "Scale Servicing" is an I-don't-know-what-else-to-call-it title, and I will concede that "Interruption" and "Rectification" don't really tell the reader anything useful.

Regarding "The Pull," I'm on the fence about this one. It has a pony play theme and pulling is referred to in various ways in the story, though it also sounds a little broad and ambiguous. Basically, I think this title could fit a number of different stories with widely varying and unrelated themes, which makes it a less appealing choice. But it's not terrible either.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

I've also been making some plays on old titles from movies and TV

In the 50s or 60s, Disney put out a hilarious but touching story of a cougar cub raised at a logging camp, 'Charley The Lonesome Cougar.' I used 'Charli, The Poolside Cougar'.

'How I met Your Mother' became 'How I Married My Sister.'

'Fun With Dick and Jane' is used as a subtitle for Aunt Nancy.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Titles are tough. I want to be artistic and clever but I also want people's attention. So I tend to err towards the provocative. Especially with my stories on Amazon or Smashwords. Fucking my Mother in Law gets more hits than Pretty Please.

 

[SkyBubble]

I was checking out some new stories today, and it struck me that some of us maybe don't place enough importance on story titles.

Unlike the stuff we publish on Amazon, Smashwords, and elsewhere, our Lit stories don't have any cover. There is no image or art that could grab the attention of a potential reader. Having that in mind, I'd say that story titles potentially play an important role in attracting readers, especially those casual ones who are unlikely to engage in extensive browsing and tag-checking of story lists.
This is doubly important when we take into account the sheer number of new daily stories.

What do you consider a good title, and what do you think is a bad story title? I understand this is likely to be subjective, so I am curious to hear your takes. I'll share a few examples.

For me, a good title is one that subtly hints at what the story is about, contains some clever word-play, or sounds intriguing enough.

I'll give an example from today's story list: The Way She Moves - Lesbian Sex Category. It's a chaptered story, and while it's not something I would personally consider reading due to its (short) length, the title sounds intriguing enough to me. A quick skim through the story (and tags) tells me it's a story about a ballerina, so the title is both intriguing and cleverly hints at what the story is about.
I find that I really like this title, even if I won't actually read the story.



Bad titles.
Heh. I won't give any actual story titles as I don't want to shame any author, so I'll just give a few general examples.

A Football Player Fucks A Florist
Sex With My Neighbor

While these titles give some information about the plot, I find they lack in every other department.


Another type of titles I dislike are titles that contain the name of characters only. Say a story named Emily, or a story named John. Naming a story Emily and John, while a bit better since it does at least hint at heterosexual content, still pretty much sucks. From the standpoint of the reader, these are just some random names. They don't really convey much. There is no intrigue in them, unless it's some exotic name, but even then it's a weak title, in my view.

Again, I realize this is all subjective so I'm looking forward to see your examples.

I admit that I often try to be clever with my titles.

 

[Trionyx]

Another type of titles I dislike are titles that contain the name of characters only. Say a story named Emily, or a story named John. Naming a story Emily and John, while a bit better since it does at least hint at heterosexual content, still pretty much sucks. From the standpoint of the reader, these are just some random names. They don't really convey much. There is no intrigue in them, unless it's some exotic name, but even then it's a weak title, in my view.

I would agree with this but including names in a title can be helpful to avoid duplicate titles and create some interest. I reviewed my list and I've included a name in some 20 out of 75 titles. Amy's Night Away, Shivering Sarah and Bill, We Need to Talk all use names but, IMO, create some intrigue.