Chapter Titles: Part 2, Naming

     On Friday I posted a blog about chapter numbering, with the promise that I would later bring you chapter naming.  Well never fear, my SpiderReaders, I am here to deliver on said promise!  Today's post is all about what kinds of chapter naming conventions you might use to your advantage.

1.  Before the Name

    Before you even name the chapter itself, ask yourself--is it even a chapter?  Or is it, perhaps, a Stave?  

     For those of you who don't recognize the reference right off the bat, one of the most famous classical English writers was a man by the name of Charles Dickens, and one of his most famous stories is a little number by the name of A Christmas Carol.  

     A Christmas Carol is divided into Staves instead of chapters, because a Stave is the song equivalent of a stanza (which is the poem equivalent of a paragraph) and Charles Dickens was a clever little shit back in the day.

     I ONE HUNDRED PERCENT approve of any efforts you may have to improve upon this model; do you want to have staves?  Verses?  A chorus?  Is your story modeled after a Greek Tragedy?  Why not have a fucking Stasima, Strophe and Anti-Strophe and all!  Does poetry feature heavily in your work?  Divide it into stanzas!  Does theatre feature heavily in your novel?  Divide it into Acts and Scenes!

     Or, if that seems too gimicky or just doesn't fit with your story?  Stick with chapters.  No one will fault you; chapters are the default for a reason.

2.  POV/Place Shifts

     One simple way to name chapters is as a way to announce POV shifts.  Neal Shusterman does this in his series Unwind by naming each chapter after whichever character's head we're in.  It's simple, it doesn't require much energy, and it automatically lets you know whose hands are on the wheel, so you're not fumbling around in the dark or left with POV whiplash.  As a writer, it can also help keep you from sliding into omniscient third person if you're trying to write in limited third.

     If you tend more toward omniscient third and dealing with a large cast, you can do this with groups, too--in my WIP Captive Stars, I use the name of the packs that the characters belong to, which narrows the focus of the chapter and keeps POV switch whiplash to a minimum.

     Or, if your POV is more stable (or less), you could name each chapter using the area in which it takes place (useful for travel stories) or the time/date.  Or you can combine the methods.

     Again; short, simple, straight-forward.

3.  Suit The Mood

     In a light-hearted book, or for light-hearted chapters, sometimes a play on words is in order; in one of my WIPs, I introduced the protagonist, Ben Desdon, in a chapter called "Ben There, Desdon That," because I'm a fucking loser and Ben is the kind of loveable dork-ass that would not only make that pun, but giggle uncontrollably all the while.

     Because I'm an unforgivable swarm of linguistic humor, I take advantage of every opportunity I can to make the chapter titles into jokes; I have lots of fun with it.

     But I'm just as eager to turn a poetic phrase when the chapter is more serious; "Of Mortal Concerns," for instance, is a great title name for a chapter concerning death, or if your books is about immortals, the literal concerns of mortals as compared to those of the Gods.  This technique is great for foreshadowing events to come without being heavy-handed, too.

     Basically, using witty one-liners or quick poetic quips as your chapter heading can help set the mood and get the audience into the mindset you want them in.

4.  Hyper-Descriptive

     And sometimes, much like a textbook chapter heading, you just want a chapter title that'll tell it how it is; Mark Twain was fond of this one, and used it in Tom Sawyer.  It lets the audience know what we're in for, and has the secondary use of letting kids who didn't read the assignment save the tiniest bit of face because at least they can check the chapter heading for a clue!

     This type of chapter heading has pretty much completely gone out of style, but it's an option if you wanted to revive it.  I think it could be of particular use in a first-person narrative, where the protagonist can be assumed to be the one writing the chapter names, or if the narrator is established to be heavily descriptive or overly technical in their writing.

     What's your favorite method for naming chapters?  Are you particularly attached to any one method, or does it depend on the project?  Are there any other methods you like the use?

Chapter Titles: Part 1, Numbering

      Writing is fun.  Or at least it should be!  ...  Most of the time!  But you know what else is fun?  The parts of writing that we don't usually think of as writing.

     But wait, you say!  There's more to writing than just WRITING?  How can it be!?  Well my friend my buddy my palhoncho amigo freundmeister general, I'll tell you!  There's lots of writing to be done outside of your writing--namely, within the structure that's used to categorize the different parts of your novel.  In other words, look to your chapter titles!

1.  Numerology (just not the mystical kind)

     The way that you structure your novel can happen organically, one thing folding out from another, or you could plan it all out from the start.  Personally, I usually just let my novels unfold on their own, then fiddle with them later.  When it comes to chaptering, you can play with a couple different things--the number of chapters you have could carry great significance for the plot or characters, for instance.

     Maybe 19 is a recurring number within your fantasy book, full of great power and mystique, so you structure your book into nineteen chapters, to strengthen the theme, or your book is all about duality, so you make sure that your number of chapters is always a multiple of two.  In one of my shelved WIPs, I ended up with fourteen chapters--one for each level of the twelve-story building the main character lived in (counting the roof and basement, naturally).

     The same thing can be done with Acts/Books/Parts/Whatever You Want To Call Them.  Andrew Hussie split his webcomic Homestuck into seven acts to reflect the creation myth at the center of the story, because as the saying goes, God made the world in seven days.

2.  Structural Integrity

     No, I'm not talking about if we can ride a U-Haul across your chapter title without pitching fifty feet into the candiru-infested waters below, nor am I referring to the structural integrity of your story; just the numbers.  The numbering system, to be exact.

     There are a number of different ways to structure your story; sometimes a simple "Chapter One," "Chapter 2," "Chapter III," etc., (ideally keeping the number system consistent, of course).  But sometimes you need to split things into Books, Parts, Acts; sometimes even that isn't enough, and you need subchapter headings within your chapters.

     You could approach this by having simple headers Placed like you'd see in a textbook or other nonfiction work, or by using what I refer to as the Stephen King method, where you denote chapter numbers using either Arabic numerals or written numbers, then use Roman numerals to denote sub-chapters.

     Or you could switch it up, combine methods--go crazy, as long as it makes sense and it's internally consistent.  Begin each chapter with a letter of the alphabet instead of a number, or with a symbol, upload your own font and use the numbers from your alien conlang if you think it would work.  Just make sure that it's consistent and doesn't detract from the story being told.

3.  To Name Or Not To Name

     Then comes the REAL fun; naming the chapter!

     The first question you'll want to ask yourself is whether or not you want to name the chapters at all.  Does your narrative call for naming, or would it distract from the flow of the actual story?  Sometimes an old-fashioned, "Chapter One" is more than sufficient.  It's like the word "said;" the audience will acknowledge that it's there, but only barely.  It may serve as a place to put a bookmark, but otherwise they'll just pass over it without remark or pause.

     Chapter titles can slow down the narrative, depending on how goofy or drawn-out they are, or they can speed up the heart if it's something short that makes your adrenaline pump, like "Oil Slick" or "Blood Volcano" or "A Bitter Finale."

     If chapter naming isn't for you, then you're pretty much done here; congratulations!  But if you'd like to learn a little bit more about naming chapters, stay tuned for the next piece of the series, where I'll talk about the actual naming conventions you could use to your advantage.