Do you have a nomination from your story for the best chapter title?
My entry is a chapter that is the main source of timelapse in my story, being a two week skip, at the end of which the character realises how much her outlook has changed recently. The chapter? Time Flies For Birds.
Obviously, this thread only works for people with chapters ;)
So, what's your novel's best chapter title?
----------
75,028 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 11 06
I separate it by chapters, but I haven't actually sat down to make names for all of them yet... 'cause I fail at making titles.
----------My life is saved on the hard drive of my computer!
126,271 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 11 31
I have a chapter named
"All's Well That Ends Well? Or Something Like That"
which has to be one of my more creative chapter titles ever. LOL
71,027 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 11 37
I put 2 or 3 chapter breaks in the beginning (denoted by the word Chapter) but for the last 40,000 words or so I've just been putting breaks between scenes and not making chapters. But for my first novel, I had all the chapter titles be Queen songs, and I made all the chapter content relevant to the title too...
----------=)
Highest Daily Word Count This Year - 10,003 ~ New Record: 11/1/08
Characters in the Story - 16
Days with No Nanoing - 1
Characters Killed - 3
Characters Revived - 1
2008 ~ The Truth About Our Universes
50,125 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 12 25
Not from my nano, but still one of my favorites is: A Few more Reasons not to Trust me with Your Country
----------"God give them wisdom that have it; and those that are fools, let them use their talents." ~The Twelfth Night~
50,169 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 12 30
It's a working title and won't be in the finished version, but my prologue is currently titled :
Gory, Gory; Bedtime Story - Hugh, the Headless Horseman
53,205 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 12 32
Gory, Gory; Bedtime Story - Hugh, the Headless Horseman
lol, thats brilliant
50,057 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 12 40
Right now my favorite chapter title is: Lasagna, and Why It Is Evil
----------2008- Locked Away: WINNER!
51,276 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 12 44
"Gory, Gory; Bedtime Story - Hugh, the Headless Horseman"
I love it! That has my vote for best Chapter title. Kind of reminds me of "Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie" from Calvin & Hobbes.
I have one called "Everybody's talking about Nyborgs, Cyborgs, New Bores and Old Bores, Sideboards, Headboards, this boards, that boards, bores, bores, bores, bores, all we are saying is ...."
It's about a character named Nyborg but mostly I was just THAT pathetically desperate to squeeze a few extra words into my count.
51,795 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 12 54
1st ch: "Maximum Security Banana." The strange thing...it makes sense. Others: "The Jar Aisle," "The Olive Can," The Stain," I probably have more, but i can't remember right now.
----------54,479 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 13 10
Having just eaten lasagne, I vote for this one, and am desperate to know why it is evil!
Tell me now!!
Please?
----------To write and to live are two very different things.
50,740 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 13 53
"Gory, Gory; Bedtime Story - Hugh, the Headless Horseman" easily trumps all of mine, but I'll throw a few out there nonetheless:
An Unimaginable Darkness
You've Already Lost
Not the Way It's Supposed to Be
Alia Iacta Est
I'm not nearly at the end of my story, so I have lots of chapters to go, and I've already decided that I'm totally ripping off The Smashing Pumpkins and calling my last chapter "The End Is the Beginning Is the End."
----------"Friends are just enemies who don't have the guts to kill you."
352,400 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 14 23
Here are some of my favourites from my one story - they are very strange, but they all have to do with what happened in the chapter:
Tomatoes
----------Naked wedding cake
Shrimp and chocolate ice cream pie
Naked string quartet of lesbians
Captain Kirk's glass eyeball
I burnt the jello
Another chapter of things
35,088 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 14 57
I like "Gory, gory, bedtime story - Hugh the headless horseman" as well
here are a few random ones of mine
-The difference between a pencil and a pen
-In the cold, you look so fierce
-We were elemental
-My nihilistic paramour
-To chance on a dragonfly's wings
yes, a couple are influenced by lyrics, but each one corresponds with the chapter quite well
64,473 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 16 41
My fave chapter title so far is:
Give Me A Brake
its the chapter she gets rear ended in a car accident, among other horrible things that have been happening to her
----------Amanda Panda
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2008: Mercury: Sci-Fi/YA: WON! 64,473
67,127 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 17 13
What can I say... I wrote the chapter titles before I wrote the chapters...
Monkeys and Mangos
Squished Tomatoes
Ghost House
Unique Walking Cane
Kill Somebody
hehe... not so creative, but it might add a tiny element of interest to find out how I use each of those phrases in the story.
jade
----------50,037 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 17 15
I'm not really creative with my titles, either. I abreviate all my titles, so when people ask me what my story is called, I just say, "TDR."
But I have one title for a chapter that I really like: "Stealing Is Free, But Your Soul Is Priceless"
55,091 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 17 22
My best chapter title has to be "Spectrum"
When my secondary main realizes that he's insane and has begun to talk to a severed head. He sees views from different "spectrums" of the color and realizes how wronged they've all been by the main character.
Very creepy.
-Apryl
50,154 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 17 42
I only have one chapter so far @ 38K, so I've decided to name it:
Chapter 1: The Super Duper Uncut Director's Cut Special Edition Remastered In Glorious High Definition (Where Available But For The Rest Of You Written In Plain Old Blue Biro)
This chapter is so long that after its finished I'm just calling the next one chapter 4.
50,169 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 18 10
I love it! That has my vote for best Chapter title.
OMG - I never thought so many people would like that title :)
Unfortunately, my novel is Serious Historical Fiction complete with literary pretensions, so that chapter title will have to go. (Although maybe I could re-write the prologue as a stand-alone short story with that title...)
The epilogue is also a Gory Gory Bedtime Story (well, it probably really only deserves one "Gory," seeing as how no one gets decapitated), but the best title I'm come up with so far is "Seventeen Swordsmen and a Cattle Stampede" - just not quite the same cachet to it, is there?
(ETA: "Seventeen Swordsmen Storm the Castle"?... I think that might be a little better...)
52,574 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 17 55
none of mine are great, they're just titles i put in so i could remember what a chapter was about at a glance XD
Haunted
A Conversation With Kay
The Last Village
The Solemn
Kidnapped
Identity
The Red Zone
Termination of Contract
Trust
The Slaver
Lies
Appearances
Detainment
Court
Strangers
Alterior Motives
Melidiah
The Haven
Fragment
The Last Mistake
Good Intentions
The Death of Earth
i have no idea what i will name my next chapter. lol I usually name them just before I write them XD
----------'07 - Tale of The Kihmera (51k words) - Winner!
'08 - Tale of The Kihmera (52k words) - Winner!
50,025 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 18 27
So I have quite a few of the cheap "In which" chapters. But I can't even use them anymore because I started a new story. Only the last one is in my story now:
Chapter One: In which we Discover that a Mongoose is Best Known for its Ability to Poison
Chapter Two: In Which we climb an Airshaft and Find New and Shocking Uses for Butter
Chapter Five In Which There are Pickles, and That is All.
Chapter Three: The Story of the Boy and His Goat
50,049 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 19 00
My chapter titles have gotten increasingly desperate as I fall behind in wordcount:
Chapter six:
I will find a good title eventually
Chapter seven:
I swear my titles are not uncreative
Chapter eight:
Holy carpsicles, the stress of this job is quite demanding. Also, taking a break from the main character and taking a little look at the minors. No, not that kind of minor, the other kind, although the other kind also works. I’ll stop rambling now.
Chapter nine:
Daniel gets a date- Whoops, spoiler! And stuff happens in Almos. That’s really about it, and no, I’m not making this title ridiculously long because I’m trying to increase my word count by using ridiculous gimmicks that have nothing to do with the main plot. No, not at all. Not one bit.
I'm obviously going to change them once I'm done with this story but geez XD
42,064 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 19 07
My first chapter is:
"Chapter 1: Where the story ends"
----------==============
Nope, I don't know what I'm doing.
50,227 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 19 07
Chapter Six : In The Final Desperate Seconds Of Freedom And Normalcy
That would be my best effort so far. Chapter titles are being the first sentence or clause of the chapter, a cunning ploy to wring a few more words out of my rotten novel.
----------NaNo '06 -- 50k
NaNo '07 -- 50k
50,279 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 19 19
Ahhh! Fav chapter title I've ever written is for chapter nine (I'm writing so out of order xD) of my novel. I just made it up like...2 seconds ago:
----------Why Are You Dancing On Your Bed to the Backstreet Boys?
XD. I love the backstreet boys. Apparently so does Matt (One of my MCs) now. (He's 9 at this point. It's like...1999)
Sometimes I say 'Avada Kedavra' when I see people I don't like.
22,010 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 20 42
All of my chapter titles are from Hamlet's "To Be" soliloquy. So far I have:
Prologue: The Coil (in which a character is strangled with piano wire)
----------Chapter One: No Traveler Returns (in which a character is brought back to life)
Chapter Two: A Thousand Natural Shocks (in which the plot thickens)
Chapter Three: There's the Rub (in which the plot thickens some more)
Little by little, one travels far. - Tolkien
2005: A Sea of Six Storms (25,500)
2006: The Death of Destiny (10,765)
2007: This Immortal Coil (15,330)
2008: This Immortal Coil (starting over) (22,010)
50,376 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 21 17
My chapter outline is as follows:
1 Curiosity Killed the Cat
2 Satisfaction Brought It Back
3 Man Or Monster?
Part 1-A Whole New World
Part 2-Silence Is A Man's Best Friend
4 Dancing With Wolves
I have created the sub-chapter. : )
I am proud.
50,002 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 21 44
My chapters are as follows:
Prologue
1-A Surprising Turn of Events
2-New Arrivals
3-Things That Go Bump in the Night
4-Double Tap
5-Unknown Query
6-Close Encounters
7-Pre-flight
8-The First Step to Upset
9-Roark's Drift
10-Deus En Machina
11-Bloody Sheets
12-Conversations
Sadly I believe my chapter titles will only ever be understood by me, too many insider bits there.
50,018 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 21 57
I don't have any amazing chapter titles. The best ones are:
'And God Bless America' to fully appreciate this title, you have to understand that this chapter talks about how America did such lovely things as torture and murder and a near genocide- and got away with it.
'Welcome. Please Leave your Freedom and Rights at the Door.' pretty much self explanatory.
----------2007: Poncho- Unmentionable Failure
2008: Blue Sky- Doing Well!
73,900 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2008 - 22 12
Either chapter 15
Chapter the Fifteenth - This Is One Of Those “Meanwhile” Chapters With Lots Of Random Exposition. Yes, I know. I Hate Them Too, But I’m Bored With Writing From Chaos’s Point Of View And They’re Fun To Write And I’M THE AUTHOR, So Suck It Up.
Or chapter 11
Chapter the Eleventh - In Which The Eighth Chapter Makes A Bit Of A Comeback And Starts The Chapters For The Ethical Treatment Of Numbers, Calendars, Organizer Charts, And Numbered Lists In General Because Really, Honestly, How Could You Lot Get On Without Us Foundation (CETNCOCNLGBRHHCYLGOWUF, For "Short”) And I Have A Brief Fit Of Uncontrollable Laughter, Earning Me A Nasty Look From The Founder Of Said Foundation
----------"Writing is easy. You only need to stare at a blank piece of paper till your forehead bleeds." ~~Douglas Adams
TNÖ