Any thoughts on why or why not to give your chapters names/titles?

Using titles as a hint is okay, though not particularly important either. It does give people a little insight as to where your story is going when chapters exist with hints to future events. I use them this way.

You can't? Hm... Not sure, really - been a while since I posted any new stuff. I do know all my first chapters had a proper title, though. *shrug*

Overall, no special thoughts on titles in general. As Fox said, they can be nice and clever and then again, having them called Chapter# also works just fine. I took to naming my chapters mainly because I really did think certain title would go so well with a certin chapter and then realized that either I name thm all or none at all. As it happens, now I have the story with half of Megadeth's discography all over it. (laugh) But that aside, I can think of another reason for titling your chapters - SOmetimes, chapters are too big. Dunno about the rest of you folks, but more often than not, I find myself writing down 10k+ words oly to realize I covered about a half of the things that should be in the chapter. But then, forcing people to read through 20k+ words all in one go is a wee bit too much (not to mention I can't really churn them out that fast anyway), so I end up breaking chapters in two parts. In that instance, titling your chapters as "Chapter Title - part one" and "Chapter Title - part two" is rather useful.

Actully, you can, it just doesn't show up till you post your second chapter.

~ILHH~

I'm surprised, as I can't find a chapter title field when I want to start a new story. I edit the title later, by going to edit story -- contents/chapters and clicking the edit link behind the chapter.

I usually tend to name my chapters because names are easier to remember when you're trying to remember what event happened in which chapter.

It matters because it's an extra thing I have to do (I don't regard filling in another field when uploading as an extra thing; that can be done in one smooth move). All the other chapters you can name when uploading them. True that the name of the first chapter doesn't show for readers until you've got a second chapter, but that wasn't my point.

Chapter One

The Angel

In which our Hero experience Hope, the Greatest Gift -

The Bacon Sandwich of Regret -Sombre Reflections on

Capital Punishment from the Hangman - Famous Last

Words -Our Hero Dies -Angels, conversations about -

Inadvisability of Misplaced Offers regarding Broomsticks

-An Unexpected Ride -A World Free of Honest Men

-A Man on the Hop -There is Always a Choice

Of course, being a comedy it is used as an advantage to the utmost, constantly setting up things for the reader to expect, only to be shattered, or offering commentaries that are quite humerous with the powers of hindsight. Anyway, I just thought it was a nice little touch worth mentioning.

Normally, though, I don't bother with chapter titles when it's a long project. Shorter ones, I sometimes expend that little bit of extra effort, but in the long run, it can become hard to come up with good titles. I also don't particularly like titles that hint at the events in the chapter, because most of the time it's redundant (not to mention, in the case of a professional writer -- R. A. Salvatore -- it gives away what *does* happen in the least clever and least witty way possible).

mesiers moony

Or, since I'm a great fan of metal, no not the element. I mean music. I tend to use song names as chapter titles and a lot of times the song names fit excellantly to the chapter itself.

I tried to write a Vietnam Novel once with a friend and we used to take two cool sentences out of every chapter and put them together for the chapter title. Those titles described the chapters perfectly but still never gave away anything: 'Now a sex toy with cold metal to the temple', 'A charming listener and a broken heart' or 'Like an unknown page of history to the best of travelling partners'

So yes, I religiously plan and think about my chapter titles. I think they can only add to the interest in a story.

~SirGecko~

I usualy title my chapters for two reasons. First, it is easyer to remember for me and readers what happened in a particular point of the story if anyone wants to go back and re read. Second, to me anyway, it shows that the writer was willing to put that one extera touch and that small extra ammount of work on a story. It gives the impression that the author was willing to work just a little harder and probably truly cares about what they wrote.

although I like to name my chapters... but only when I feel like it.

It seems a little misleading, though, to name a chapter with something that has nothing to do with what happens. It can even ** people off if you do it in excess.

If you listen good to the lyrics in songs, you actually can find a line that revers to your story in some way! I use that when I can't come up with titles ^^

"If I go crazy, then will you still call me Superman? If I'm alive and well, will you be there holding my had? I'll keep you by my side with my superhuman might, Kryptonite!"

Basically, he loves her and would give her the world, but she's poison to him.

Here, I'll send a vid from Thousand Foot Krutch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLqT9nXlDjE

I.e; Arch Enemy, Carcass, Scar Symmetry (these guys especially), Insomnium, Deadlock, Dethklok (haha), etc.

Read the lyrics as well. Vocabulary used in some of these bands for lyrics is incredibly complex and also interest peaking.

I always write my own chapter titles though, they're important.

If I can offer some advice to those who have trouble coming up with titles (which I was initially hesistant to for fear of being accused of stealing): I get a number of awesome titles from T.V. show episodes, quotes, phrases, plays on words, and stuff that just sounds really good. If I use a title from an episode of a T.V. show, then I usually use it for story that isn't anything at all like the episode it was taken from (so I can't be accused of plaigarism).

For example, I have an upcoming story called "Leader Of The Whack", which is the name of a Power Rangers: Dino Thunder episode, but the story I'm writing is completely different from the PR episode. Another title, "New World Disorder", is a play on the saying "new world order", and I saw the phrase "the dominoes of fate and ambition" in a book and liked it enough to use it as a title.

Play on words titles are completely original and no one would accuse you of stealing or being unimaginative. Taking an existing title and giving it to something completely unrelated can be sort of unoriginal, but definitely imaginative. I named one of my fics Joke's on Batman, but there is no joke, it's mostly talking about the Jokerz being in it, but I augmented a well know saying. I named a character Quicksilver, which some of you may know is a superspeedy mutant from the X-Men, but my Quicksilver can turn into this weird liquid metal stuff and has a weakness to electricity. Those are all perfectly legal. Copycat is too much like Marvel's Copycat to look like anything more than a well-made rip-off.

Thanks. :) Actually, I was more concerned about being accused of theivery by using existing tites. I think "Joke's on Batman" works for nearly any Batman fic featuring the Jokerz.

Lol, true, but my character is trying to be the 'new Joker' to the old Batman. He doesn't really know how though, so he does a bad job of it. But he does cause a lot of damage along the way.

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