Being Repetitive?

If the novel is good, the reader won't care if the chapter is titled, "The Hangnail"

To tell you the truth, half the time I don't even read the chapter titles. IMHO having the title similar in that way wouldn't be a bad thing. To me it would give the book a kind of uniformity. But I wouldn't worry too much since the titles could be changed before being published.

EGGammon said:

Readers hate when writers are repetitive. I was thinking about that yesterday as I was going through what I've written so far, and I noticed that while I didn't repeat myself in the chapters, I did however become a little repetitive in the chapter titles. A lot of my chapter titles are: "THE ____________" and fill in the blank with one word. Three of my chapter titles are "The Arrivial," "The Return," & "The Storm." When put together like that, it seems repetitive, right? (the...the...the...) Am I just being overly paranoid or should I think of some better chapter titles?

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I don't think anyone would notice that but you - and if they did, they'd probably think it was deliberate, since lots of writers use that kind of device to provide a sense of continuity. So don't worry about.

EGGammon said:

A lot of my chapter titles are: "THE ____________" and fill in the blank with one word. Three of my chapter titles are "The Arrivial," "The Return," & "The Storm." When put together like that, it seems repetitive, right? (the...the...the...) Am I just being overly paranoid or should I think of some better chapter titles?

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Looking back at a couple of my mss, I rarely use the word "the" in a chapter title. Some of my chapter names are "Blood and Steel", "Dugald", "Absolution" and "Fire and Water".

Then again, sometimes their names are just One, Two, Three, and Four.

Chapter titles

EGGammon said:

Readers hate when writers are repetitive. I was thinking about that yesterday as I was going through what I've written so far, and I noticed that while I didn't repeat myself in the chapters, I did however become a little repetitive in the chapter titles. A lot of my chapter titles are: "THE ____________" and fill in the blank with one word. Three of my chapter titles are "The Arrivial," "The Return," & "The Storm." When put together like that, it seems repetitive, right? (the...the...the...) Am I just being overly paranoid or should I think of some better chapter titles?

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Very few novels I read even have chapter titles, so I wouldn't worry about it.

"Repetition" might not be a bad thing, as far as chapter titles go. It strengthens the theme, if you will, and it's to the point. In mine, I have a series of "Return to ______" and I think they work in the context of the story at that point...

Now, if your repetion is in the prose, it might be ghastly. Frex, if you always open your chapters with the same sentence structure: "Eric came through the door and smoked a cigarette"... "Eric went through the light and turned a corner"... "Eric ran down the street and stopped at the supermarket..."

EGGammon said:

Three of my chapter titles are "The Arrivial," "The Return," & "The Storm." When put together like that, it seems repetitive, right? (the...the...the...) Am I just being overly paranoid or should I think of some better chapter titles?

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You're being overly paranoid. Half the time I don't even notice chapter titles; and I think I would find those nicely iconic and understated--or ominous, or thrilling, or something else that depends on the words _in_ the chapters, that give the titles context and meaning.

Hee. Wouldn't that be flattery, though, having someone be inspired by your writing even in such a humble format?

EGGammon said:

Can editors/publishers change CHAPTER titles? I knew they could change book titles, but I didn't think about chapter titles.

And what about the changing of a book title? If for some reason the publisher doesn't like the title you've given your work, and they want to change it, do they come up with a name, or do they give you some input on it?

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Of course they can. Sometimes they ask, sometimes they don't. It depends on the publishers.

Remember, once you sign the contract and agreed to an advance, you sold your rights to the publisher. They just bought your book and they're paying for it to be published, distributed, etc. They can change anything if they think it would be better for their business. And wait until editing... your words are not "GOLDEN" if the editor insists on changes...

I think that's the part that a lot of writers don't realize or understand.

Changes

EGGammon said:

The key phrase there is "A lot." Not all of my chapter titles start with "The" followed by one word. There are some that are different. But, a lot of them follow that format and I was just worried about repetition. I guess it doesn't really matter.



Can editors/publishers change CHAPTER titles? I knew they could change book titles, but I didn't think about chapter titles.

And what about the changing of a book title? If for some reason the publisher doesn't like the title you've given your work, and they want to change it, do they come up with a name, or do they give you some input on it?

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They can not only change chapter titles, they can, and frequently do, chnage anything and everything in a book. They may well line edit and make changes to hundreds of sentences. EVERYTHING is open for change.

The writer often gets to make suggestions when it comes to titles, but the final decision is almost always up to the publisher.

If you want more control over the final version, you have to get a provision for it written into the contract.

garbage man

EGGammon said:

I'm not surprised. It's not the first thing I'm "overly paranoid" about. Until I got a shredder a year ago, I kept every piece of paper trash that had anything to do with my writing in a trash bag(s, eventually) in a corner of my room, fearing someone (a creative garbage man?) would find it and be inspired by something I wrote.

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From THE WRITER'S PLACE IN MODERN AMERICAN SOCIETY
(With apologies to Doctor Seuss.)

"...I put words on paper all the day through,
I ponder and write cause it's all I can do.
Then I fold paper airplanes when I type out "The End",
Toss them up high into the wild wind.
I don't care where they go, for wherever they're bound,
Once they've gone up, they'll come back to the ground,
Be found by a trash man, a tramp, or a clown,
Curiously unfolded, read with a frown.

A frown, then a smile, then a chuckle, a laugh,
Until he does stumble like a drunken giraffe...."


If I thought there was one chance in twenty that a trashman, a tramp, or a clown would be inspired to write anything by finding an old manuscript, or even a current manuscript, of mine, I'd be leaving them everywhere. Actually, I tend to do just that. They are, without exception, studiously ignored.

i wouldn't worry about the "the". i've read entire books in which each and every chapter was caleed "the ____" it actually works well.


some people jus tpick names haphazardly, and that's okay with me. others choose a gimmick to generate chapter titles, which can also work nicely. for instanc,e FOucault's Pendulum named it's chapters after the sephirot. in Isaac Asimov's mystery, "the robots of dawn," each chapter was named for the character the detective got information from in it. repeats were titled with "again", as in "Gladia" and later "Again Gladia."

in my three current WIPs, one has no chapter titles yet, one names each chapter for a character. (usually justtheir name, but occasionally a title if i need a character ot appear more than once in the titles. for instance, i have chapters "rene," "The black-robed man," and "The returned king." each of these refer to the same character.)

in the third story, the each chapter is named for the protagonists current role in the story. examples include "Warrior," "spy," "travaeler," "traitor," and "saviour."

i wouldn't obsess about chapter titles. using "the" is innocuous. themes are good but unnecessary. for me as a reader, anyway, i find that i don't care what teh chapters are called.

Chapter titles? What are Chapter titles?

Just kidding.

It's just that I don't bother with chapter titles. I usually just go with I, II, III etc.

Who cares? No one ever bought a book or stopped reading one because they liked or didn't like the chapter titles. Some writers [Diana Gabaldon comes to mind] are very clever with theirs--but even so, it's the book that counts.