Chapter Titles Question

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KPfeif

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*Keeping my font at a readable size for all you naysayers :tongue*

Question: There's a format for structuring chapter titles that I know Stephen King uses to begin at least two of his novellas (Little Sisters of Eluria and Low Men in Yellow Coats) in which the chapter is introduced and rather than a single title it has multiple titles breaking down the chapter.

Ex, from my WIP:

"Chapter One
That's High School . The Math Teacher . Visions of an Unconscious Mind . Jennifer Christabel .

My question isn't so much whether I should use this, because really, why not? I'm wondering what you call this and if anyone else has applied it. I'd just like to refer to the format more properly than my sketchy explanation.

Any thoughts?
 

JoNightshade

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I believe it's an antiquated style from... oh heck, I dunno, the 1800's or something. Chapters would be listed at the beginning of the book, all together, and it would say something like "Chapter Two: In which Sammy gets a new book, finds his ball, and runs away."

I've only seen it used in cases where the author is aiming for this effect-- to make it feel antiquated or old-fashioned.
 

OverTheHills&FarAway

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Check out the some of the titles of chapters from The Pickwick Papers. Utterly hilarious!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pickwick_Papers#Chapters


  • In which is given a faithful portraiture of two distinguished persons and an accurate description of a public breakfast in their house and grounds, which public breakfast leads to the recognition of an old acquaintance and the commencement of another chapter
  • Too full of adventure to be briefly described
  • Showing that an attack of rheumatism, in some cases, acts as a quickener to inventive genius
 

KPfeif

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Check out the some of the titles of chapters from The Pickwick Papers. Utterly hilarious!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pickwick_Papers#Chapters


  • In which is given a faithful portraiture of two distinguished persons and an accurate description of a public breakfast in their house and grounds, which public breakfast leads to the recognition of an old acquaintance and the commencement of another chapter
  • Too full of adventure to be briefly described
  • Showing that an attack of rheumatism, in some cases, acts as a quickener to inventive genius

:roll: Best chapter titles ever!!

On the other note though, Neither Little Sisters nor Low Men are aiming for a particularly antique feel. Low Men is a study of the sixties and Little Sisters is part of the Dark Tower series...huh.

But I am a fan though. It doesn't give a lot away. It peppers the imagination and you may think it gives something away, but it's quite easy to be misleading.
 

OverTheHills&FarAway

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I fully intended to go the long, descriptive chapter title route. And mine was in no way intended to feel antiquated. YA, ya know?

Came up with some good ones, too. Too bad the story works better without chapter titles.

But I'd say go for it. Doesn't have to recall Victorian literature, if you don't want it to. I'm sure there are other modern titles with them.

King Dork is one that comes to mind. YA. Chock-full of pop culture references. Not really Victorian.
 

Esopha

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Mm, I toyed with the idea of 'in which' chapter titles.

'In which Rosemary decides that the world's gone wonky.' 'In which there is an identity crisis.' 'In which it is proven that the entirety of the book is pointless.'

...maybe not.
 

KPfeif

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Hm. Winnie the Pooh is similar in like the above mentioned elaborate titles (as I saw on Amazon, at least) where it's like:

Chapter Three in which pooh wanders around and tries to find some honey

whereas mine and King's are more along the lines of

3. Pooh wandering . Stuck in the tree . Honey .
 

KPfeif

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I don't title my chapters: I never have. It's hard enough to come up with a title for a novel, let alone fifteen to twenty sub-titles so I have something for the chapters.

I agree! Sorta. Labeling them like this makes it so much easier than picking one title for the whole chapter though. If I had to do that, I probably would delete the title altogether rather than try to pick one of the three or four or five. Though granted, some chapters only ended up with one of the many titles simply because there was only one thing happening.
 

~grace~

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As a YA example, Patricia C. Wrede did the "In Which..." thing with her Enchanted Forest Chronicles.

Sometimes brilliant chapter titles come to me and I write them down, but there are other chapters that I can't come up with anything, so I'm probably going to end up title-less.
 

Azraelsbane

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I don't title my chapters: I never have. It's hard enough to come up with a title for a novel, let alone fifteen to twenty sub-titles so I have something for the chapters.

When I first started writing my fantasy series I had beautiful, in depth titles for all the chapters...

Yeah, I axed them all. LoL. I got about halfway through book 1 and thought "Why am I wasting my time? Half the people won't get it, and I'm taking up valuable story space on the page."

Not that I'm against titles. I still title my chapters in my head, but I don't stick them in the MS. :D
 

JoNightshade

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I wrote this novella when I was about 15 and I headed each chapter with a latin quotation. Then I included a cheat sheet at the end with all of the translations so you could share in all my witty references.

Is anyone else ever overcome by their stupidity as a child? Honestly, remembering some of the idiotic stuff I did is really painful. :)
 

Shady Lane

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I wrote this novella when I was about 15 and I headed each chapter with a latin quotation. Then I included a cheat sheet at the end with all of the translations so you could share in all my witty references.

Is anyone else ever overcome by their stupidity as a child? Honestly, remembering some of the idiotic stuff I did is really painful. :)

I got published when I was fifteen.

Today's overwhelming snarikness brought to you by Shady Lane.
 

JoNightshade

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I got published when I was fifteen.

Today's overwhelming snarikness brought to you by Shady Lane.

I got published (short story) when I was 16, so NYAH!

Just wait until you're 25 and you realize how embarrassed you are of your first publication. ;)
 

~grace~

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I'm 15 at heart. Which makes me 15 on the inside and legal to drink on the outside. Yeah, I'm pretty much awesome.
 

OverTheHills&FarAway

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Yeah, I had a short story published at fifteen.

Six years later, I wish I hadn't....

...and all my relatives own copies, too.
 

reenkam

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I got published when I was fifteen.

Today's overwhelming snarikness brought to you by Shady Lane.

I don't remember being 15......and it was only 4 years ago. *sigh*
 

amber_grosjean

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You have chapters, then you have sections in the chapter. The chapter is used as a whole where the sections break down the chapter to devote to one paticular topic. Indivually, you need to be able to move the story along, no matter if it is done through sections or just chapters without the sections.

You don't necesarily need title names but if you want to, find a one to three word phrase that fits the area the best. You don't want to use sentences but just a few words like you would the title of the book.

Amber
 

JanDarby

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Terry Pratchett, who frequently doesn't even break his stories into chapters, let alone give them titles, did this sort of title/sub-title thing in Going Postal.

It's just another tool, and its usage depends on the effect you're trying to create. Sometimes they're used to give an old-fashioned feel to the work. Didn't Susannah Clarke do it in her pseudo-history of magic?

Pratchett does comedy, and the titles worked really well for that, b/c they sound kinda' serious ("Stanley's little moment" or "Our hero dies"), but they're never quite what they seem to promise, and then they provoke another laugh later on, when the reader figures out what the titles referred to.

Oh, and the other thing -- only the most devoted reader is going to even notice the titles, so consider whether they add something to the story, sufficient to justify the time it takes to develop them.
JD
 

KPfeif

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I listed them for no particular reason. Like I said, I never used them before...I thought it was kind of neat that I felt so compelled to do so this time. They're so corny!

I have that same feeling! I think, as writers, we're always itching to share what we wrote, get feedback, have people like the story. So chapter titles are like a perfect breakdown of the story and you just yearn to tell it!

...At least...that's how I feel....lol.
 

maxmordon

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The funniest parody of using this system I think it is in the Spanish VXIII Century Novel: Fray Gerundio de Campazas by José Francisco de Isla. These are the names of the chapters:

I.I: Fatherland, birth and first education of Friar Gerund
I.II: In which, without ending the promise above, is about something entirely different
I.III: Where what it was promised in the first chapter is proceeded
I.IV: Promise Done
I.V: About the whole nonsense he learned at the School on Villaornate
I.VI: In Which the Fifth Chapter become the Sixth because it was too long
I.VII: He studies Grammatic with a gentleman, that as far is understood, could not get marry without consence of the limped schoolteacher of Villaornate
I.VIII: Gerund finishes school having become in a horrendous latin
I:IX:In which is explained the right reason that had Gerund to not finish Grammatical school yet, as he said he did in the last chapter
I.X: In which he explains himself

II.I: In which concluded his novicity passes to study Arts
II.II: In which Frair Gerund passes to study his Philosophy whithout understanding any word of it
II.III: About the deep and doctus reasoning that an ex province priest of the order did to the elder preacher of the house where Gerund studied arts
II.IV: About the mockery of the elder preacher about the reasoning of the ex province priest and what happened later to Friar Gerund
II.V: About a very beneficial conversation that Friar Gerund had with one of the locals landlords if only Gerund had knew how to take advantage of it
II:VI: In which the former chapter is divided because it resulted to be longer of what it was originally planned and its given account of the promised conversation
II.VII: After getting tired to talk the local landlord takes out his box, take a powder from it, sneezes, cleans his nose and continues the conversation
II.VIII: Friar Gerund predicts his first sermon at the refectory of the convent, a really hilarous salutation fits on him and abandon his studies
II.IX: About the several happenings at the community about the funny salutation and talents of our Gerund, and how he prevail to become a preacher
II.X: About what the curious reader will see if he read it

III.I: About a hellish confusion made by the devil to end up with Friar Gerund
III.II: Frair Blás and Frair Gerund goes to a walk, the ridiculous rules for preaching whom he gave him with all his five senses
III.III: Master Prudencio reads the santa orosia sermon; gives an admirable instruction to Friar Gerund but he uselessly breaks his head
III.IV: The farmer comes in to dinner; the conversation is interrupted and then continued about the tablecloth
III.V: Where Fray Gerund debuts as saturday morning preacher with a sermon about disciplinants
III.VI: Where is talked the large variety of human judgements and is confirmed the example of our Saturday morning preacher that there is no fatuity that his protectors doesn't have

IV.I: Where what going to be here is written and what the curious reader will see
IV.II: Frair Gerund reads a paper about style and becomes bewildered
IV.III: Frair Gerund preaches instead and stuns the people
IV.IV: Where is shown some reasons to admire the sermon that Fr. Gerund said
IV.V: Whatever happened to the table of Antón Zotes
IV.VI: About the conversation, not less useful than funny, that ocurred during the meal
IV.VII: Woken up of his nap the magistrate and continues the coversation of the former chapter, with everything else that comes up
IV.VIII: Cutted gets the string and the rage of the magistrate for an unexpected guest, really hilarious part to the point that Antón Zotes house got lowered

V.I: A honored sermon he is encharged, and does't get spat, like everything else we will go saying
V.II: Asked Fr. Gerund to his friend Fr. Blás instruction for the honored sermon, and he gives a divine one
V.III: Iterrupts the coversation a guest that shows from nowhere, go back to tie the string with everything else that is going to come up
V.IV: Forgetting Don Casimiro his thirst; they arrive to Campazas without knowing how, staying there the student for the night, and the topic that wasn't promised in the former chapter gets dissmissed

V.V: Fr. Gerund arranges his sermon and goes out to preach

V.VI: Fr. Gerund gets applauded because of his sermon, and puts in charge Pero Rubio for the easters

V.VII: The same that the other one

V.VIII: Four clergymen goes to a walk; the father abott, in conversation tone, gives Gerund an admirable doctrine

V.IX: It's good stuff and deserves to ger read it

VI.I: In which is something about that is unkown but will be known while it is read it

VI.II: The landlord sneezes; gets interrupted the conversation with the dominus tecum and cleans his nose after he says "live for a thousand of years"

VI.III: Fr. Gerund arranges his week

VI.IV: Interrupted gets the work because of the strangest thing that happened to the author that may ot may not be record on the sawdust of history
 
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