To name, or not to name? (chapters, that is)

Hi History Hounds
I'm to-ing and fro-ing about this question... To name, or not to name?

On the one hand, I think chapters had names more often a hundred years ago (my writing era), so having chapter names seems rather in keeping with the tone of the novel. Also, I personally quite like named chapters, especially if they're cleverly thought out.
On the other hand, books published these days don't tend to have titles.

(That smilie is supposed to illustrate the two hands theme.)

Do you name your chapters? I don't want to bother about it if an agent is just going to say, "ugh, take out the chapter names."

Thanks for the interesting feedback, everyone

like BarbD, RA and many of the others, I quite enjoy a clever little hint at the beginning of the chapter, in the form of a quote. But it must be clever otherwise there's no point.

I really like your idea of changing known quotes so they are recognisable but apply to the story, BarbD. I find that Jasper Fforde and Terry Pratchett do very good jobs of that (neither of which write in my era, however)

But I agree with your point, Cooee: I have to be careful it's not too obscure, or it will just annoy readers.


I can see how date-tags would be a good idea for historical faction, Puma. I can also see it being helpful for my readers, since all the actions happens in a fairly short period (about five weeks of hard sleuthing by my MC). Maybe if quotes don't work I will go for this.

What I guess I will do, is wait until I have the chapters properly structured, and then see if I can fulfil the requirements of:
1. clever
2. descriptive (but not giving the game away!)
3. non-obscure

If it turns out to be a PITA, like you found, DeleyanLee, I guess I'll just give it a miss.
If I manage to do it, we'll see what my brutally honest betas say!! Sadly, my chapters will be too long to post on AW, so iw on't be able to get critters' feedback on whether the titles work

Thanks, everyone, for your comments! Have a cookie