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| Work in progress... titles and all! |
The comic novel I'm writing - The UnDead Residents Association - does have chapter titles at the moment. I always liked the idea and it has helped me navigate around the story as I have written it (I think a lot of writers do this - see the NANOWRIMO forum on this) Does it help the reader too?
My titles are relevant to the story: Grave Undertakings, A Spell in the Library, The Stakeout and I even thought I might use bits of relevant local authority jargon as subtitles to the chapter titles ( 'post-preventative measures' 'co-terminus stakeholder agreement' etc)... or maybe just use a bit of that sort of thing as subtitles to the (un-named) three parts the book is also divided into.
There's an interesting view on the subject in the Gotham Writers Workshop which says chapter titles can add layers of meaning, like Quoyle's knots in The Shipping Forecast... kind of what I was going for with the jargon subtitles. And Nathan Blansford's many followers gave titles a general thumbs up too - though it might be different for kids' books.
But I already have 40 chapters, but because I use various points of view, they don't all have a new chapter, just extra spaces with a *** between. Maybe they should all have new chapters? But then there might be too many too reasonably have titles for.
Help!! What do YOU think?
i like titles to chapters. they can add an ironic commentary or be an in joke. One of the books that made the biggest impression on me was "Something Happened" by Phillip Roth has the first line or part of it as the chapter heading which can focus you on the first line...
ReplyDeleteHmmm... that's an interesting one. Even if I don't use it now, I might put it behind my ear for later...
DeleteI like them if they're there, but if they're not, I don't really notice. I think there has to be a real purpose to them if you're going to use them?
ReplyDeleteThey have a purpose for me... but that could all just be in my head... then again so is everything else! 8-/
DeleteWhat Fran said
ReplyDeleteThere are rules?? Some novels don't even have chapters. Tristram Shandy has an Author's Preface on page 174. Thomas Pynchon's V. has narrative chapter titles laid out in the shape of a letter V, which get shorter as the novel progresses and the quest develops. From the bit you showed me a few months ago, titles feel right in your case.
ReplyDelete(Oh, and Something Happened's by Joseph Heller, BTW)
I could do something whacky too... and get extra publicity as an example in blog posts like this! 8-) thanks for the encouragement Tim!
DeleteI have to say that I generally don't notice chapter titles or numbers. However, from a purely practical point of view, they do really help if you lose your place in a novel ..... You can quickly find out where you are up to.
ReplyDeleteWhy do I feel like I should have been more philosophical?!!
Yes! That's exactly why I have titles in the draft! And I just remembered... I do look at chapter headings if there are any when considering whether to read a book as it gives a flavour of things to come. Which means they would have to be good ones..... hmm *goes back to drawing board... and also EEEEEK... work!*
DeleteA Kurt Vonnegut novel i read (can't recall which one) had chapter titles which consisted of a brief description of what was going to happen in that chapter ... that was quite helpful;-)
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing
martine
Lol - good old KV! I remember the frontspiece in one of his novels said something like: 'No names have been changed to protect the innocent as it is assumed God in his wisdom will do that as part of his heavenly routine'... or something.
DeleteThanks for visiting! 8-)