If you don’t have any magazines handy, take a look at: www.amazon.com (in books section.) See what titles are listed there. Or look at your bookshelf.

Compare them to your title.

Is your title compelling?

If you find that it could be better, here’s an effective way that will ensure you find best title for your story…

Read through your story and on a piece of paper jot down sentences and/or words that appealed to you as you read. Jot down as many as you come across – Don’t worry about editing them for now. Just note down all that grabbed you.

Then look at your characters. Is there something special about them, a word you could use in a title that will grab readers’ attention?

Now with list you have gathered, think about what you are saying in your story. Start crossing out words and sentences that aren’t directly relevant to it.

Select a few words and look through a thesaurus for a nicer sounding synonym.

Choose most appropriate group of words for title.

Remember… your title has to be one or a combination of below…

Intriguing Interesting Catchy Provocative Amusing

•The conflict was a result of her vanity

•The highest peak in my story, climax, showed an intense moment of whether her goal would be met (whether her vanity would work for, or against her)

•And ending? The ending showed how she was led to destruction because of her vanity

By following my theme, everything in my story was precise.

If I showed my character not being vain in any instance, then I would’ve strayed from my theme.

Does your story have a theme?

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If you didn’t consciously write with a theme in mind, then your story won’t have one. Chances are, your story isn’t focused. But then again there is other possibility… At times we fluke things.

Perhaps without consciously knowing, a theme is running through your story.

Check your story to see if this is case. If it is, are you sticking to theme?

If you find that some parts of your story are straying from theme, those parts will need to be changed to accommodate theme.

Now other possibility…

You don’t have a theme and none is running through your story. That’s okay. We can still save it. Read through your story and see what it’s about. Then come up with most appropriate theme to it - A theme that makes sense yet won’t mean too much work to change story.

Rewrite those parts that don’t accommodate theme.

It is easier if we come up with a theme while we are at plotting stage. It saves all that rewriting but not to worry… You won’t make same error again in your next story!