What your title’s job is, it has to lure readers into your story – it has to be so compelling that they won’t even have a chance to ask themselves, ‘Will this story interest me?’

Their eyes will glide over title and into story before they realize it. The action will be instant.

What’s a compelling title? It’s one that instantly grabs our attention because it’s…

Intriguing Interesting Catchy Provocative Amusing

Your title may not be all these things but it will have to be at least one. There should be something about it that grabs your readers.

So how do you write compelling titles?

Start by learning from masters.

Learn from those whose articles and stories are published in newspapers, magazines and, in particular, pay close attention how writers of Readers Digest go about it. They have been luring readers into their written material for years. They know their stuff.

Here are a few examples of titles taken from Readers Digest….

•Did I really need to know that?

•Who is Jack Kevorkian, Really?

•Against flames

•Who Killed Margaret Wilson?

It should.

A theme is a one-line explanation of your story.. Every story should have one because our stories are about something.

When I say should, I mean that this isn’t always case. Especially so for beginner writers, who may not know, that theme carries story. Or even those who’ve been writing for years may not be aware of importance of a theme.

And a theme is important.

A theme is what will keep you on track as you write story.

What happens if you write without a theme in mind? Two things…

1.You stray from subject

or

2.You write more than one story.

Let me give you an example of a story written with a theme in mind…

The theme to a story I once wrote was, ‘Vanity Leads To Destruction.’

Very briefly, this story is about a female character that believed herself to be so beautiful, in end she lost everything.

Writing this theme on a post-it note and sticking it on my computer, I was always reminded that my story had to revolve around this theme. Having a theme helped me stick to story I had intended on writing and not stray from it – not even a little. It also helped me to focus only on what was essential to my story.

So according to my theme, ‘Vanity Leads To Destruction’…

•Every action my character performed was to show her vanity

•Her goals sprung from her vanity

•What motivated her was her vanity

•Her words (dialogue) showed her vanity

•How she handled situations showed her vanity