Stories with summaries as the title

[Nahrenne]

Not bad! It tells the reader what to expect with enough of a question to leave them wanting more, and it has no liabilities that would detract an otherwise-interested reader. It could use a little polish, but I'm sure the same can be said of all of mine.

Yay!
\o/

*huggles you lots and lots*

X

 

[NotaNuffian]

I will be frank, I will only read a story if I have the feel for it and will continue to read it if I like the first chapter.

I don't really give a hoot about your title being detailed or not, if I feel like I like it, I will read the synopsis and then the first chapter.

Also if you put a pretty girl who dresses skimpy, I will click the story and then exit out of shame.

 

[TotallyHuman]

But those can get really fun sometimes? Besides, the title itself sets the format(in my opinion) and the whole feel of the story.

You wouldn't expect a novel called smth like "I reincarnated in a different world but as a Japanese, I can't live without rice, so I opened a rice cafe but why are all these ikemen drooling over me not the rice??? " to be "serious" kinda romance.
Just as you can probably guess what kind of story would be "the supreme Invincible dominating immortal swordsman" right?

(low whisper) though I myself am guilty of giving my stories such stylized names but not delivering on them

 

[Shiver]

Every author chooses their own titles, as they should, but I'll confess I usually skip the synopsis-titley ones.
I'm not against the multi-word titles, one of my favorite is 'He who fights with monsters', but most I just skip.

on the counterargument side, Shift has hit trending a few times this week. So while it's in the minority, shorter titles don't mean less readers.

 

[Riese]

A lot of people still like those though. I prefer my titles simple and has a meaning of course for the story as well.

 

[ConTroll]

"And Here I Was Thinking Of Writing a New Story With A Title As Long As A Paragraph Just To Poke Fun At A Trend"

That is the new title of a book I will never write. Do you think it will be a popular? Oh, btw main character is a brick, for obvious reasons, and his love interest is a used fleshlight.

 

[OvidLemma]

Hey, everybody, keep an eye out for my latest serial:

Help! I Was Reincarnated As a Story Title and This Is Literally The Only Way I Can Communicate

 

[K5Rakitan]

It makes sense if readers want a plot-driven story. My husband likes action and doesn't connect with character-driven stories, so whenever I have more action in one of my chapters, he goes, "Now it's starting to feel like a real story." Naming the story after the plot is great for plot-driven stories, but since mine is character-driven, I name it after my characters.

 

[ConTroll]

In short, I love the "western" type of titles. Yes, my first novel might not exactly follow that style ("I Own a Brothel in Another World"), but it just fit it much better. Like, for my new story I was torn between things like "Tale of the Weakest Summoner", "Rising of the Weakest Summoner", and such. And actually, my first ever story, which is getting pushed back with its release like all the time, also has a more "normal" title - The Fourth Pillar.

I like them short and catchy. And there are a lot of nice titles around SH. Or were. Like Beastborne, Runesmith, The Queen's Hound, and others.

For me," Tale" gives off the essence of a traditional story, while "Rising" gives off the vibe that the story will be centered around struggle and defiance.

In any case, I prefer the former. Just my thoughts.

 

[Saileri]

For me," Tale" gives off the essence of a traditional story, while "Rising" gives off the vibe that the story will be centered around struggle and defiance.

In any case, I prefer the former. Just my thoughts.

Tale could also suggest that the named thing perseveres through the story. It's usually used with more positive words. Tale of the Weakest Summoner could give some people the idea that it will stay weak for the whole story, or most of it. I liked that naming option too, but I finally stopped at Rise.

 

[YuriDoggo]

I like the more summarizing novels when they detail the premise, since it allows quick identification of whether or not it interests me. Only then will I click into the synopsis

 

[shiopan]

Well..... although I think books with a long ass title are kinda lame, I do read them just because... let's be honest, they look more attractive right?

For instance
- Broken Dream
- The Villainess Dreamed of Freedom but Was Taken Away by Step-brother

Both fit the story but the second one is eye-catching and saving your time to actually click and read the synopsis.

P.s. that's a novel that I just read.

 

[YuriDoggo]

I might click Broken Dreams if it made it past my filter/search and had a good cover, but I'd be more likely to click on the latter.

 

[shiopan]

It started in japan apparently because the online Light Novel scene over there is insanely competitive and being directly upfront about what the story is helps get views and a following. The technique doesnt follow over that well in English because you can get the same amount of information across in half the number of characters with those type of runic languages so they look all the more absurdly long in English.

This is actually why twitter doubled the number of latin language characters per tweet to 280, because many asian languages were able to get twice as much information packed in per tweet because their characters are simply more information-dense.

That explains why Koreans don't use this technique. Kanji and chinese characters are more dense in general, while koreans don't even use hanja. You just blew my mind.

 

[tiaf]

I especially hate when they put tags in the title. Like, "blah blah blah(BoysLove18+)"
Like wtf? I dont mind BL stories either. I just think it looks cringey af that way.

The power of the BL tag in the title is omnipotent.

I have a long-ass title and stereotype theme, but people still click on it simply because there is a BL tag.
Quick Transmigration: Rehabilitation of the Slag Male Lead— wordy, I know, but it’s like the fast screen to sort out what is to be expected for the reader.

My other story also has a long-ass title. For short I call it Harem Denial. I could just go with the short title, but I just like the long title cause it’s hilarious and makes people curious.

Personally, I prefer long titles. If it’s remotely catching my attention, only then will I read the summary. They also stick longer in the brain than short one or two word titles. I swear, I even forget my title ideas for stories when they are short

 

[Shiver]

View attachment 4094

I think the poll's math isn't as mathy as I'd nominally expect percentages to be.

 

[Discount_Blade]

Dunno. I find it dumb. To me, if you write the entire story synopsis as the title, I automatically consider the story poorly written because if that's how you need to express what it's about...to me it conveys poor writing skills. I almost never read stories with titles like that. It just doesn't strike me as a good idea. I subconsciously link bad writing with titles like this.

 

[Maple-Leaf]

I subconsciously link them with harems, but some of the stories I like have really long titles so it doesn't usually make much difference. It's the covers that usually matter to me.

 

[tiaf]

I think the poll's math isn't as mathy as I'd nominally expect percentages to be.

I activated multiple choice so it's just the percentage in relation to the overall number of voters.

 

[YuriDoggo]

Another reason I like summary titles is because I like "lighthearted" and casual stories.
Long but simple titles communicate that feeling to me more than 1-3 word "deep" titles. It implies to me that the author won't try to do something revolutionary, try to be too deep, and will generally give me a happy experience.