10 TIPS ON HOW TO TITLE YOUR HORROR STORY BY DEBORAH SHELDON

11/3/2022

10 Tips on How to Title Your Horror Story
by
Deborah Sheldon

My latest collection, Liminal Spaces: Horror Stories, comprises 24 works including novelettes, short stories and flash fiction. Naturally, each work required a title. Coming up with a title that suits your story can be daunting. However, since I’ve faced this dilemma over and over again throughout the years, I have techniques that make the process easier.

One thing to remember before we begin: your story’s chances of publication do not depend on its title! I’ve edited the award-winning Midnight Echo 14 magazine and my own anthology Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies, and I can assure you that a title didn’t influence my decision on whether to shortlist a story. Not convinced? Neil Clarke of the renowned Clarkesworld magazine states, “I don’t even pay attention to the title until I’ve decided to purchase a story.” (You can read his post on titles here: http://neil-clarke.com/the-truth-about-short-story-titles/) Believe me now? Try to relax, and think of the title as your chance to have a bit of fun.

And the following tips might help.

Don’t feel constrained by genre

Just because your story falls under the horror umbrella doesn’t mean you must have a horrifying title. If I’ve written a body-horror story, I’ll often choose a bland or innocuous title for contrast. “The Sand” includes gruesome deaths and dismemberment, but you’d never know from the title. Let go of the false belief that grisly stories need grisly titles. This will allow you to explore many different kinds of inspiration.

Think about your title’s purpose

To catch attention? Shock? Misdirect? Set the mood? Spending a few minutes mulling over your title’s purpose is a useful first step. What would you like your title to achieve? For example, drabbles are micro-stories of exactly 100 words. Since the title isn’t included in the word count, it provides an opportunity to enhance the reader’s understanding of the story. My title “Mourning Coffee” is a play on words that serves three functions: to indicate the time of day, touch upon the plot of death, and suggest an atmosphere.

Pull a line from the text

By far, this is the fastest and easiest way to find an apt title. Simply scan the text and look for a word or phrase that jumps out. For my story about monstrous tumours, the title “Hair and Teeth” captures the plot, mood and genre in one swoop, and comes from a line of dialogue.

Spotlight the inciting incident

What event kicked off your story’s plot? Isolating this key event will help you brainstorm titles. In my flash fiction piece “Cast Down”, a galley ship is rammed by an enemy craft and sinks. The inciting incident – that of getting ‘cast down’ into the sea – is the inspiration for the title, which also reflects the narrator’s state of mind.

Use who, what and where

Look at your story through the eyes of a newspaper journalist. Some examples from Liminal Spaces in which I used this technique include: WHO in “Molly, Dearest Molly”; WHAT in “The Stairwell”; and WHERE in “A Small Village in Crete”. Concrete titles are memorable and effective.

Focus on your story’s theme

My novelette Hand to Mouth is about a prosthetic arm, domestic violence, fear of poverty, and lies. The title quite literally addresses all four themes at once: a hand that is robotic, a slap across the mouth, the threat of living ‘hand to mouth’, and the habit of subconsciously touching the lips while being deceitful. Consider what your story is about from a thematic point of view.

Wax poetic

Look to adages. My title “For Weirdless Days and Weary Nights” is from a Scottish rhyme about fairies, back when these creatures were considered malevolent. “The Sea Will Have” is from a 19th-century superstition common to sailors – what the sea wants, the sea will have – which meant that death by drowning was decided by fate. However, do an internet search first to avoid played-out phrases. Shakespeare texts, for example, have been thoroughly pillaged and you might find your chosen snippet has been used too often for your liking.

Be mysterious

Choose a title that makes sense only within the story’s context. Think of this as an ‘Easter Egg’ that offers an unexpected reveal to the reader who pays enough attention. My novelette Barralang, pop. 63 is clearly about a small town, yes, but the significance of the title only makes sense upon reading. (And now I’ve spoiled my own Easter Egg… How else to explain this technique?)

Apply alliteration

See what I did there? (Ooh, bad joke.) Using words that start with the same letter can offer a catchy title with a rhythm. The title of my sci-fi story “Carbon Copy Consumables” stands out because of the triple hard-C repetition. I also used alliteration for the title of this article. One caveat: don’t push alliteration too far or it will come off as annoying or sarcastic – unless, of course, you want your title to suggest an annoying and sarcastic story.

When the title comes first

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how sometimes the title occurs, in a flash of inspiration, before the story. While rambling around the web, I discovered the ophthalmological condition ‘asteroid hyalosis’ and was struck by how much an affected eye resembles the night sky. The title came to me instantly – “All the Stars in Her Eyes” – but it took some pondering to find the story. My advice if a title occurs to you? Make a note of the title and wait. In time, the story idea will rise from your subconscious and demand to be written.

AUTHOR BIO
Deborah Sheldon is an award-winning author from Melbourne, Australia. She writes short stories, novellas and novels across the darker spectrum of horror, crime and noir. Her award-nominated titles include the novels Body Farm Z, Contrition and Devil Dragon; the novella Thylacines; and the collection Figments and Fragments: Dark Stories.

Her collection Perfect Little Stitches and Other Stories won the Australian Shadows ‘Best Collected Work’ Award, was shortlisted for an Aurealis Award and longlisted for a Bram Stoker. Deb’s short fiction has appeared in many well-respected magazines such as Aurealis, Midnight Echo, Andromeda Spaceways, and Dimension6. Her fiction has also been shortlisted for numerous Australian Shadows Awards and Aurealis Awards, and included in various ‘best of’ anthologies such as Year's Best Hardcore Horror.

As editor of the 2019 edition of Midnight Echo, Deb won the Australian Shadows ‘Best Edited Work’ Award. Her anthology Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies was a flagship 2021 title for IFWG Publishing Australia.

Deb’s other credits include TV scripts such as NEIGHBOURS, feature articles for Australian, US and UK magazines, non-fiction books (Reed Books, Random House), stage plays, and award-winning medical writing.

Visit her at
http://deborahsheldon.wordpress.com

LIMINAL SPACES: HORROR STORIES

“Sheldon has an uncanny gift for unnerving imagery and story.” – Aurealis Magazine

Transitions occur in a liminal space. The familiar is gone. The unknown lies ahead and with it, terrible possibilities. Award-winning author Deborah Sheldon explores liminal spaces in this collection of dark, unsettling fiction. Her characters teeter on frightening thresholds with no way back.
Liminal Spaces includes Sheldon’s award-nominated tales “For Weirdless Days and Weary Nights”, “All the Stars in Her Eyes” and Barralang, Pop. 63, plus original and unpublished fiction.

Release date: 1 March 2022 in most regions; 1 June 2022 in North America.

LIMINAL SPACES: HORROR STORIES – AMAZON UK (EBOOK)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Liminal-Spaces-Stories-Deborah-Sheldon-ebook/dp/B09SXKWM8Z

LIMINAL SPACES: HORROR STORIES – BOOK DEPOSITORY (PAPERBACK)
https://www.bookdepository.com/Liminal-Spaces-Horror-Stories-Deborah-Sheldon/9781925956993

Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B0035MWQ98