5 Title Writing Strategies

And why you should spend time on titles

I made this image in Canva and feel like the typewriter sort of has eyes?

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I used to not spend a lot of time working on the titles for the pieces I wrote. I almost always wrote titles as a last step in the writing process and figured an editor could work with me on the title if a piece was accepted.

But I’ve come full circle to working harder on titles, and I think it’s a good practice.

Why titles are important

They can make a difference between someone reading your piece or not

I think this is even more true in the current attention economy, where your words have to compete with so many other things. I realize this in my own reading habits now. I subscribe to a lot of newsletters and Substacks — more than I ever have time to read. So what often gets me to read a piece (either in my inbox or on social media) is the title.

There are some exceptions to this (writers I read regardless because I enjoy their work), but it’s more often that I am not reading everything, and I assume this is true for my pieces too.

If you do not write a good title, one will be assigned to you

In mainstream publications, editors often write titles for your pieces, and those titles often reflect the voice of the publication, which may not be your writing voice.

After having some titles put on personal essay pieces that I did not love, I started trying to get better at writing titles. This is not a guarantee that the title won’t get changed, but I have had editors use the same basic title I proposed. For humor, I also think a good title can help it reach a wider audience and help make it clear that the piece is humor or satire.

For more literary pubs, my experience has been that titles can have more variation/be more artistic than “clickable,” however, I would also argue that literary pieces with engaging titles can help a piece reach more readers — I think The Commuter on Electric Lit is one literary pub that often runs pieces with intriguing titles.

5 Title Writing Strategies

Even though I know title writing is important, I still find that titles can be hard to write. But these are different strategies I use.

1. Read the publication and mimic existing titles

For both mainstream publications and humor publications, I try to scan the titles of the places I’m submitting to and write a title in the same style. For example, titles for essays on Business Insider are typically pretty long (often two sentences), and they often state the main points of the article. So I would mimic that style in the pitch.

I’ve heard more than one editor say that it’s a good practice to include one (or more) potential headlines for a piece in your pitch, and that if you can’t formulate a good headline in the style of that pub, then you may not have a good pitch. I think this exercise can help you distill what your piece is actually about too.

Also, it may help you realize that the pub is not right for your piece. Sometimes when I scan titles of a pub, I realize that that pub is probably not a good fit for my writing or the piece I want to pitch.

Once you’ve got your title, it’s good practice to use it as the subject line in a pitch. I’ve heard more than one editor recommend this because it can help the piece stand out in a crowded inbox and help them see the piece on their publication.

I also have thought of making a document for myself with a list of title “types” I see on publications I frequently submit to, so that I can go through it when I’m trying to come up with a title. Alas, time has not allowed for me to do that yet, but maybe it will for you?

2. Think about what types of titles get you to read a piece

Whether you are writing on Substack or for other publications, I think it’s useful to pay attention to what titles are engaging enough for you to want to read the piece. If you find titles that speak to you, then pay attention to what they are doing that makes you want to read. Is it because it is answering a question you are trying to solve? Is it because the headline was relatable or made you laugh?

3. Pull a line from the piece to use as the title

If you are stuck on what to use and you have a completed piece, sometimes you can use a line from the piece as the title. I think this can work particularly well for some literary pieces and humor pieces.

4. Brainstorm titles before drafting

I now sometimes brainstorm titles for a humor piece or essay before I actually write it. This doesn’t always work, as sometimes I need to write a draft to figure out what I want to focus on, but I think it can also help you to focus on a piece from the start. So brainstorming titles for humor pieces or essays can be a good first step.

5. Write a lot of titles

For humor pieces, I frequently brainstorm several different titles and often ask people I trade feedback with which title they prefer. For essays and Substack posts, I also usually brainstorm different titles. I wrote a few different options for this post and am not sure I landed on the exact best one, but I think the process of thinking through options is helpful. I know that Substack also allows you to A/B test titles/subject lines — something I have not tried out yet, but could see being good.

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A few final things:

• Tips request: I am thinking of doing a future post focused specifically on writing “Fake News” Titles. If you have published headlines in places like The Onion, Reductress, or Hard Times and might want to contribute to it, reply to this email or reach out here to let me know.

• Do you have other strategies that work for writing titles? Feel free to share them in the comments.

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Thanks for reading Humor Me, a newsletter featuring funny stuff and writing tips. In case you’re new here, I’m a humor writer and freelancer whose work has appeared in New Yorker Shouts, McSweeney’s, Real Simple, and more. Find out more about me at julievick.com.

Any typos in this newsletter are a result of the text being written by a human and not AI.

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