Titles, Titles, Titles

Strong Titles: The following are examples of the ten ways to tighten titles. Inclusion on this list does not indicate the literary worth of the work named, simply a strong title in and of itself. If you think of others that should be on this list, let me know. I'll be happy to include them.

Alliteration
Golfing with God (Roland Merullo)
Breakfast with Buddha (Roland Merullo)
Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
Sense and Sensibility (Jane Austen)
Repenting of Religion (Greg Boyd)

Animals
Bird by Bird (Anne Lamott)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Mark Haddon)
The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
Frog Trouble (Sandra Boynton)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (Mark Twain)

“Catchy” Phrases
Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins)
Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)

Character names
A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
Arrowsmith (Sinclair Lewis) 
Henry VIII (Wm. Shakespeare) 
Richard II (Wm. Shakespeare) 
King John (Wm. Shakespeare)
The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? (Edward Albee)
Anansi Boys (Neil Gaiman)
The Heidi Chronicles (Wendy Wasserstein)
The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
Amadeus (Peter Shaffer)

Contrast and Irony
The Agony and the Ecstasy (Irving Stone)
Just My Type: A Book About Fonts (Simon Garfield)

Events
11/22/63 (Stephen King)
Woodstock (movie)
“Sunday Bloody Sunday” (song by U2)

Length
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (Paul Zindel)
Doubt (John Patrick Shanley)
Proof (David Auburn)

Numbers
Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)
Once (movie)
1776 (David McCullough
1984 (George Orwell)
1493 (Charles C. Mann)

Objects/People
Les Miserables (Victor Hugo)
The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
The Shack (William P. Young)
The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Sarah Ruhl)

Sexy Sounding
The Rape of Lucrece (Wm. Shakespeare)
The Naked Lunch (William S. Burroughs)



Weak Titles: Again, note, that the work itself may be of stellar quality, but I assert that the title is at best weak. Objections? Others that should be included here? Again Let me know.

Lunch with Buddha (Roland Merullo) 
Nine Stories (J. D. Salinger)
Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins)
Hawaii (James Michener)
Animal Farm (George Orwell)
2012 (movie)
Wuthereing Heights (Emily Bronte)
Art (Yasmina Riza)
W;t (Margaret Edson)
Hedda Gabler (Henrik Ibsen)
Anything with a number after it to indicate sequence in a series (Anchorman 2, Godfathehr 2, Fast and Furious 6)
Just plain blah (Escape Plan, Delivery Man, Captain Phillips, Her, All Is Lost, Beyond Outrage)


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