Answering a question: "How do..."

Question: How do you think of such wonderful chapter titles? Does it take you a long time?


Asked by: Tessa Faith at WittyWriter


Chapter titles are always the most difficult because I feel they need to be appropriate for everything that occurs in the chapter.  It is rare for me to name chapters before I finish a chapter, and as of recently I can't think of when I did name a chapter before I finished it first.
Coming up with chapter titles can take anywhere from 2-15 minutes, depending on what the chapter was on and what I can think of.  Sometimes I have to look through lyrics of songs to find inspiration, and then I take those words and change them to fit within the context.  Other times it's simply picking out the most significant words a character said in the chapter and using those as the title.  Then there is of course just one word titles, but those are often the most difficult.  One word for a whole chapter... It is not very easy.
Songs that have become influential for what titles the chapter has been anything from Avenged Sevenfold to Christina Perri to Thousand Foot Krutch to HURTS.  I listen to a variety of music while writing Cursed with Power, and often I try to find songs with a deep meaning and mood to properly set the context. 
I do spend a lot of time with coming up with chapter titles.  Probably more time then most would bother, but I feel the title of the chapter is just as important as everything within the chapter.  That is why I work hard toward making the titles interesting --if that be possible--because I hope it can intrigue the reader more.

Great question; glad someone finally asked.

"There's a lot that I want." He said. He smirked as he said it like he knew he was pushing my patience.