Way back when, the books I used to read all had chapters with individual titles.
Nowadays, the table of contents is Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc. or even just One, Two, Theee.
Have you notived that change as well? What could be the reason for this evolution? Do you like it?
Personally, I am on the fence. I do enjoy it when a chapter title hints at the upcoming content. I like speculating about what it could mean or how it'll tie into the bigger story. Though I can also see that seeing titles for upcoming chapters in the table of contents could be a little spoiler-y.
On the other hand, Chapter 1, Chapter 2 or One, Two is pretty tidy and neat. Simple and consistent without spoilers. I tend to use this way of chapter titling myself when writing.
Another way that I've seen is character names. Think Game of Thrones, where we follow several characters, and the chapter title is used to indicate who.
I think my favourite deviation from chapter titling is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The chapters there are prime numbers only.
Do you have a preference and if so, why do you prefer that way? Do you know of other inventive ways Chapters have been titled?
by lydocia
4 Comments
I really dislike chapter titles, they always feel like the author is trying to be “clever” but I either find them distracting, annoying, or spoilers…
Making up chapter titltes is hard as hell. I figure they stopped when they realized they could get away with it. Also I think chapter titles are more common in childrens books or YA novels. I could be wrong though.
i found this to be more of a middlegrade/childrens type thing
i do find them in ya/adult books every now and then but it’s not something that i see every time and is mostly something i ignore
I’ve read novels that have fifty or more chapters. Just writing a novel is taxing let alone coming up with clever chapter titles.