#chapter titles

Cowboy Vampire / Priest Title Ideas

-> feel free to edit as you see fit.

Bloodtrail

Penance

The Devil Rides at Dusk

The Pale Rider

By Moonlight, By Rope

Hell for the Wicked, Home for the Damned

God and the Gun

Saints Don't Bleed

In the Arms of the Damned

Thirst in the Desert

Even the Dust Cries Mercy

The Dead Don't Hang

Crimson Saddle

Whiskey and Blood

The Cross and the Fang

No Salvation for Sinners Like Me

Bitter Is the Night

Ash on a Holy Wind

He Drinks from My Throat, I Pray for His Soul

Heaven Ain't Far, But It Ain't for Us

playlist

I didn't actually expect this to go big but yea hehehe (it's more of my book chapter names tbh) thanks for the ask, anon!

cruel mothers raise wretched daughters

these sunflowers that no longer shine for me

who would ever make the poet's choice

i watched as my life fell apart

we have grown (but still haven't changed)

the stories we tell ourselves

we are the survivors of the world

in case, i don't live forever

never forget who raised you

warning signals before war

Fellow authors - do you use chapter titles? And if so how do you choose them?

For me, every time I sit down to write something, I commit to NOT bothering with chapter titles. Because who cares, except me, right? My first story focused on time, so the chapter titles were how long it had been since a dreaded event in canon. That made sense and grounded the reader in time, all good.

My second story started with just character names and then evolved into two word chapter titles starting with The. Will I admit that my attachment to this structure was entirely so that the last chapter could be called “The End”? No, I will not, and not only because despite the chapter intended to BE the end of a story that spanned multiple fics, it turned out NOT to be the end bc I wrote another after. So no, we won’t be discussing that.

My original fiction did not have titles. I was proud - I DID IT! It was a first draft! To spend time agonizing over chapter titles was stupid. That is, until I sent it to beta. Suddenly I was frantically adding titles to the chapters as I moved the chapters from my word processing software to the document they could read. My efforts, thwarted. But these were one word titles, simple, direct to the point.

And now my latest is below, another pattern no one will notice or care about, but something that clearly is very important to me:

So, a pointless ramble about chapter titles BUT ALSO a request from other authors to share their strategy for naming chapters! What do you do? How does it happen?

And readers - do you even notice them??

(Optional: give me 3 of your best chapter titles that would make the reader think "alright I get the pun" then go "oh shit" once they understand what's going on in there

I'll start:

Son of a dog (just horribly painful)

The illustrating woman (little Ray Bradbury reference :) )

Out of hands (this one is just literal)

My brain this morning: Y’know, maybe having chapter titles would be a neat idea, actually. You could play around with another literary device, build reader interest right out the gate, and a table of contents may actually prove useful since this book will be a brick.