A Bad Title

A good story may be given a bad title by its author, and so started toward failure. Novices are peculiarly liable to this fault, usually through allowing themselves to be too easily satisfied. They go to infinite pains to make the story itself fresh and individual and then cap it with a commonplace phrase that is worse than no title at all. A good title is apt, specific, attractive, new, and short. A title is apt if it is an outgrowth of the plot a text, as I have said. It stands definitely for that particular story and gives a suggestion of what is to come but only a suggestion, lest it should anticipate the denouement and so satisfy the curiosity of the reader too soon.