The Grasshopper Sunday Edition: Headlines
This is for nonfiction writers, but there is relevance to fiction
Headlines and titles are siren songs designed to lure in readers. I can’t start on a piece without a satisfactory one and a corresponding subhead, in the case of nonfiction.
I know using subheads in the text of a piece is considered necessary by the SEO police but I don’t use them except at the beginning beneath the head. I also know the theory behind that, that online readers skim so you should give them an abbreviated version of the story in your subheads, but I don’t do that and there is a good reason.
I don’t want readers to skim because, for one thing, Medium calculates payouts based on total aggregated read time for a given piece. And I find interior subheads break up the flow I work at when writing a piece.
But a good headline is a must. However, knowing what that means is pretty mysterious. I write one I think will be a grabber and no one buys it, while other ones break out. Because I write about current events, a lot of that is based on how hot the topic is, which means you need to get the right buzzwords in.
I mentioned SEO a few paragraphs back. In case you don’t know, it stands for search engine optimization, an arcane formula for allegedly gaming your rank on Google. I know because I was a digital marketer for twenty years and actually cared about that stuff. Not missing that.
I don’t want my stories to rank on Google because I don’t make any money from non Medium Members reading them. Sounds mercenary, but as I’ve said here before, I think writers should get paid!
Listicles
A listicle is a formulaic approach to headlines that uses the promise of a list that helps you accomplish something, as in those titles like Five Ways to Increase…I don’t use them much but they are big with the self-improvement crowd. But, damn it Jim, I’m a writer, not a side hustler.
Star Trek reference, cute, right?
When I see a listicle with a very high number in it, I stay clear. If it says something like 50 Best Uses For, I suspect it will be nothing but a long list of nothing, often swiped from somewhere else. Garbage writing, in other words.
Ok, enough of that rant.
I’ve written two novels, mostly to prove to myself that I could. And one thing I learned is that I need a title before I start. It may not still have that title by the time it’s done but a working title somehow sets a tone. My first one is called The Rememberers, and it, not coincidentally, deals with the unreliability of memory. And it had that title from day one.
The second one started as Famous Blue Raincoat, a reference to a Leonard Cohen song and there is an old blue raincoat in the first few scenes. But the story deals with a woman reassembling her life after her husband has killed himself by stepping in front of a train, a scene based on an actual event experienced by a friend’s sister, though the entire story beyond that background is invented.
During my research I found that there is railroad slang for when there is an accident that involves a human getting hit by a train, typically fatal. That phrase is ‘Trespass Strike’ and when I read it I knew I had my title. By the way, despite that dark premise, the story is one of personal rebirth and growth.
I’m still waiting for the title of my next novel. It’s proving elusive but I know it’s out there.
I realize that waiting for a title to get something started may be limiting, but that is the way I work, regardless of whether I’m writing fiction or nonfiction. When I first started writing on Medium, I did what many do and I inhaled a lot of advice articles on how to crack the code of that platform.
In hindsight, after publishing well over 800 articles, I can say that none of that advice was useful. It was only after I developed a voice and niche that was my own that I started to get traction and attract followers, which is Medium’s way of building readership.
That early advice included a lot of so-called rules for writing successfully: Keep titles short, don’t write long sentences, keep paragraphs brief, use lots of subheads, etc. Today I ignore all that advice and write the way I want and it seems to be working.
You have to find your own way and there is no secret sauce that guarantees success, other than to stick with it.
We are having an extremely windy gray day as a cold front whips through and the air looks like winter, after a very mild fall. The weather does affect my mood and sometimes my writing. But I have a nice evening planned, cooking for a friend and enjoying a martini.
Sante, M
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