CHAPTER XXXVIII – Going for the Title Bout!

I think we've been in a situation like this before. We're minding our own business when we finally have the burning desire to write the best story that they could ever have gotten. We burn all our free time in writing this story. This is the greatest story that you could ever come up with in your life. The characters are well-written, the tropes are pulled into place, the summary is set, you go to upload it and…wait, what were you going to call this again? Oh yeah, you never named it during the course of your typing. You saved it as " " in your files. In fact, if you could send it in as asdf, you probably would, but you wouldn't be getting many views, huh?

Well, worry no more! Hi, welcome to this guide. Let us look forward and see what kind of names you could give your brand new masterpiece, and try to make it as appealing as possible! Be warned, though: you could go through all of this and still have no idea what to name your creation. Don't worry, this happens a lot. These are only some notes that you might use in order to help you make the title that you very much need~

Well then, here we go!

/= [TITLING THE FANFICTION] =/

KEEP TO YOUR LANGUAGE UNLESS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT – You'd be surprised on how many fanfics have foreign titles in order to draw in the reader. It makes sense if you think about it: this is Hetalia, a franchise where every single character technically has their own language. By writing the title in a specific language, not only do you tell us exactly who our main character is in the story, but where it might end up going. However, you should have at least some form of basic knowledge of the language before you risk this, lest you run the risk of someone who actually speaks the language commenting on just how much you messed up basic grammar in order to be "artistic". Then again, if you are just using one word as your title, I think it should be all right.

A CHARACTER'S NAME COULD BE IN THE TITLE…ONLY IN SPECIFIC CASES – Only main characters should have their names as titles. You should have at least the character whose name share the title be a major if not the major focus of the story. For example, if the main character is England and he's cooking or something, it can be "England's Cooking Hour" or something like that. However, you could have the title named after the antagonist to add even more focus. For example, I made a fanfic a long time ago named "Holy Roman Empire" that was completely focused on how Holy Roman Empire was the enemy, and yet at the same time it was about Germany fully embracing his Holy Rome past. Two characters are in the main conflict, and yet it all focused on the titular character: Holy Roman Empire, in two forms.

Something that Hetalia specifically can play with is that most of the characters have named shared with land masses, so when you put the name of a character in the title, you can also refer to the country instead. So if your title is, say, "The Walls of Berlin", you could either have this as a historical piece about a couple of nations and what they are doing during the Unification of Germany, OR you could have it literally be about Germany opening up his heart to someone. Why? Because it's common headcanon to consider that a nation's heart and soul is their capital city. We are literally breaking down the walls he had put up, figuratively and literally!

*Side note: I should have a chapter about headcanons later*

GRAMMAR GOES A LONG WAY – There is a major difference between the titles "Seven lines" and "Seven Lines", especially at a first glance. A common rule in writing is that the grammar in the title will definitely match the grammar in the story, so a strange looking title will turn off a reader. One should know how to write in a basic level of grammar in their own language, so don't worry about it.

DON'T LIE IN THE TITLE – Common sense, really. A title is the same as a promise between the reader and the creator, so do not do anything that breaks that promise. A simple example would be something like having the title be "Dog" and have the entire story be about goldfish. Though if the joke is that the goldfish is named "dog", you can do that. However, that's the only reason to do that. Otherwise, the reviews will come in feeling very jipped.

IF YOUR TITLE IS A FULL SENTENCE, SHORTEN IT – A title is supposed to be short enough for it to slide into a sentence in a conversation. For example, "oh what are you reading?" "I'm reading Once More", etc. The way I do it is if I type up the title in Microsoft Word and it gets a green outline, that is good. If you must have a sentence as a title, like "This is How it Is", leave out the period.

PERIODS DO NOT BELONG IN TITLES – Exclamation points are good. Question marks are good. Ellipses are good, but only if you have a good reason for it. Dashes? Good. Periods? Nope. Don't belong here.

/= [TITLING THE CHAPTERS] =/

NAME THEM, ACTUALLY – People usually just keep them as the default "Chapter 01", "Chapter 02", etc. However, it will be a little easier for fans to remember what scene they love from your work if you name the chapters. It's a little more hint of love on your work that people will like very much.

KEEP THEM SHORT – Keep this word of thought: the title of the chapters should be shorter than the title of your fanfic. All you should know is that the chapter titles should not be as long as an English translation of a Japanese title (which are always pretty long in general). Summarize the entire chapter listed in front of you in as little words as possible. The chapter title is the summary of the chapter in reading, after all.

KEEP THEM SWEET – Eloquent titles should be on eloquent chapters. Simple titles should be on simple chapters. It will bring a bit of dissonance if I see a flowery, Shakespearian feeling chapter title on a chapter that's as blunt as, say, the stuff that you are reading right now. Consistency is what we're looking for, basically. Don't lie in the title either.

HAVE THE TITLES OBTAIN THEIR OWN THEME – The titles are part of the story, after all! What's really interesting about doing this is that when the titles have their own themes, they can be a perfect way to summarize either the story or the characters in it. For example, the theme of the chapters in this particular fanfic is that they are themed to have "Chapter numbers" on each chapter, as if you are actually reading a book. In "Holy Roman Empire", the chapters began with His something, in order to indicate the emotions Germany would be feeling at the given time in the story. You don't really have to do something like that, but it's a good idea.

This is especially important if you have two or more important POVs in your story. Say your main characters are America and Canada. Instead of having to indicate in the chapter itself that the POVs have switched, you could do it through the chapter titles. I mean, you could just easily go POV – Canada and the whatever, but you can also word the titles so that a certain phrase is associated with those characters, so that the reader can automatically know whose POV is being used. Going back on the America / Canada example, have all the chapters with America's POV bear the phrase "The Hero" and have all the chapters with Canada's POV bear the phrase "The Maple" (I dunno, it's just something from the top of my head). So the first chapter of this new fic, for example could be "The Trials of the Hero", while the following could be "The Maple's Dilemma". After three chapters, the reader will automatically get the naming scheme and adjust expectations.

There are millions of different ways to have a theme running in your titles, but most of you will probably be writing one shots so you don't really have to worry about that. But if someone really wants me to write a chapter about having themes in chapters, let me know and I'll put that on the list.

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Oh hey, another update! Cool! Well, college is a hassle and I've been going more into HetaGaming rather than HetaWriting (lol) but this is just something I wanted to write up :D