Wriging

Yes and no. Most of the time, titles come to me in a snap. Sometimes though they take a bit of tweaking. It's easy to put down what you wrote about especially when you know what you've written or are about to write.

I usually write my titles first so that I don't get distracted from the main point that I'm making and if it differs slightly, I'll tweak it later on.

The hard part though is making it sound classy. I usually don't bother. Like blogging styles. it's one of those things that you either come up with in an instant or you don't. I wouldn't kill my brain to force myself to come up with cool sounding titles. What matters is that people get the gist of your post from the titles. If you can come up with something cool, then by all means put it down. But it's not the end of the world if you don't.

It's a similar problem with putting titles to photos. I have well over 3,000 photos on Flickr and each one is individually titled. Sometimes mininal titles are used because I think it's funny that it looks like zero effort has gone in to it - so something like 'A Cow' suffices.

Other times, I'll have a photo that I like and will not upload it for a long time because I know it needs a title and I can't think of one - then inspiration will hit and up it goes.

With photos, it's easy to get away with avoiding titles all together. Some people remove titles all together and this is supposed to be an artistic choice, but I secretly think it's a way to avoid choosing! - I've seen people leave the original filename as their title or even rename them all to ".".

With over 3000 photos, coming up with unique titles because increasingly difficult, but when I look back at my very old photos, the titles are stale and boring compared to the more recent ones where I've made more of an effort.

Personally I like mixing it up with short titles, funny titles and bizarre titles that seem to make little sense (but actually do).

Because I then go on to post blog entries and they contain photos that I've already put titles to, then that title is probably easier to arrive at. But it's also true to say that when you're posting photos, people are less interested in the blog post title than looking at the pics! That's no reason not to try though :)

I'm always stuck between businesslike titles that read like a headline and tell you exactly what the post is about (boring), and the more clever ones that often no one understands until they've read it (confusing).

For pix I sometimes do as Dave does and pick something that is simply poetic or popped up in my mind when I took the pic or looked at it afterwards.

Arrington does a great job at titles: professional, to the point and witty. That's great — but that's his job of course ;)

Oh, and while we're on the subject of titles, I really like what Cas from Bright Meadow does with her Sunday Roasts so I hope she'll drop in here and elaborate on that :)

I've never had a problem with titles, not sure if I just don't place importance on them so I breeze through them or if they just come to me naturally. Depending on the site you can see how my titles vary from "what the hell is this entry about" to "it's obvious what this will be about".

Titles come easy for you. So do descriptions. So do entries. IMO it's because it comes easy to you because you know titles are important - just something you don't have to worry about.

I think....

For me titles tend to be an after thought. The beauty of a personal blog is that I don't have to strive for professionalism. My readers have come (I hope!) to appreciate my screwball sense of humour. When I pick a title I try for something vaguely related to the topic at hand, and I like to paraphrase song lyrics or quotes if I can. The exception to this are the academic posts I write. With these I aim for something more informative and succinct that wouldn't look too out of place in a journal.

The Sunday Roasts Nils so kindly mentioned, all start "Sunday Roast:..." so people know what they are getting. In the second half of the title I use a quote or song lyric. They seem random, but actually I always try to tie the quote thematically to the content of the post or from something I've seen/heard/done that week. I have an ongoing game rumbling in the comments where people try to guess where the quote is from or what the connection is. No one has ever got it that I can remember in over three years of weekly roasts, which does lead me to think I am a bit more tangental than I previously thought!

Using quotes and lyrics has an unexpected side effect as well - you would be surprised at the number of people who have landed on Bright Meadow after googling for a lyric.

This weekend I got the chance to meet someone who has been following me for years - when I had my gaming site. No clue who he was (I felt bad about that) but he mentioned how much my writing changed over the years (from the gaming site to now). On the gaming site I never had a problem with titles because I could have "fun" with them. With games you talk smack, curse, etc. so I could do whatever I wanted. With business not so much (I admit I restrained myself in that area).

That doesn't mean I should have caved in and tried to conform. It's like going against the grain. I'm not saying I would curse in my titles (unless I really wanted to lol) but that "polished" style isn't my thing because of the way I view my site. My site is like my virtual home. My house isn't "so" pristine that people feel uncomfortable (like in the magazines - you don't want to sit down and mess it up). My house it more like: come over, sit down, chill out, have some fun, grab some knowledge. I want my site to be the same way. Learn something, explore new ideas but enjoy yourself too.

@Nils:

Arrington does a great job at titles: professional, to the point and witty. That's great — but that's his job of course ;)

Exactly and it hit home how I lost the ability to do what I used to do all the time. Funny how things pop up out of no where and cause something to "click".

@Cas - your titles crack me up sometimes. Like "Once more into the fray" made me wonder "what's she gonna do now?" lol.

@publicenergy - I'd go nuts trying to pick titles for photos. I have so much respect for photographers that upload their photos, have hundreds or thousands - all with titles.

@Kami - I tried writing the title first - something with some umph to it, write my article and realize I can't do "umph" - then I start hacking away to make it "polished" and end up boring myself lol. Writing stopped being fun doing something stupid. The irony? Arrington is the one that really made me see it. Damn it.

Another thing I suck at? Coming up with taglines! Much harder for me than titles but can be just as important.

@Tyme: Haha, Arrington showing you something stupid. Priceless. Hey! That's a neat title too! "Arrington Showed Me Doing Something Stupid"

Yeah I guess you have to go back to writing the post first before the title. By then you already would have some idea of what to write for the title. Why not just keep it simple for now then. Instead of trying to come up with something. Just let the natural juices flow slowly.

Taglines though I can say I'm much better at doing especially since I got to the titles right in my head. I always have a habit to write the title followed by "Or how..." and make it sound like a double entendre.

I think Tyme like blog posts, titles and taglines can afford to just be put down and leave it at that. If we start to nitpick at them, we lose all sense of meaning and ruin a good thing entirely. Not that we shouldn't edit them, but at least stop fiddling around with them too much. Go with the flow, your juices come out better that way.

I can see them being important for business blogs. For me I do them after a post, and they are usually only relevant if you've read the post. But I don't really have to worry about that.

I find making titles up is hard too! I usually just write the basic title, something bluntly telling what the bit was about. It ends up being boring and not attractive, I know I need to work at it! I guess I should let the entry just sit for a while before I decide on a name...

@Kami - yeah I know. Arrington...of all people. :(

@Tyme Good to hear that even posts about chronic depression can have their funny side, which to be fair is what I was aiming for, because every situation needs a light moment.

@katelynjane - I sometimes find the best titles are the ones that come on the spur of the moment without much too much effort put into them. Don't get me wrong, I suck at naming things and frequently spend an age puzzling over the best titles (especially for stories), but the ones that chime most with my readers are often the ones that just flew off the top of my head without any conscious input on my behalf.

Like most of my writing, now I think of it, which is mildly depressing.

@Cas - You have balance on your site. In that entry, your title sets a light tone, you discuss a serious topic, you end on a light tone. The reader is left with the knowledge that you're going to be ok, vs. the blog where people whine, complain, and vent - where something is always wrong. Instead of the "heavier" tone where someone could leave your site depressed the person (in my experience) has a laugh, dives into something serious, towards the end reads nothing is going to stop you from having fun - and that entry proves that. It's inspiring. It's your "style", just like Arrington has his style - it shows in the titles.

Mine reflects "boring" and worse an awkwardness that I was feeling that is apparent to me. I have a problem with that lol. Only because I was trying to conform to what was expect in the business realm instead of being "me" - which usually works out just fine.

I don't think your writing it depressing at all. There was a woman I was subscribe to that I liked personally but her blog was depressing. She used it to vent. Every time she wrote it was because something was wrong. Daily. I noticed I would be having a good day, see she updated her site and would avoid reading her entries because it would bring me down. I ended up quietly unsubscribing. I have no doubt if she is still blogging if I went to her blog today, the first entry would be her complaining about something.

That's depressing. :)

@Tyme - thank you. Those are some really nice things you've just said which have left me with a smile on my face on a day I needed it.

I didn't mean my writing was depressing though. I meant that what was depressing was that the posts (and titles) I didn't agonize over and re-write, were often more popular than the ones I spent hours carefully crafting.

To take your point, I would agree that we all need to be ourselves in our writing. Blogging, even in the business realm, is about personalities. We all have our own unique styles and ways of putting a sentence together; when you try to force a different pattern to the words that isn't true, then readers will sense that and respond, most times unfavourably. There are certain tones and conventions that apply to different genres, like business writing, for sure, but there are ways to get a personal voice across and that's what we all need to strive for.

This message, I hasten to add, is one I have been trying to batter into the heads of my colleagues at work for a couple of corporate websites I'm responsible for, and it is proving to be an uphill struggle. I seem to spend half my time re-writing copy to make it look like a human wrote it instead of a robot. I subscribe to the belief that if you can speak and put a coherent sentence together than you can write, but they seem to think it is an arcane science!