How To Choose Unique Story Titles

Choosing a title for your fiction story can be daunting to say the least. The title is what represents your story, helps draw people in, and is often the first impression readers get. So, titling your book properly is your chance to entice people to read your work.

They say not to judge a book by its cover, and although good advice, humans tend to make assumptions based on what we see at first glance. Not only will people judge your book by its cover, they will also judge it by its title. If the title is too generic, boring, or bland, most people will probably pass it over.

Not to worry, though, because I am sharing my top three tips for choosing unique story titles for your novel. Let’s take a look!

Unique Story Titles

Choose Original Ideas

Original story titles are not easy to come up with, but it is well worth the effort. But, with millions and millions of books, how do you come up with an original title?

Titles that are too simple and common can be overused and create confusion and competition with other stories of the same name (i.e., one-word titles, common words and phrases). Instead, titles with uncommon words and unique character names can set your book apart. This can be a delicate balance, though, as titles that are too unique may be hard to remember.

Original Titles

unique character names (think Harry Potter)
words that aren’t normally used together (i.e., singing trees, icy desert)

Unoriginal Titles

one word
common words and phrases (blue sky, green grass)

If you have a title idea that contains a common word, try finding a more uncommon synonym. For example, you want to title your story The Sad Race, but a more unique title could be The Desolate Race. Not only is that more original, but it also evokes more emotion.

And yes, there are plenty of famous stories with one-word titles and common words, but these are the exception, not the rule. The more generic your story title is, the more difficult it will be to garner attention. If you title your story something simple like Blue Sky, you can imagine how hard it would be to get that to show up on the first page of Google.

Give Insight

Unique story titles should also offer some sort of insight into the story. Titles that don’t give any indication of the type of story don’t grab attention because people read it and are unsure what it’s about so they skip it. Try bringing in clues to your story’s genre, characters, hints at plot, etc.

Giving insight doesn’t have to be specific either; and, it doesn’t have to encompass all aspects of the story. However, the title should offer information on the story’s characters, plot, theme, or genre. For example, Star Wars: A New Hope suggests a science-fiction story.

A good idea is to look for the obscure aspects of your story and build a title from that. This can offer less-common information about your story and create a more unique title.

Easy to Remember

Titles that are hard to remember or hard to spell may cause issues. If a reader loves your story and is telling a friend about it, but can’t think of the name, loses you a potential reader. I know easy-to-remember titles would suggest common words and short phrases and that conflicts with the first tip. However, this is the tricky part: finding a unique title that is also memorable.

Character names can be unique, but may be difficult for readers to remember. Common words can be easy to remember but they are often over-used. You will need to brainstorm. Write down every possible title you can think of. For each option, try to imagine different versions. Let go of the titles that are too common, aren’t relevant, and are hard to remember. With what’s left, you can narrow down your title options.