Non shit titles

So you have written a decent chunk of your story. You are about ready to publish but then you take a gander at the name of your document.

Elf ****

Oh, shit. That’s not good! Sure, there is an elf in it and violation certainly is a prominent theme but you can’t possibly publish a story with such a crude name, can you? You should use something like “The Legends of Asthoria” or “The deep fall” or perhaps “Depravity and Ruin.”

Right?

Please slap yourself across the face.

Harder.

Thank you.

Many authors overthink titles. They try to allude to their themes in a subtle and elegant way and bla bla bla...

Reader’s don’t give a shit about that. They want to know what your story is about.

Elf **** perfectly tells them that.

In general, there are two very different ways you can go about it.

Nice and short.

This title immediately gets to the subject at hand. No more then three words AT MOST(two would be better) Readers need to look at that title and immediately go “AHA!” If a reader can’t tell what your story is about from your title you fucked up.

Kill the word “The” It’s useless and garbage and I hate every single letter in it. If your title has the cancer “The” in it perform surgery without anesthetics and you will be amazed how much better off your title is without it. It should have kicked that worthless scumbag out a long time ago.

Needlessly long but tells the basic plot in just the title which is kinda funny because how long it is

This is the light novel approach which got very popular in weeb media so now of course everyone copies it in that creatively dead media. However, it’s hard to argue with the results. The sheer length of it is extremely eye catching and as long as it isn’t more then one line people are unlikely to not read it.

If your plot is really that genius and novel then this might be a good idea. If it’s just a story about Elf **** however, you’re better to stick with just that.