Naming a Novel

When browsing at my local bookstore, notable titles immediately catch my eye. Unique but relatable. Intriguing but understandable. Catchy but not cheesy. Coming up with the right title for my memoir felt impossible at first. How do I capture the essence of my story in only a few words?

A glimpse at my book-naming process...

Novel Title: Stars Can't Shine Without Darkness

My process...

I started by thinking big picture--what are the major themes of my story?

• discovering self-resilience

• unconditional community kindness

• fear of the unknown

• light in darkness

Next, I began zoning in on each chapter--looking specifically at story details that caught my eye immediately. The story that stuck with me the most while reading through my writing was about seeing a child-drawn painting hanging on a hospital wall with the words: Stars can't shine without darkness. For me and my family, seeing this phrase ignited a fire inside of me to fight harder, even though I felt so weak. This pivotal moment embodies my character, the supporting web of compassion, and relates to stars, which not only symbolizes light in darkness, but this use of an element of nature became a recurring theme in my chapter titles.

Chapter Titles:

A lot of my chapter titles focus on elements of nature like the stars, ocean, and water. I like chapter titles to be short, catchy, and lead to curiosity.

A helpful exercise in chapter naming for me was skimming through the chapter briefly, then trying to sum up the chapter in two-three words based on the major words, phrases, or themes that caught my eye.

Sometimes, the chapter name comes before the writing of the chapter... This definitely was the case for a few of the chapters of my book. This is great too, but what I learned is that it is important when writing the chapter to remain focused on the story/themes/chapter content as opposed to trying to match the essence of the chapter to an already-established name. Remember, the chapter name can always change later and sometimes for the better :)