Headline Troubles?

I recently wrote a 2C Blog post for the newspaper I work for. It doesn't actually get posted on a blog, so I have no idea why it's called that, but "2C" comes from Canyon County, our coverage area. The reporters and some editors at the paper rotate who writes the 2C Blog post each week, and they write about whatever they feel like. Usually that means they complain about something they see happening among our readers or they tell the story behind an article. Me, I like to talk a bit about my life. The point is so our readers will get to know the people working at the paper.

Back to my latest 2C post. You can read it here.

Please excuse the headline.

I so didn't want it called "Blame renewed interest in gold prospecting on the sluice box." When I first read that, it went in one ear and out the other. I had to reread slowly to understand what the person who wrote it was trying to say. The headline I had asked for was "I blame it on the sluice box," which is shorter and easier to understand, plus a bit fun considering how I end the article. Also, I do explain what a sluice box is in the article, so the only mildly confusing bit (which wasn't fixed in the new-and-not-improved headline, may I add) was taken care of.

Rant over. I'm going to write a real blog post to give headline and title advice, partially to vent and partially because some people do have troubles with it.

Option 1: Informational

You have multiple options for the type of headline or title you pick. First, as a friend of mine recently reminded me while searching for a title for her book, is that the title tell the reader something about what they are about to read. It needs to be informational. Examples from published books: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The Three Musketeers. Memoirs of a Geisha. Little House on the Prairie.

They don't give away the entire plot, but they give you an idea of what their subject material is. Harry Potter's story is going to involve a mythical stone said to bring immortal youth. There are three people working as musketeers. Someone is a geisha and is going to talk about it. There is a little house in the prairie, which means it's a rural story of some sort.

If you don't want to go informational, go for intriguing. You need to hook a potential consumer's interest somehow, and if you want to hint at your concept instead of your plot, this is a good option. Examples from ... movies this time. Why not. Inception. The Imitation Game. Lucy. Citizenfour. (I honestly don't know what those last two are about).

Option 2: Intriguing

Again, this format usually hints at the concept used to form the central conflict. We get a definition for "inception" early on in that movie, making it make perfect sense (and turning the title into an informational one). As for Imitation Game, (spoiler alert) we find out that there is a bunch of imitation going on: main guy is imitating a straight people, main woman is imitating the men in her life, and they break a coded message by imitating what they already know about the code and expanding that knowledge. The other two, as I said, I have no idea. I'd have to watch to find out, which is the point.

When you want to write a headline for a newspaper, you have to go informative. But you can also go for fun or funny. Today is Idaho Gives day, and I suggested at a staff meeting that we use the hammer (half headline, the big words that jump at you on the front page) "Idaho gave." The reason for the suggestion is the twist on words. Journalists love to do that, and the same concept can be used in blog posts, content articles, magazine articles, poetry titles and probably even longer works. Examples from newspapers, because they're easier to hunt down than blog post titles:

 

Each of these gets the information across (if someone is already familiar with the situation), making them good informational headlines without making them boring. That draws in a reader if you can't come up with an informative headline that is interesting.

Interest is, after all, the point of a title or headline. It is used to make people want to read about it, whether that means you entice them with subject matter, with curiosity or with a joke.

Sidenote: Sometimes a poem's title can be used as the first line, so the poem actually starts at the title and the first stanza is actually the second. Just mentioning that in case you felt like experimenting a bit. Put that in the poetry-breaks-rules filing cabinet in your mind.