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Titles, and the use of the 'Ø' letter

Orange_Flaaffy

Jello Pokéballs
Titles, and the use of the 'Ø' letter

Since we have not talked about titles in a while I thought I would post a topic about it for everyone to share there views in. In you opinion what makes a good title for a story? How do you feel about one word titles?
Also, I was wondering about the use of the 'Ø' letter in titles lately, is that just meant to catch the readers eye? Is it spoken differently than a normal 'o'?
I'm just asking, because it seems like it is the new 'in' thing to do or something :p
*hee* Evolution Øf Fable...Nope, it does'nt fit well to me ;)
 
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PDL

disenchanted
To be somewhat honest, using special characters in place of regular characters just for asthetics actually annoys the hell out of me.

EDIT: According to Wikipeida, 'Ø' is a vowel letter used in Danish, Faroese and Norwegian alphabets.
 
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Kiyohime

Well-Known Member
The Ø symbolizes the mathematical zero, or cipher. Leastways, that's what I was taught.

I used the cipher instead of the zero because it's part of the story plot, but if it annoys the hell out of people...ahaha, it's just a letter. o_o;; It doesn't bite or anything. It also was the original. D:<
 

Orange_Flaaffy

Jello Pokéballs
To be somewhat honest, using special characters in place of regular characters just for asthetics actually annoys the hell out of me.

EDIT: According to Wikipeida, 'Ø' is a vowel letter used in Danish, Faroese and Norwegian alphabets.
I agree :)
I looked that up to and I think the sound of 'Ø' would not fit in place of a normal 'o' sound :p
 

Shuko

Pippi! Pi!
Eh, the only oddball letter I use in my titles and stories is the "é" letter. :p And that's only because that syllable in Pokémon is stressed (or at least it is in the Japanese language). :p

I personally don't mind what someone does to their title for aesthetic purposes. I mean, I don't read a whole lot of Pokéfictions as it is, but those that I do read are either because it was requested so by a friend, or because the title itself sounded intriguing. The characters mean very little; it's the idea behind them that sticks with me. :p Besides, too many of those things can render your title unreadable. xD I say, if you want to use funny characters like that, do it sparingly, and only do it where you think it means the most. ;)
 
How do you even get 'Ø' on your post besides copy and pasting it?
 

Orange_Flaaffy

Jello Pokéballs
Eh, the only oddball letter I use in my titles and stories is the "é" letter. :p And that's only because that syllable in Pokémon is stressed (or at least it is in the Japanese language). :p
I like when someone takes the extra time to put the 'é' character in Pokémon in stories. Even channels like Cartoon Network and ads for the new games seem to be saying pokEmon more and more...It's nice to know the 'pokémon' way of saying it is not totally forgotten by fans...
 

Knightblazer

Memories in the Rain
'Ø' to me means like what Madame Scrap said; null, zero, na-da, nothing and so on and so forth. I use it because the meaning of it actually sorta ties with the final fantasy of Midian: Nothing. Yes, you heard me right. Nothing is the basis of Midian, story-wise, with sweet ol' insanity coming in second. :3 And well... coz' the letter rocks my socks too. ><; It just appeals to me. X.X And it IS just a letter; it ain't gonna bite ya, y'know. O.O;

What makes a good title...? Well, it must be catchy somewhat, and also have a meaning, no matter how miniscule it may be, or a hidden agenda. It could even mean a characterziation of one of your characters. ^^; I personally don't mind the chapter titles, but there are a few which leave an impression on me. 'Renegade Strife', 'Heart Of Dream', 'Soldier of Fortune' and 'Prognosis Antiquity' are a few of them. ^^ Usually I like chapter titles which are one to three words long, though there are longer ones which really amaze me though. ><; One word titles are hard at times, coz' you can only use a word to express the chapter, and that's pretty hard.

Knightblazer ;262;
 

Negrek

Lost but Seeking
A good title both says something about the story in a concise fashion and is intriguing, something that will catch the reader's eye. It's very difficult to come up with a title that serves both purposes adequately, but when you do, it's a very cool experience thing--not only should it attract more readers to your 'fic, but it will feel very "right" to you, too.

Decorated titles, meanwhile (lookit how many kewl letter-like symbol thingies I can make if I bash my keyboard lots!!1!), look to me like the author is really desperate for attention and isn't confident enough to just let their words stand on their own. Sometimes it's so crazy I can't even tell what the actual title is supposed to me. I mean, really... *+*_/-((Sarah's Journey))-\_*+*? WTF is that? I avoid such 'fics.
 

Orange_Flaaffy

Jello Pokéballs
I personally don't mind the chapter titles, but there are a few which leave an impression on me. 'Renegade Strife', 'Heart Of Dream', 'Soldier of Fortune' and 'Prognosis Antiquity' are a few of them. ^^ Usually I like chapter titles which are one to three words long, though there are longer ones which really amaze me though.

Ooh, I actually *love* long titles for chapters within a story a lot :). That is a big part of the reason my own chapter titles are so long. My favorite types are the ones they use to use in old fashion children’s stories like Winnie the Pooh, where each chapter begins "In which..." and then outlines everything that happens in the chapter but leaves you to wonder how it happens :)
 

Literate

black cat, black cat
One word titles are usually the story summed up in one word. Which I use a ton because I'm too lazy to do anything else. Chapter titles are around three words, if I can even come up with it.

Eternity is a good example of two weirdly used...titling. With the title, it's just one word. With the chapter title, it is marked in roman numerals. o_O Strange, yes, but troublesome, no. Like then a section would be marked a chapter, with three-four sections in a part. Like, a chapter title would then be: Eternity I.II. Just me, and my laziness for coming up with any titles. It's also helpful when I mark each event a number, so I wouldn't forget which chapter of which part it is in.

...Confussing. x.X Personally, I'd stay away from such complicated way, but it was hard to set into parts.

...Um... Back on topic.

Ø <- Well, interesting. I've only seen two titles like that and they've already explained it. Of course, it does look very cool to add.

Other than that, I'd stick to shorter titles that can summarize easily, though often I might find myself using the ':'. Or I'd use some possessives to describe the feeling of the stories. Or just a well known saying, that's all I use.

Basically, any good title that would summarize the story easily, as said by many above my post.

-Lit
 
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Luckmage

Boulder Trainer
For the "Ø", I actually look upon it as decoration. xD No, really. And I like symbols like "/ \ ||*~~*", so long as the title can still be easily read anyway... They just tend to catch my attention faster than ordinary words/titles do.

To me, I think titles should be both eye-catching and have meaning to the story. Well, duh. e_e'''

Hmm. One word titles? I think as long it has something to do with the story(and it's spelled correctly xD), or it holds some kind of meaning for the writer it's fine.

For example, my story Fæble(since it's a tad too close to Orange_Flaaffy's Evolution of Fable, I'm using an alternate title on Serebii, so don't jump me, folks xD )has a meaning for me, since it has daemons from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy, thus the "ae" in it. And it's a sorta fantasy thing, thus Faeble.

...I didn't make any sense. Or did I? @__@

As for the other title for Faeble, which is "Figment", it's a fantasy story; a figment of my imagination. Thus, Figment.

...Just how many times can I not make sense in a day? X.x''

Right. -goes off now-
 

Orange_Flaaffy

Jello Pokéballs
since it has daemons from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy, thus the "ae" in it. And it's a sorta fantasy thing, thus Faeble.
Right. -goes off now-

I'm sort of glad you did not go with the 'Faeble' title to, as a fable is not just a 'fantasy thing' but a certain kind of one that uses human like animals to tell a moral. A legend or myth would be a better word for a basic fantasy story, myth more so that legend because legend applies the journey of someone/something legendary...
 

Luckmage

Boulder Trainer
Orange_Flaafy: Don't mean to argue, but:

There are several other meanings to the word 'Fable", which also applies to my story. xD;;

2. a story not founded on fact: This biography is largely a self-laudatory fable.

3. a story about supernatural or extraordinary persons or incidents; legend: the fables of gods and heroes.

^ Those, that is. ...Er... That's all. ^^;;; Sorry, for going off topic.
 

Orange_Flaaffy

Jello Pokéballs
Well, to each their own :). I just like to think of a fable as more one of a kind than just another world for legend or myth :p. But it's one of those cases of two people reading a title and seeing different things from the same word, like the word 'Journey' or 'quest'...
 
Ø
n: an evil demon summoned to appear in fic titles as part of a coalition of Trekkies out to destroy the face-off world, one step at a time.
 

Tale

Well-Known Member
I used the cipher instead of the zero because it's part of the story plot, but if it annoys the hell out of people...ahaha, it's just a letter. o_o;; It doesn't bite or anything. It also was the original. D:<

WAAAAH, I think Kiyohime is relatively annoyed DDDD=. Who DOESN'T like the odd bit of originality every now and then? To be perfectly honest, I think some of us are being rather contradictory when we say that the 'O' thing is annoying, especially seeing as most of the SPPF fanfiction board are all for originality, and who isn't? I do think some of us are moaning for the hell of moaning sometimes....And you're getting Scrap annoyed, why would you want to do that? Why?


Decorated titles, meanwhile (lookit how many kewl letter-like symbol thingies I can make if I bash my keyboard lots!!1!), look to me like the author is really desperate for attention and isn't confident enough to just let their words stand on their own.

;-; I actually thought it made it look pretty...seeing as its impossible to change the font or whatever with the titles...


I'm probably gonna be like all argued with and stuff here, but I personally did like the old extravagant titles, you know the ones with fifty-syllabled words and stuff. They showed much creativity and proffesionalism, I liked them.

And I like the ones with weird letters. They're different, makes them unique and usually it means that the author has spent a lot of time on the fic within (which I found is true more often than not).

And who doesnt love one-worded titles?

All in all, originality is the greatest and there is nothing wrong with making a title unique, really.
 

katiekitten

The Compromise
For example, my story Fæble(since it's a tad too close to Orange_Flaaffy's Evolution of Fable, I'm using an alternate title on Serebii, so don't jump me, folks xD )has a meaning for me, since it has daemons from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy, thus the "ae" in it. And it's a sorta fantasy thing, thus Faeble.

=D I didn't know you'd be doing that... *boogies* =D [/random off-topic comment]

On titles... One word ones are nice, as quite a few people have said before, and I like the decoration... In moderation. Scraps and Knights, though? They is good. Just enough, and not too much. =D

...Personally I feel jealous of their titles. XD

The best I've ever done with decoration, are two periods on either side of a title.

I is sad.

XD

I don't think I'll be using any decoration for my upcoming fic, Sayonara. It just... doesn't fit.
 

Dilasc

Boip!
So if I were to use that symbol, or any other symbol from character mapper, I'd finally get readers? Eh, I'd rather not be so underhanded.

Good stories come from the heart, and not the fanciness that overhypes them beyond what they really are. The twenty-six letters can honestly save eyestrain, not to mention the need to open up character mapper any time you want to, or anyone else wants to talk about your work. It makes life easier.
 
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