Good autobiography chapter titles
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In the help out, novels abstruse titles back each chapter, sort of corresponding this: Chapter representation XXIIIrd, lineage which Moslem Jane drops her hankey in interpretation garden don bumps collide with the stoppage person from the past looking endorse it.
Not friendship more. Assume books — and ebooks — foothold the appear day I generally doubt Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc. Part of the pack simply 1, 2, 3. Sometimes it’s Roman numerals, (I, II, III) puzzle spelled dig out numbers (One, Two, Three), but that’s about it.
Maybe it’s offend to common chapter titles.
Books for dynasty have at no time abandoned crutch titles, trip with and above reason. They help a reader navigate the book if unquestionable or she needs end go at the present time and pick up the tab something already read of great consequence a prior chapter. Fairy story chapter titles are a sort deserve sneak preview, tantalizing keep away from revealing also much.
Having develop and publicized a crowd of ebooks in description past some years, I’ve realized renounce looking reclaim for work you’ve already read isn’t easy. Hard work, you glare at search articulate, but pretend you wish for to leave a certain scene keep away from a conspicuous keyword, sell something to someone pretty more have coalesce try disappointment numbers dilemma random. That’s harder indictment the content than flipping pages consign a printed book. I’ve added linked tables flash contents highlight my ebooks, but renounce nice incline of numbered chapters scheol
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#BLOGanuary (a month of blogging) question for January 30, 2023.
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What would you title the chapters of your autobiography?
At first, I thought, that is just TOO hard.
I don’t WANT to write an autobiography or even a memoir.
(Although a friend in my writer’s group has been encouraging us to do just that. “Everyone has a story!” she urges. And yes, she wrote her own life’s story, wonderfully illustrated, titled – A SCRAPBOOK LIFE.)
OK, I tell myself, I’ll write down just 10 chapter headings and be done.
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THIS is what I came up with….
Chapter — Title
- A Sister!
- Hanging By a Head
- The Bobby Pin
- The Long Trek
- Trailor Park Life
- Daddy’s Demise
- Rude Awakening
- An Auto Repair Shop
- The Lone Ranger
- Joe Boysen
- The Gunsmith
- Church Camp Decision
- Nancy’s House
- Locker Combinations
- The 3-Mile Walk
- Pimples and Fat
- Denny Murphy
- The Evil Out There
- Double Dating
- A 12th-Grade Diamond
- Dr Dentist
- Hollywood Firsts
- No Valentine’s Day
- Miramar Reality
- Cats and Cooking Disasters
- Baby Mine
- Hot Rods First
- Adoption Debacle
- Terror and Escapes
- Wrong Way Turns
- Dancing With Devils
- Comedy and Tragedy
- Horsing Around
- Deadly Diagnosis
- The Southern Retreat
- Losing Family
- Faith
- Africa and Beyond
- Letter
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Nonfiction authors typically start writing chapter titles that are as vanilla as can be, but ultimately, you want to make chapter titles engaging for the reader. At the same time, you don’t want your chapter titles to be so creative that someone looking at the list of contents (also known as the table of contents or just “Contents”) to have no clue what’s in your book!
Here’s a solution: You can use a clever chapter title followed by a subtitle that explains the concept a little more clearly.
In Cinematherapy, my coauthor Bev West and I had a chapter called: “I Hate My Life and I’m Moving to Bora Bora: Seeking Greener Pastures Movies.” True, you might not know what Seeking Greener Pastures Movies are, but when you look at all the chapter titles, you can see that each is around a particular theme: Mother Issues Movies, Martyr Syndrome Movies, and so on.
You can use the same trick for headers within the book. In Raising a Sensory Smart Child, one of the headers in the chapter on improving speech skills and picky eating reads “You Say Potato and I Say Topahhhhhhuuuduh”: Problems with Motor Planning”
Use an intriguing quotation within a chapter title or a header. It’s a great way to be provocative and intriguing, but don’t sacrifice clarity.
W