More on Chapter Titles

As I was saying in yesterday’s post, I’m a huge fan of chapter titles, and have put them in all my contracted books. My favorite chapter title from my published work is the last one in Secret Society Girl (“Commencement Issues”) though I’m also quite fond of the chapter four title in Rites of Spring (Break) (“Sin and Cosin”).

There are also chapter titles in Rampant, though they are very different in style, tone, and message. They hearken back to old-fashioned novels where the chapter opens with a description of the events therein. One early reader thought the inclusion of titles made the novel too much like the SSG books, but I think she only noted a similarity because chapter titles are, in general, the exception to the rule in commercial fiction. With that argument, if I’d just used numbers, wouldn’t that make it just like… oh, every book?

Having said that, however, I wouldn’t include them on principle — just if I think they add something to the story.

I’ve been told readers are generally uninterested in chapter titles, and that one shouldn’t include important information in them, lest the reader skip it and become lost. But I’ve also been told that about the following: parenthetical statements, footnotes, sex scenes, dialogue tags, narrative, and long paragaphs.

It leaves one wondering what part of a book one can put important information in. Honestly? I think modern readers are probably more likely to skip chapter headings because they are used to them being nothing more than numbers. If more people wrote chapter headings, I think more people would read them.

Never say never, but in general, I think of my chapter titles as “accessories” — they add some flare to my story, but it’s a perfectly acceptable whole without it. I’m not leaving anything bare.

This is not the case, however, with the confessions. An interesting fact: In my drafts, the confessions appear after the chapter title, and are a more integrated part of the text. However, the interior design of my printed books set the confessions aside on a separate page, before the start of each chapter. Now, I love this design and have since I first saw it. However, it made a separation between the confession and the start of the chapter. Sometimes, the start of the chapter is a direct follow up to the confession, such as in chapter four of Secret Society Girl:

I hereby confess: I hate Clarissa Cuthbert.

And let me tell you why.

In this situation, the first line of the chapter makes little sense unless you’ve read the confession. However, if you are reading straight through, in between that confession and the first line of the chapter is the chapter title: 4. SEMPER PARATUS.

This was actually something we discussed during the design phase of the book, and it was decided that the kickass interior design outweighed any possible negative ramifications of separating the confession from the chapter text. I am inclined to believe also that the separation actually makes it more likely that the reader will read the confession, even if they skip the chapter title, though I have only anecdotal evidence for that.

I do want to give props to the gorgeous interior designs of my books. Carol Russo, the designer, is absolutely extraordinary. The gates, the roses, the palm fronds, the fonts, and the amazing attention to detail — I throw a lot at my publisher, with the lists and the tables and the letters and print outs and once, the school stadium’s scoreboard — and my editor and designer always rise to the occasion with great aplomb and beauty. I’m very excited to see what they have in store for the fourth book — especially given the flow chart and the pie graph.

Kidding!

It’s choose your own adventure.