On My Own | A Guide to Writing Warriors Fanfiction

Titles & Summaries

Perhaps this is a little obvious, but every story needs a title. While it does not need a title right away it is always a good idea to have a title by the time you're publishing the first part. Nothing says 'inexperienced writer/publicist' like the word "untitled" in your title. By doing so, you might even be turning away potential readers and that's something none of us want.

Titles are hard. Sometimes, I have a title weeks before I'm even finished planning. Other times, I don't have a title until I'm finishing up the fourth chapter. That's just how they work.

What you should keep in mind when creating your title are these key things:
- eye-catching
- mysterious
- relating to the story

The first one is rather self-explanatory. You want your title to stand out amongst all the other fanfictions; after all, you're competing against them for readers. It could be a single word, something that relates to a central theme in your story. It could follow the naming convention of the Erins' Super Editions: [name]'s [noun/verb] (a notable novel on Wattpad with this naming convention is LightningStrikeTC 's Icetail's Enemy.

Mysterious is also important, since you don't want the title giving away the entire story. For example, it might not be the best idea to name your novel Featherstar's Fury when the title character starts off as a kit. While there is still an entire story to tell, since the title doesn't give away the events, we know from the title that the character will become leader at one point, and that takes away some of the excitement.

Most importantly, the title should relate to the story. There's nothing I dislike more than reading a novel called [some angsty title here] that follows a storyline that's all rainbows and butterflies. No. That just doesn't work. If the story is a happy one, give it a happy title. Setting the mood and tone with your title gives the readers insight into what your novel will be about, and whether they even want to spend the time reading.

Summaries work similarly. You want them to be eye-catching, mysterious and, of course, relating to the story. In this case, I think the most important thing to keep in mind is mystery. I have seen too many summaries that give away the entire plot of the novel in five sentences - sometimes less.

Yes, summaries are hard too. A good way to structure them is:

1) Introducing the main character
2) Giving some context of the setting
3) Outlining briefly what the main conflict is
4) Posing a question
5) (optional) including a quotation from the novel itself or reviews by other readers

This way, you have covered most, if not all, of the 5W's: who, what, where, when, why. By posing a question ('will Pigeonpaw ever earn the pride of her father?' or 'will MoorClan be able to hold out against the tide of intruders?'), you are leaving the summary open-ended enough that it will draw readers in more than if you left it at a stand still. A lot of people like to know definitive answers and by robbing them of that in your summary you may have just gained a reader.

This question, of course, poses the 'if' and 'how' of the summary. The 'if' is most prominent, as the question does not have an answer; it could be 'yes' or 'no'. It is how the story unfolds that decides how these questions are answered. The 'how' is something you should never reveal in the summary because, simply put, it ruins the story. If the audience knows how the main character overcomes (or fails to overcome) the conflict you've outlined, then what's the point of reading the story?

So, let us all make a pact:

"I will not post pieces with 'untitled' in their names,
I will not give my writing titles that give everything away,
and I will not, under any circumstance, write summaries
that spoil the plot I've worked so hard to create."

Lovely, I'm glad that's something we can all agree on.