Jeri Smith-Ready

Chapter titles

Do you notice them when you read a book? Usually I don't, unless it's to check the table of contents when I'm considering a work of nonfiction. Even then the chapter titles are sometimes so clever that they disguise the actual subjects.

I've titled the chapters of two out of the five novels I've finished, as well as two of my three incomplete novels, and in every case there was a system or naming convention.

In Requiem for the Devil, each chapter title was a content-appropriate line from the Requiem mass. Was it pretentious to use Latin? Maybe, but I included an appendix with the entire text of the Requiem and its English translation so people could look it up if they wanted.

In Bad Company, each chapter title is the name of a rock or pop song, again reflecting the content of the upcoming chapter. I kept a balance among decades (40s through 90s) and made sure not to include more than one tune by the same artist.

In Angel's Gambit, an unfinished Requiem sequel, each title was going to be named after a chess term, since the main character was a master player.

And in my most literarily ambitious novel, The Forgetting, Requiem's direct sequel (Beelzebub's tale), the titles formed the first few words of the chapter, as well as reflecting its larger theme or subject. Example:

A candy-eyed teenager

hands us what looks like blue garbage bags as we stand in line for the Maid of the Mist boat tour, the one that takes you right up to the feet of the falls.

Later in the chapter, one of the main characters tells a story of a relationship he had in high school, when it can be assume that he was himself a "candy-eyed teenager." The story isn't prompted by seeing the kid from the first sentence but by an event on the boat itself. The more distant a thematic echo, the less blatant it is.

And a less subtle example:

Three Ivy-League assholes

glare at us over their cans of beer. Marc, who for a moment was frozen on top of me, springs to a sitting position and stares at them with a look of prey.

The rest of the chapter depicts how Beelzebub and his traveling companion kick the crap out of a trio of would-be gay-bashers.

Sigh...I miss that book. Must finish it someday, even if no one else ever reads it.

Back to the original question: what do you think of chapter titles? If you notice them, do they act as spoilers or as tempting hints? If you don't notice them, do you consider them just an indulgence on the author's part?

Labels: vampire series

• posted by Jeri @ 6:45 AM
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