Giving Short Stories a Title

Titling a novel is different than titling a short story. A novel has to be grander, more poetic, more sweeping and memorable to cover the breadth of its contents. The Sun Also Rises. The Sound and The Fury. Gone With the Wind.

Of course, I generalize here, but I think the titling of a novel is different from the titling of a short story. I don’t think short stories work with grand and sweeping titles. (And, yes, I realize someone can respond to this with many examples to show I’m wrong).

But that’s what I want to focus on (not me being wrong, necessarily). I have a strategy for titling a short story that I use with my students. I alluded to this in a previous post, but I want to go into some more detail. Now, my students are writing “literary” short stories, so I’m not sure this works for every genre.

I call this titling approach the concrete/symbolic title. I noticed a pattern in many of the titles of the stories we were reading. They work on a concrete and symbolic level.

Ok, what do I mean by concrete? Well, that’s something actually in the story. If you have a story called “The Bridge” and there’s no actual bridge in it… well that’s not a concrete title.

The symbolic part means that this concrete thing can also represent your story symbolically. If you have a story about an estranged father and son driving to the Mackinaw Bridge in Michigan, and through their journey they become more bonded... well, then, "The Bridge" works. There's an actual bridge in the story, but perhaps a bridge is also being built between father and son.

Here’s an example. You’re writing a coming-of-age story about three teen girls who are working a summer job before college starts. All are working at an outdoor greenhouse that sells flowers to people who want to plant them in their yard. The girls are on the cusp of adulthood. They are dealing with relationships, strained friendships, and the knowledge that they will likely not see each other again for some time because each is going off to a different college. They also know, and even talk about, in some intuitive way, that they will be different people when they see each other again.

So, here’s how you could give that story a concrete/symbolic title. You could call it “Summer Flowers.” On a concrete level, that title works. Because they work at a green house, there are summer flowers actually in the story. For some of your readers, that’s all they will see in the title… the reference to the concrete aspect. It will make sense because there are flowers in the story. “No great shakes as a title,” a reader might say, “but it makes sense given where they work.”

But “Summer Flowers,” also works as a symbolic reference to the girls themselves. They are in a way, in their youth, like summer flowers. They are facing their own coming autumn that will change them. It won’t be a change like death (as happens with annuals), but they are going to be different come the fall… and they can feel it.

Now, if the girls worked at a pizza place all summer, I don’t think “Summer Flowers” works because it’s not grounded in the concrete. A reader would probably read it and say, “Why the hell is this called ‘Summer Flowers’… there are no flowers in the thing! There's flour sure, but no flowers!” 

See, I think without the grounding in the concrete, the symbolic aspect doesn’t work because it’s trying too hard to be symbolic. It beats you over the head that the flowers in “Summer Flowers” is only in reference to the girls. Symbols work when they are grounded in the concrete. They have to exist for real and organically within the story before they can also stand as a symbol.

I have examples.

“Cathedral” by Raymond Carver. Yes, the main character and his blind visitor do indeed draw a cathedral together. (the blind man resting his hands on top of the M.C's as he draws, thereby "seeing" the cathedral by feeling its becoming on paper). But, the blind visitor also serves to pull the M.C. from his existential death (at least momentarily)… that living room that they draw in almost becomes sacred and holy, not unlike a cathedral! The title could also be a reference to the momentary holy space they have created by drawing together.

“Shiloh” by Bobbie Ann Mason. It’s a story of a dissolving marriage. Both husband and wife have lost their roles since losing a child to SIDS. Everything is exacerbated by the husband’s long-haul trucking accident, which lands him permanently at home. They eventually go to Shiloh—an old Civil War battle ground— (and where they honey-mooned) to maybe rekindle something. But there’s no spark. The title works because Shiloh is in the story (it’s concrete!), but it’s also symbolic. Shiloh could be a reference to them. Isn’t the dissolution of a marriage not unlike a civil war? Isn’t it two forces that were one becoming enemies?

As you look for titles for your stories, you might consider the concrete/symbolic approach. Find something that exists in the story, but also has symbolic significance.

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