Skip to main content

How I Title My Poems

Hello Poetteers,

Don't have time to read right now? Download the PDF version.

I loved sharing with you ways to title your poems. Sometimes the title is obvious. You’ll find the perfect phrase within the poem. Other times it’s a bit hard. Here’s my secret to titling poems. Ask yourself and your poems these questions.
  1. What emotion does your poem focus on? Find an adjective that describes the emotion your poem is giving. 
  2. What is your poem about? Use the topic in your title. 
  3. Look for repeated words, phrases and metaphors. Its emphasis within the poem should be shown in the title. 
  4. Place the results together. Experiment with the wording and arrangement. Does it reflect your poem?
Example:

Take a look at my poem, Weary Hope. I repeated the word hope, so i knew it needed to be in the title. The beginning of the poem talks about being drained. Other words for drained are tired and weary, so that was the adjective I needed to add. Together I came up with a title that would make the reader wonder and pull them in to read it.

Titling your poetry book has a similar method.
  1. What is your book about? Keep in mind the themes used. 
  2. Is there a specific poem that summarizes the book? 
  3. What emotions does the book focus on or what emotions came up when writing? 
  4. What is the inspiration behind the book? 
  5. What is the intended message? 
  6. Pick out the keywords and play around with arrangement to turn it into a title.



For more help on your poetry titles, I have a poetry titles cheatsheet available for purchase! Also, in my editing services I provide a title consultation. 

stay inspired,
Fida

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Love-A-Thon: Book Spine Poetry

Hello Poetteers,  It is another day of LoveAThon challenges. This morning we have to come up with some book spine poems.  Rose under fire burned into cinder my name is memory.   Out of the easy and between shades of gray  say what you will every last word.   Her treasures are written in the stars because every soul is a star. I had too much fun with this. I hope you enjoyed this! You can find more poetry hacks here . My poetry book, Her Treasures, is available here .  Thank you, Fida 

Hearing About IWSG

Hello readers, I was reading Ali's post about this support group that talks about writerly doubts. I have doubts and I shall share them because that's the point of a support group. I used to be insecure about traditional publishing, that no one with accept my writing. Then I heard of self publishing. Yet that added to my insecurities. I have no money or talent to showcase my writing. After IndieReCon I felt a better, yet once the high went away, I find it's only a little bit better. I need a team, I need help. I call for help, but I don't get replies. That's another insecurity, I don't think I have any fans. My blog is becoming dead and I keep thinking of deactivating my twitter. The only reason I stay is for the knowledge. And the worse insecurity, dare I say it. All the above add to me... wanting to quit writing. I have little motivation and that motivation is to show my Muslim community you don't have to be a doctor or lawyer or teacher to be...

My Writer's Voice Entry

Hello readers, Through the luck of the Rafflecopter draw, I got picked to enter the Writer’s Voice, a multi-blog, multi-agent contest hosted by Cupid of Cupid’s Literary Connection , Krista Van Dolzer of Mother. Write. (Repeat.) , Monica B.W. of Love YA , and Brenda Drake of Brenda Drake Writes . (You can read all about it here .) As part of the contest, here are my query + 250! My Query: DECIDING HIJAB is a 15,100 worded multicultural, girly YA. 15 year old Yasmeen recently started wearing the headscarf. Along with covering up comes problems. She faces an atheist teacher giving mis-information and getting unwanted attention from a boy. Some good comes out of this, Yasmeen meets a faithful Christian girl named Jenna and she has a load of questions for her interest in their religion, Islam. They faces many problems, yet that doesn't stop them from being who they are and want to be. I'm a muslim college student and poet. I have been published in two small Muslim girl...