Do You Title Your Chapters?

Titling chapters, instead of numbering them, has mostly gone away in fiction, but it's still a thing in non-fiction. The only novel I put chapter titles in was The No-Campfire Girls, and I had great fun doing it. But that was self-published; I'm not sure I'd try it with an agent/publisher hunt.

(We don't literally hunt agents and publishers, by the way. Yes, I know what my last name is, but that's just a title I inherited. It's like an actor being knighted--they're not really expected to go out and defend the Queen's honor. Are they?)

More Slightly Off the Mark: Why I Hate Cats, and Other Lies, has a duel layer of titles. Each chapter is full of reconstituted humor columns, which is when you take an old newspaper and add water to the humor section. Too bad newspapers don't really have a humor section, unless you count the politics page. The humor columns came with their own title, and even when I made major changes in the old columns, I mostly stuck with the original title.

Then I divided the book into chapters, because I love organization. (Pay no attention to the condition of my office.) Hopefully the chapter titles will give a sense of the book, which starts with a prologue entitled:

Prologue, or: Prelude to a Forward Preamble, or: The Part People Skip

It's just to keep you on your toes. Some of the chapter titles include:

History ... Or Death

In Sickness and in Health, But Mostly In Sickness.

Dear Marky, or: Advice From the Clueless

That Cartoon Has Got the Boom

The Joy of Travel, or: Yes, There Was Sarcasm in "Joy"

People ... People Hating People

Government, Red Tape, Bureaucracy ... but I Repeat Myself, Just Like the Government

It's a Beautiful Day for Sportsball!

The Three Stooges Got Nothin' On Me

Weather ... Or Not

And then comes the finale, properly called:

Where Epilogues Go To Die

Tell the Pulitzer committee I'm standing by.

Brace yourselves, you luddites ... you could actually read the opening for free, here:

https://www.amazon.com/More-Slightly-off-Mark-Other/dp/1709741287

If you just can't wait and/or want a signed copy, contact Emily or me, or hit up the website, and we'll limber up our writing hands.

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"