About Me

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Hi, welcome to my blog, I am a writer of short stories, children's and YA novels . An acceptance from People's Friend finally made me a published writer! Yeah, happy days! I have since had stories published in The Weekly News and The Last Laugh anthology. My main love is writing children's/YA novels...I'm now enduring a fruitless search for an agent... I also draw and paint, I like to draw animals (usually my adorable crazy cats!)Occasionally famous people and motorcycles.

Sunday 29 August 2010

Story Titles... and an apostrophe problem








The strange pics are realted to the oddness of some of my story titles, sometimes the title comes to me straight away, other times, I change the title over and over and it still doesn't seem right.

Lime Jelly was 'What was your name again?' originally,
The Last Pair was 'Last chance' and The red Shoes was always 'The red shoes'

Do you think the title of the story is important enough to attract a reader or put them right off? I'm also stuck with the title of my story because I can't decide where to put the apostrophe....

Problem:

'The dog is in charge.' Ok. So to abbreviate 'dog is' ...I can't put dog's can I?, because that just implies belonging to said dog.
'Dogs' is wrong because that's just plural, Dogs' is wrong too isn't it? Grrrgh. Should I just stick with 'The dog is in charge'
When I first typed it, I put 'dog's ', but now I'm sooo confused! :(

13 comments:

  1. I think "the dog's in charge" is perfect!

    http://www.write101.com/sample.htm

    Quote from the above link: the apostrophe is used for 1) To show omission and 2) to show possession.

    Are titles important? I think so too. I mean it's what the reader/potential buyer reads first. One of my fave titles is "Do androids dream of electric sheep?" I mean how could that not grab anyone?! LOL!

    I do like your titles especially when they're illustrated by your fab pics. :-)

    Take care
    x

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  2. Ooh, thanks Old Kitty, that's that sorted! Phew! I wrote 'dog's' in the first place and then the doubt set in...haha.
    x

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  3. I'm glad Kitty had a solution to this, as I'm as flummoxed as you!

    Story titles are very important in my mind. They are the first thing your read sees, and if they are good they'll grab their attention.

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  4. 'The Dog's In Charge' is fine. The apostrophe is just standing in for the missing letter i. Sounds like an intriguing story, as does the lime jelly one!

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  5. Yes, Titles are very important.It's like putting a face to a person from which the personality can be drawn.
    If you're unsure about where to put apostrophes, have you tried Eats Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss? It's the funniest book on punctation around.
    Love the pics and the titles.
    Madeleine x

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  6. I'd say Kitty and Helen are right - 'The Dog's In Charge' is great.

    I have real problems with titles - most of mine make me cringe.

    XX

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  7. Thank you all for your wisdom! I'm usually okay with apostrophes but it was just that title, the more I looked at it, the more I thought, 'Is that right?'
    Thanks again! xx

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  8. Yeah - 'The Dog's in Charge'. Perfectly correct (and also certainly true in my house).

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  9. I agree with the others on The Dog's in Charge!

    Yes! Titles are amazingly important. Sometimes I get an idea for an entire story just from a title.

    Thanks for stopping by my blog. :) I'm glad to connect with other writers and their blogs. Have a great day!

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  10. Hi Joanne, thanks, I know what you mean, my cats are so smugly superior!

    Hi MT, thanks for popping over, I am trying to follow your blog but am having trouble with following blogs at the moment, keeps saying 'try later', so I will keep trying!

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  11. Yup, it's 'the dog's in charge'!

    I think titles are important. I know I've been attracted by some and definitely put off by others! They're so hard to get right!

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  12. I do think titles are important and would be attracted to a book if one intrigued me.

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  13. I do think the title makes a lot of difference in getting a person's attention. I always think up ten different titles and then choose the best from there.

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I appreciate all your comments, thank you!