The Blank of Writing Titles

by Amy Cipolla Barnes

I loved Mad Libs as a kid and bought them on vacations at Stuckey’s. I created my own Mad Libs on notebook paper and made my friends and family fill in the blanks, hoping for an “Elephant that Ate Crackers in a Jukebox” or something equally wacky.

As an adult, I struggle with titling stories and see at least one Twitter post a day where someone is searching for a story title. The infamous blank page can come down to just a blank title. As I look at my titles that felt natural when I wrote them, I’ve discovered I often Mad Lib my titles. A lot of Blank of Blank. A little sing-song-y by nature. A little bit Mad Libs, maybe a little bit of madness.

For example, I have:

The Math of Truck Driving

The Zen of Inosculation

The Storage and Keeping of Children

The Shape of Exit Signs

The Short Life of Bessie Taylor

An Accident in Pottowa County

The Summer of ‘89

When Girls Had Wings

The Art of Brutalism

The Inosculation of Sara

What To Order When You Get Invited to a Tupperware Party

Twelve Stations of the Scale

Tuesday Over Albuquerque

Looking at this list, I may have gone a bit slap-happy with the format. But I’m not the only one. I wonder how famous writers came up with their titles. I can’t guess their methods. However, I can imagine them discarding Fifty Hues of Purple or Harry Potter and The Mug of Sand.

Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire

Fifty Shades of Grey

The Last of the Mohicans

Howard and The Purple Crayon

There’s something in the Blank of Blank way of writing titles that can feel mysterious and make people think twice about the story. I’ve also found when I’m stuck on writing a story, creating the title all Mad-Libby can also guide the story or even be a generative process. Title first, story second.

I see you writers thinking of putting the F-word in for Blank like you did when you were twelve. After you get done giggling, try some of these title-creating options. Mix and match. Blank and Blank. The Blank of Blank. Start keeping a list when Blank strikes you.

I also apologize to all editors in advance for unleashing a ton of Mad Lib title submissions on you. “The Personality of Man” in the header image is intriguing — even that unknown author was filling in the blanks. Without further Mad-Libbing or ado, here’s some Blank of the Blank title-creating prompts.

Play Off the Famous

Those famous titles that *might* be Mad Libs? Don’t quote me (and I have no legal knowledge) but I understand you can mimic/blur a title without copyright issues. It’s hard to say that anyone owns Fifty Shades of Blank and no one else can use that format again.

Go Back To School

Take your favorite (or not-so-favorite) subject and fill in the blank.

The Art of

The Science of

The Essays of

The Math of

The Physics of

The History of

AP Blank

The Politics of

Relax Your Blank Off

Your reader may be expecting one thing from these titles and you can either give that to them (sleeping, relaxing, zen) or you can do the opposite and have someone getting stalked by their ex-husband.

The Zen

The Peace of

Sleeping with the Blank

Define the Title

Another way I fill in title blanks is by defining big words with the story that follows. I keep a running list of words that are long, medical, intriguing, or ones I have to look up. This may be the most basic of Mad Libs, just one blank to fill in. I’ve used words like hyperlexia and dermatographia as titles — each story that followed was a wink to the word.

If you don’t have a thesaurus or a three-dollar word to use as a title, pick a word you love within the story and pop that into the title space — make and fill in your own Blank.

Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes

Fairy tales are another option. The base words are there — you turn them on their ear with a word(s) substitution.

Blank and the Blank Blanks

The Blank Blank Who Blanks in a Blank

Beauty and the Blank

A Pocket Full of Blank

Blank Had a Little Blank

Color Me Mad Libs

Colors are another wonderful place to pull titles from. Visual. Easy.

The Blank Color of Blank

The Blanks of Blank Color

Shades of Blank

I’m Blank Color

The Day the Blank Turned Blank Color

A Time Blank

The word or concept of time is another fun place to find titles.

Time for Blank

Blank of Time

The Past is Blank

The Future is Blank

Blank Day is For Blanking

The Day of the Blank

The Night of the Blank

The Minute of Blank

Time Blanks

Conflicted?

I’ve read a lot recently on “should there be tension or conflict in every story?” My solution is to make conflict happen in your title. Take one of your character’s names or places and add the blank of a conflict or disaster or love or fight.

Mary Blank and The Day She Blanked a Blank

Howard and The Blank Who Ate His Blank

The Blank With Susan

Blank and Blank Blank in the Blank

The Fight of Blank’s Life

An Incident in Blank

Get Poetic With It

I personally think it’s always good to fall back on the moon or nature for titles even if it’s not in your story and you’re not writing poetry. The Blank of the Moon or The Trees of Blank is a great starting point for something sappy or even rhyme-y.

The Moon Over Blank

A Sunset/Sunrise/Sky on Blank

The Trees of Blank

Trees Are for Blanking

Commercial Mad-Libbing

I’m all for pop culture references. TV shows, books, movies and commercials are ripe for creating your own new title versions.

Where’s the Blank?

Let’s Make a Blank

The Blank Show

The Blank Bride

That’s a Spicy Blank

The Blank Boat

Time To Make the Blanks

Title a Sense of Place

If nature isn’t your thing, let the location of your story do the blanking for you. What is the main place in your story? The area? Place a character wants to visit?

Blank City in the Blank

The Blank of Blank City

Finding Blank in Blank State

In The City of Blank

The How to Of Blank

Another stand-by for titles is the simple “How To.”

How to Blank

The How To Guide of Blank

The Body of Blank

If you’re going to have blanking going on, there needs to be body parts. Try some of these.

The Hand of

The Feet of

Give Me Your Blank

Blanks in the Closet

His/Her Blanks

A Body of

Sense the Title, Be the Title

Your senses can be your best friend when writing. Creating a title is no different.

The Taste of

The Smell of

The Feel of

A Sight of

The Softness of

Do You Hear Blank?

Feed the Title

In the sensory vein, take a closer look at foods and drinks specifically. It’s one of my favorite things to write about and pull titles from. Readers might just eat up your story from the title alone!

The Apple of Your Blank

Cake and the Blank

A Plate of Blank

Instructions For Cooking Blank

Frosting Blank

Cooking Blank