Type your title here. If only it were that easy.

Okay, so I've finished writing a post, or an article, or an essay, or whatever. It feels great. I go back to the beginning and proof-read, tweak a few sentences here and there, and move some words or even sentences around. I search for the perfect picture to go with the text, if I want to use a picture in that piece. That usually doesn't take too much effort. Then, when I'm ready to post/publish it, there's a big empty field on top, waiting for the title. Waiting, in fact, to hold the name of my creation.

I type in whatever comes to mind at first. It sucks. I alter it a little and cut down some words to make it short and catchy. It sucks even more. I erase it all and type in another idea. Alright, maybe it's not so bad after all. Then I read the first sentence of the main text and realize that this new title doesn't fit what I've written very well.

I sigh and give it another go. I read the entire thing again and try to summarize it in a single phrase. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. When it does work, I'm ecstatic. The piece is really complete now. People will read the title and know what I want to say. Hopefully, they'll want to read more than just the phrase that summarizes the piece.

When even this doesn't work, I usually get quite frustrated. I save the draft even though it has already been auto-saved that very second, and log out. I take some time off from what I've written. I work on something else, or make some coffee and take a break. After a while, the unnamed piece (languishing under the bastard "Untitled" tag) starts tugging at me again. I start thinking about what I wrote, and what kind of title would make me want to read that kind of thing if someone else had written it. Now the rusty cogs of my ability to make up titles creak a little.

There will invariably be a few more misfired attempts, but I soldier on. I come up with the lamest, cheesiest titles, type them in just for the heck of it, and erase them again. This is a great stress-buster for me (well, I have come up with a few title ideas, bad as they may be) and gets me really going. I think up funny titles which will hopefully make people laugh and want to read the rest of it. When that isn't really a good idea because the subject matter or the tone of the piece is serious, I try to come up with a hook -- something catchy, which is related to the text but isn't necessarily a 100% fit.

If all this fails, I go back to the first title I wrote out, and go with that. Let's face it, I'm not that great at titles, though sometimes I don't suck so much. Every time, I just have to try to suck a little less, and some day, I'll get there. Fingers crossed.