Advice on a story title

[summer_reine]

gameing mom?

 

[Juannoche]

Ah ok. Forget what I said. Or might be interesting element

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Have you considered "Flying Monkey Express to [something]"? Only you know what the [something] is now, because we haven't read it, but a title like "Flying Monkey Express to the Harem" or something would give the reader an idea of whether this story tickles their particular sweet spot.

-Billie

 

[Pabiporffor]

Spank the monkey.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I posted this over in Story Advice but it might have been the wrong place because it didn't generate much interest. Anyway, I'm laying out a new story and I'd like some help with a title. The catalyst of the story is that a poor person creates a casual mobile game called "Flying Monkey Express," which blows up and makes the poor person wealthy. Hijinks ensue. Now, I think that "Flying Monkey Express" is an interesting and intriguing title. Unfortunately, I have it on muptiple reliable authorities that my taste in titles generally sucks. So, what do you guys think?

i would read "Flying Monkey Express" just on the name. AS others have said, a good tagline should be added.

I mean this one of mine has over 11K views and I think the title is on par with "Flying Monkey Express".
---
Picking Strawberries
Too much of a good thing? Bobbi finds out with a little help.

 

[RejectReality]

I personally like the title. It's unique, intriguing, and relates to an important plot point. It just needs a solid description line that points at the sexual content, and I'd say you're good to go.

 

[Small_Island]

I'm not quite sure how to answer that. Flying monkeys have been a frequent feature of RPGs I've run going back to my teens (in the early 14th Century). Part of it comes from how scary I found the flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz when I was a young 'un, but most of it comes from the fact that I think monkeys are inherently funny (see my profile pic).

Finally someone mentions The Wizard of Oz, I'm glad it was the OP. On titles in general, I line up with SimonDoom. I always run my proposed titles through the story search to see if they're already used or overused. I also agree with the Title and Description being in a symbiosis, where the Title doesn't have to be blatant, but the reader has some sense of what they're getting into when they see the two together.
In terms of this particular title, I like it, and think it could work well in carrying a series like you describe. But I did automatically wonder what role The Wizard of Oz would play in the RPG. Is the Anal episode of the series going to be about monkeys flying out of someone's butt?

 

[Senor_Smut]

Finally someone mentions The Wizard of Oz, I'm glad it was the OP. On titles in general, I line up with SimonDoom. I always run my proposed titles through the story search to see if they're already used or overused. I also agree with the Title and Description being in a symbiosis, where the Title doesn't have to be blatant, but the reader has some sense of what they're getting into when they see the two together.
In terms of this particular title, I like it, and think it could work well in carrying a series like you describe. But I did automatically wonder what role The Wizard of Oz would play in the RPG. Is the Anal episode of the series going to be about monkeys flying out of someone's butt?

It is...now.

 

[Senor_Smut]

The start of the first chapter will be mom and son coming back together after spending six months apart, during which time both underwent drastic physical changes. When they see each other for the first time at the airport, there's a moment where they don't recognize each other and feel a major sexual connection. So, here's my idea for title and description:

Flying Monkey Express
A mother and son fall in love at first sight (sorta)

 

[Emilymcplugger]

The start of the first chapter will be mom and son coming back together after spending six months apart, during which time both underwent drastic physical changes. When they see each other for the first time at the airport, there's a moment where they don't recognize each other and feel a major sexual connection. So, here's my idea for title and description:

Flying Monkey Express
A mother and son fall in love at first sight (sorta)

That title is RISKY because it offers no deets of what’s in store.

HOWEVER…

The tagline should pull in the necessary readers for that kind of story AND, for goodness sake, use the tags, every one that you can think of.

Mom/son mother/son mom mother son, etc.

Make sure you cover ever variation of that as well. I mean, my last story was called HORNMANJI and it was a rip-roaring success, so what do I know.

 

[RejectReality]

"Mom/Son Sex" is a tag Laurel added to one of mine in the past which proved beneficial, so I'd certainly use that one.

 

[SmokingFap]

I posted this over in Story Advice but it might have been the wrong place because it didn't generate much interest. Anyway, I'm laying out a new story and I'd like some help with a title. The catalyst of the story is that a poor person creates a casual mobile game called "Flying Monkey Express," which blows up and makes the poor person wealthy. Hijinks ensue. Now, I think that "Flying Monkey Express" is an interesting and intriguing title. Unfortunately, I have it on muptiple reliable authorities that my taste in titles generally sucks. So, what do you guys think?

How about a little wordplay? Monkey's Business.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

That title is RISKY because it offers no deets of what’s in store.

HOWEVER…

The tagline should pull in the necessary readers for that kind of story AND, for goodness sake, use the tags, every one that you can think of.

Mom/son mother/son mom mother son, etc.

Make sure you cover ever variation of that as well. I mean, my last story was called HORNMANJI and it was a rip-roaring success, so what do I know.

Why is it risky?
Plenty of book and story titles don't offer details of what's in store.

 

[Senor_Smut]

I think it's vital for a one-off stroke story to have a very explanatory title, but for longer pieces I'm not so convinced. For one thing, any explanatory title you select will be bound not to fit some chapters at all and be misleading for others. If this were a short stroke piece I could just name it, "Money Makes Mom Horny" or "Son's the Boss" or whatever, but those titles would get awkward fast as the chapters rolled on.

 

[Jorunn]

The iconic line from OZ - "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too!" doesn't work for me. Maybe, "I'll get Mom and her little dog too" but that is weak.

If the goal of the stories is newfound wealth helps Mom out of a unhappy marriage, then:
Flying Monkeys snatch Mom
Flying Monkeys rescue Mom
Flying Monkeys help Mom escape
Flying Monkeys to the Rescue

Or, perhaps,
Tale of the Flying Monkeys
Ruffling Monkey Feathers

And a play on the get rich, then control Mom idea
Monkey Flew, Monkey Do

 

[Emilymcplugger]

Why is it risky?
Plenty of book and story titles don't offer details of what's in store.

Sometimes an unusual title can put people off. Take for example “The Shawshank Redemption”, which bombed at the box office. No-one knows what that’s about.

HOWEVER I guess that’s the benefit of a good tagline. If you have a bonkers title but your tagline explains things then it shouldn’t matter.

As I found out with HORNMANJI, I mean, it’s literally a newly made-up word.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Sometimes an unusual title can put people off. Take for example “The Shawshank Redemption”, which bombed at the box office. No-one knows what that’s about.

HOWEVER I guess that’s the benefit of a good tagline. If you have a bonkers title but your tagline explains things then it shouldn’t matter.

As I found out with HORNMANJI, I mean, it’s literally a newly made-up word.

Avatar was one of the highest grossing movies of all time. The title tells you nothing.
Nobody had a clue what "Top Gun" meant until the movie actually came out and it entered the vernacular.
Jumanji made a ton of money with a made up word for a title.

Rocky, Grease, Back to the Future, all really successful, none of them have a title that explains the movie. Back to the Future makes sense AFTER you've seen the movie.

 

[StillStunned]

Avatar was one of the highest grossing movies of all time. The title tells you nothing.
Nobody had a clue what "Top Gun" meant until the movie actually came out and it entered the vernacular.
Jumanji made a ton of money with a made up word for a title.

Rocky, Grease, Back to the Future, all really successful, none of them have a title that explains the movie. Back to the Future makes sense AFTER you've seen the movie.

Yes, but all those movies had the advantage of having exciting action sequences to use for their trailers. I don't think I ever saw Shawshank's trailer, but I can't imagine that shots of Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins sitting and talking would have given the audience much of an idea of what the movie was about.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Yes, but all those movies had the advantage of having exciting action sequences to use for their trailers. I don't think I ever saw Shawshank's trailer, but I can't imagine that shots of Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins sitting and talking would have given the audience much of an idea of what the movie was about.

Grease didn't exactly have exciting action sequences.
That said, your point is valid, it isn't about the title, it's about the entire marketing effort.
We don't have trailers, we have descriptions, and tags.
The title should pique your interest.
The description should provide a sense of the story.
The tags should fill in the details.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

Grease didn't exactly have exciting action sequences.
That said, your point is valid, it isn't about the title, it's about the entire marketing effort.
We don't have trailers, we have descriptions, and tags.
The title should pique your interest.
The description should provide a sense of the story.
The tags should fill in the details.

To be fair GREASE was a musical, you can easily do musical trailers to show what you’re film is about.

As for ROCKY both fights and training montages could create buzz and word of mouth certainly did, but for a film like TREMORS many people thought it was an earthquake film, it only got a second lease of life on home video.

Which is why it’s so hard to create a good title that captures that interest. Sometimes you create a quick story that just gets people with a stupid title, other times, not so much.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

To be fair GREASE was a musical, you can easily do musical trailers to show what you’re film is about.

As for ROCKY both fights and training montages could create buzz and word of mouth certainly did, but for a film like TREMORS many people thought it was an earthquake film, it only got a second lease of life on home video.

Which is why it’s so hard to create a good title that captures that interest. Sometimes you create a quick story that just gets people with a stupid title, other times, not so much.

Tremors didn't fail because of the title. It was poorly promoted. The producer referred to the trailer as "cringeworthy".
Are you claiming if the title was "Giant worms attack people in the desert" that would have made it a box office juggernaut?
Should Shawshank Redemption have been called, "Andy gets raped in prison and does taxes"?
Maybe they could have gone with the title Stephen King gave the story it was based on, "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption".
Movies rarely if ever have the highly descriptive titles people seem to be advocating for here.

 

[SimonDoom]

Avatar was one of the highest grossing movies of all time. The title tells you nothing.
Nobody had a clue what "Top Gun" meant until the movie actually came out and it entered the vernacular.
Jumanji made a ton of money with a made up word for a title.

Rocky, Grease, Back to the Future, all really successful, none of them have a title that explains the movie. Back to the Future makes sense AFTER you've seen the movie.

This is all true, but I don't think you can compare movies with Literotica stories. This is a particular medium with limited ways of promoting one's story. Your story is one of about one hundred that are published on a particular day, and you've got limited ways of grabbing attention and getting people to read it before the story drops off the lists that make it visible. That's not true of a movie starring Tom Cruise or directed by James Cameron. The "rules" are different. I think one's choice of title and tagline, in combination, is a very important key to success, if by "success" one means maximizing the number of appreciative readers.

 

[Senor_Smut]

Movies are a different category of thing. I think comparing titles of visual media, which can have trailers and commercials, and written works is of limited utility. In my particular case, a more apt compaision would be novel titles. This long, multichaptered story will end up much, much longer than the average novel, so looking at what novels do can be illustrative. I don't intend to compare the quality of my writing to any of the following -- I merely suggest examples.

• War and Peace: Is this movie about diplomatic machinations and the intricacies of Napoleonic warfare? No, it's about a selection of characters living (or not) through tumultuous times.
• A Tale of Two Cities: Is it about civic rivalry of a James Micheneresque deep dive comparing and contrasting the histories of Paris and London? No, it's about a selection of characters living (or not) through the French Revolution.
• To Have and Have Not: Is it sociological study of the effects of wealth and poverty? No, it's about a bunch of people shattered by the most pointless war in human history.
• Red Harvest (my personal favorite novel): Is it about the gathering of farm produce under a vivd sunset? No, it's about a smart man getting rival gangs to murder each other.
• Catch-22: Is it about fishermen? No, it's about the soul-crushing inhumanity of modern warfare.
• Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close: Is it about electron microscopy in a thunderstorm? No. Just no.

These titles are attention-grabbing and stimulate the imagination. They might suggest the subject or theme of the book or they may not, but they make you think and make you wonder.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

This is all true, but I don't think you can compare movies with Literotica stories. This is a particular medium with limited ways of promoting one's story. Your story is one of about one hundred that are published on a particular day, and you've got limited ways of grabbing attention and getting people to read it before the story drops off the lists that make it visible. That's not true of a movie starring Tom Cruise or directed by James Cameron. The "rules" are different. I think one's choice of title and tagline, in combination, is a very important key to success, if by "success" one means maximizing the number of appreciative readers.

I agree with you. I'm also not the one that started using movies as an example. I provided these as a counterpoint.
You might want to scroll a little further up to where EmilyMCplugger introduced the Shawshank Redemption into the discussion.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Movies are a different category of thing. I think comparing titles of visual media, which can have trailers and commercials, and written works is of limited utility. In my particular case, a more apt compaision would be novel titles. This long, multichaptered story will end up much, much longer than the average novel, so looking at what novels do can be illustrative. I don't intend to compare the quality of my writing to any of the following -- I merely suggest examples.

• War and Peace: Is this movie about diplomatic machinations and the intricacies of Napoleonic warfare? No, it's about a selection of characters living (or not) through tumultuous times.
• A Tale of Two Cities: Is it about civic rivalry of a James Micheneresque deep dive comparing and contrasting the histories of Paris and London? No, it's about a selection of characters living (or not) through the French Revolution.
• To Have and Have Not: Is it sociological study of the effects of wealth and poverty? No, it's about a bunch of people shattered by the most pointless war in human history.
• Red Harvest (my personal favorite novel): Is it about the gathering of farm produce under a vivd sunset? No, it's about a smart man getting rival gangs to murder each other.
• Catch-22: Is it about fishermen? No, it's about the soul-crushing inhumanity of modern warfare.
• Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close: Is it about electron microscopy in a thunderstorm? No. Just no.

These titles are attention-grabbing and stimulate the imagination. They might suggest the subject or theme of the book or they may not, but they make you think and make you wonder.

Absolutely!