How to Write Better Titles: Add Bees, Bears, Honey, Sex & Flowers

My standard practice when writing an article is to begin with a template. The first space is Titles: I try to start with some basic boring title. Here is my list for this article: in reverse order. When the article is complete, then the agony comes from making a choice.

11. How to Write Better Titles: Add Bees, Bears, Honey, Sex & Flowers
10. How to Write Better Titles: Add Bees, Bears, & Honey with Sex and Violence Among the Flowers
9. Bees, Bears, & Honey: Sex and Violence Among the Flowers, How to Write Better Titles
8. Honey Attracts Bears and Buyers
7. Sex and Violence Dust Titles with Sugar and Honey
6. Sex and Violence Add Honey to Titles
5. Cross Species Sex, and Titles That “POP”
4. Sex, Violence, and Titles That “POP”
3. Titles That POP
2. The Evolution of Article Titles
1. Article Titles

I don’t know about you, but when I first try to think about a title for an article, my first effort is always a “Bleeh!” Which may not be a word, but does describe the result. Sometimes it is only a matter of a few minutes, and other times it can be days before a good title comes rising up into consciousness. I do know that every title needs something that attracts a reader, adds interest, has “zing”, and clearly has “POP”

My first for this article attempt was: Article Titles That what's the 1. means above.

Start with your subject. In this case “article titles”. Not what we would ordinarily call “sexy.” A real candidate for The Pablum Award of the Year. Still, it is a start, and at least names the project.

Next was: The Evolution of Article Titles That's the 2. above. And so on.

A step up, telling us what we want a title to do: evolve, change, grow, get better, grab an eye. At least the word “evolution” will cause an eye or two to pause, maybe. While it is not pablum, and may have moved up the grid to “bland”, it still lacks the certain special “something”.

Somehow, somewhere we need a change that adds richness, or “zing” to the initial attractor that begins the conveyance of the message. Flowers use color and shape to attract honey bees, but the bee also has to have some expectation of an additional pay off, the flower nectar. “Evolution” just doesn’t cut the mustard. Remember also that the flower has “special cross species sexual” plans for the bee.

Another title change: Titles That POP starts us along a new path.

This adds just a touch of richness, and gets right down to the goal, the “POP”, the eye attractant. We have the bee’s interest, now. The bee zooms in, lands on the petal, and crawls down the narrowing throat of the flower. And it tickles!

Now is the time to bring in the two things that always get a persons attention: sex and violence.

As the bee crawls inside, its hair touches, tickles, dislodges, and holds the waiting ripe male sexual gametes of the bisexual flower from the male sex organs, the stamens.

At the bottom of the flower throat, the bee collects its reward, a tiny drink of the nectar, which is essentially perfumed sugar water. You knew that there had to be something more to the bee’s “buzz” than you’ve been told. The hairy little bugger is on a sugar “high”. The bee then either backs out, or turns around to leave. Both batter and shake the stamens some more, releasing still more ripe male sexual gametes that dust the hairy bee with even more pollen. The bee exits and flies away to another nearby and nearly identical flower.

This time as it approaches, the breeze of its rapidly vibrating wings dusts the waiting female sexual organ of the flower with the pollen of the first flower. The female sexual organ is sticky and acts like flypaper to hold the ripe pollen. The male gametes grow down tubes to the flower ovary where waiting eggs are then fertilized. The flower depends upon the food gathering activities of an alien species to enable its sex life. Without bees, the flowers are doomed to extinction.

Which gives us our seemingly last choices spicy choices of titles: Sex, Violence, and Titles That “POP” and

Cross Species Sex, and Titles That “POP”

Your choice. How dd you enjoy your quick lesson on sexual botany (flowers), and entomology (bees) ? There’s just one related idea left undeveloped, and it might lead to a better choice.

Bees use the flower nectar to make honey. Honey is the “preserved left over flower nectar” stored up against the starving time of the winter when there are no flowers. How do they do this? When the bee collects the flower nectar at the flower, it swallows it. The bee uses some of the energy of the sugar to live, and to power those fast beating wings. At the hive, the excess, unused flower nectar is regurgitated as honey into waiting wax cells. The wax is exuded by bees much like you exude ear wax, or dandruff. The honey is sealed away for bears and humans to steal. Honey is aged, regurgitated, bee spit. Try that on your warm toast for breakfast.

However, we have added several warm welcome words to our word bank: sugar, honey and bears. Add them to our title somehow. . . and keep trying new combinations.

Sex and Violence Add Honey to Titles

Sex and Violence Dust Titles with Sugar and Honey

Honey Attracts Bears and Buyers

Bees, Bears, & Honey: Sex and Violence Among the Flowers, How to Write Better Titles

How to Write Better Titles: Add Bees, Bears, & Honey with Sex and Violence Among the Flowers



The point about writing titles is, keep thinking. Keep trying. Create a bank of possible titles. Just as books are reissued time after time with new titles, you can do the same with article titles. Look at it the next day. Have a partner try his / her creativity on the task.

(c) Copyright 2006: George Wallace recently published a book on religion which lashes out at nearly all of the comfortable ideas about God, the trappings of organized religion, and the priesthood. His pithy comments and suggestions for a return to a God-centered personal religion will interest everyone. This article may be freely reprinted so long as all copyright attributions, and the full content of this resource box are included. www.OhGodIsThatYou.com

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