Thanks to everyone who dropped by #AmWriting this week to read my Name That Horror Movie Contest preview story, “Lady In White.” I had a lot of fun with it and I think my readers did too. That’s really the point, having fun around Halloween.

One unexpected twist for me was the sheer number of horror movie titles that were in my story. It really added to my enjoyment to discover one after another, many I had never even heard of before. Seems I have some movie watching to catch up on.

One issue that did come up is that with the open-ended nature of this contest it may be darn near impossible for readers to guess your movie title. To avoid reader frustration I have a few suggestions.

• Unless it is painfully obvious try to keep the words of your title together in your story. I did that in “Lady In White” – the movie title was “Rear Window.” The important line came near the end, when I figured the reader would be more engrossed in the story than in hunting for a title. “The woman in white screamed again and Randy bolted down the corridor, straight through the rear window, taking panes, frames, and draperies with him.”
• Try to avoid single word titles, as there are so many of those out there nearly any word in the story is a likely guess. If you do use a single word title it might be sporting to let your readers know that up front in order to narrow down the likely candidates a bit. Not using my own advice, my earlier preview story “Room With a View” is woven around a single word title. So far no one has guessed it.
• You may want to offer hints. You can do this right up front to give everyone an even chance, or offer some hints later if it seems your readers are completely awash. For “Lady In White” I ended up giving two hints before someone successfully guessed the answer. As to “Room With a View,” the same hints I gave for “Lady In White” apply. It may be more often considered a suspense movie, and the phrase, “Good Evening” might come to mind.

These are all just suggestions to give your readers a better chance of connecting with the ball (hey, it’s World Series time – I had to work a baseball metaphor in somehow – Go Cards!). If your story is already written don’t feel like you need to change a thing. But if it seems like you’ve completely stumped your readers have mercy on them and offer up a hint or two. Remember, even though there is a nice prize pack associated with the contest the point isn’t so much winning as it is to have fun, for both readers and writers alike.
~jon