OneTaskBy Tim King · Updated
Chapter Title Generator
Novel and Memoir Chapter Headings in Every Convention
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How the Chapter Title Generator works
This chapter title generator mixes real naming patterns into new names. Generate chapter titles in the conventions novels use: The Letter and Silence as a one-noun heading, In Which the Lodger Departs as a Victorian summary, Wednesday and March, 1956 as a date, Harbour Street and Thornhold as a place, Elinor and Reyes as a point-of-view name, Part Two: The Long Winter as a part heading, and Chapter Nine: A Door Left Open as a numbered chapter with a subtitle. Pick a genre, choose a convention and generate up to a hundred.
Chapter title generator: choosing a name that fits
A chapter title is different from every other title on this site because it is never read alone: it sits in a numbered list on a contents page and at the head of a page the reader has already decided to turn, so its job is rhythm and orientation rather than persuasion, and a book picks one convention and keeps it for all its chapters, which is why the Convention select is the main control and the Genre select changes the words inside it. The one-noun heading, The Letter, The Orchard, Silence, The Iron Gate, is the modern literary default, an object or a quality the chapter turns on, and a contents page of them reads like a list of clues. The In Which summary, In Which the Lodger Departs, In Which Elinor Is Mistaken, Concerning the Ledger, is the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century convention, a comic or mock-formal précis of the chapter, and it is used today in pastiche, children's books and anything that wants a Dickensian tone. The date or day heading, Wednesday, March 14, June, 1941, The Ninth of October, is the diary and the countdown, used by thrillers that run to a deadline, memoirs that follow a year and literary novels that want the chapters to feel like entries. The place heading, Harbour Street, Thornhold, Berlin, The Farm, Winter, is the travelling novel and the multi-strand story, a heading that tells the reader where the next scene is before the first sentence does. The point-of-view name, Elinor, Reyes, Kaelen, Mum, is the alternating-narrator convention, one name per chapter, and it is now the standard shape for a multiple-viewpoint fantasy or a two-hander romance. The part heading, Part Two: The Long Winter, Book III: The Crown, Part One: 1968, is the division above the chapter, and a novel usually has three to five of them with a heading the chapters below do not get. And the numbered chapter with a subtitle, Chapter Nine: A Door Left Open, Twelve: Reckoning, 4. The Cold Harbour, is the compromise most novels make, a number for the reader's place and a short phrase for the flavour.
The words inside are ordinary English and the names and places are invented or generic, so a result is a new heading rather than one from a real book by design, though chapter titles are the most reused titles in fiction, The Letter and Wednesday head thousands of chapters, and they are not owned. A chapter title is also set small on a contents page and has to survive a hundred of its kind in a row, so the shapes here are one to six words.
For the book itself, the Book title page; for a short story, the Story title page; for the characters whose names head the point-of-view chapters, the People section; for a fantasy place to head a chapter, the Fantasy and Fiction section; and for the author, the Pen name page in the People section.
FAQ
Do chapters need titles at all?
No; most novels number them and stop. A title helps when the book alternates narrators, jumps in place or time, or wants a contents page a reader can browse, and it hurts when it gives away the chapter. If in doubt, number the chapters and title the parts, which is the Part heading convention here.
Should every chapter use the same convention?
Yes, within a book. A contents page that mixes one-noun headings with In Which summaries and dates looks unedited. Pick one convention, generate a batch in it and use the ones that fit; the Genre select keeps the words in the right register.
What is an In Which chapter title?
The eighteenth- and nineteenth-century habit of heading a chapter with a summary, In Which Our Hero Departs and Is Mistaken for Another, from Fielding and Dickens onward. It reads as comic or mock-formal today, so modern books use it for pastiche, children's fiction and any narrator with a raised eyebrow.
How do point-of-view chapter titles work?
Each chapter is headed with the name of the character whose eyes it is seen through, and the reader learns to expect the switch. It suits a book with two to six viewpoints; with more, add a place or a date after the name, Elinor, Winter, which the Point-of-view name convention also produces.
Can I use these names for fiction or test data?
Yes. The headings are ordinary English, the names and places are invented or generic, and chapter titles are not owned, so they belong to no one; coincidence with a real book's chapter is expected and harmless. For a manuscript, a contents page mock-up, a fictional book inside a story, an e-reader demo or a publishing layout test, use them freely.
See also: all Places & Things tools, People, Fantasy & RPG, Sci-fi, Culture & Language, Online & Social, Business & Brand.
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