" The bracketed comments, of course, are ours.
[Footnote 9: Charles Raymond Barrett, _Short Story Writing_.]
_3. Titles to Avoid_
Judging from the titles of many dozens of scripts that the writers
have seen slipped into the "stamped addressed envelope enclosed" and
sent back to amateur photoplaywrights, one of the greatest mistakes
that the young writer makes in his choice of titles is in making them
commonplace and uninteresting. When an editor takes out a script and
reads the title, "The Sad Story of Ethel Hardy," would he be
altogether to blame if he _did_ put the script back into the return
envelope utterly unread, as so many editors are accused of doing yet
really do not do? To anyone with a sense of humor, there is more cause
for merriment in the titles that adorn the different stories that a
photoplay editor reads in the course of a day than is to be found in a
humorous magazine. Yet it is as easy for some writers to select a
good, attractive title for their stories as it is difficult for
others.
Do not choose a title that will "give away" your plot. The title
should aid in sustaining interest, not dull the spectator's attention
by telling "how it all ends." To quote Mr. Harry Cowell, writing in
_The Magazine Maker_: "A title is a means to an end.
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