As a story unfolds, I often go back to the title to help me navigate the theme and significance of events. A good title promises that we will know more at the end than we did when we started.

“Afternoons in the Museum of Childhood,” Damage Control, by Amber Dermont

Amber read this story at Prairie Lights Bookstore in Iowa City. I was privileged to attend. The story begins with a kidnapping that recalls a famous case reported in the news. It ends with the young teen, recently restored to her parents, drifting in a hotel swimming pool. She holds the knowledge that her parents are having sex upstairs—an activity that cut short her childhood. A complex story, well-titled.

• “Hole,” The Theory of Light and Matter, by Andrew Porter

Count the number of ways you might use “hole” in a sentence (we might have holes in our heads, our memories, our hearts….)Holes frame our experience of this story about a young boy who tumbles into a sewer to his death. In this short, well-paced account, the author skillfully fills the holes in our understanding.

If you go to the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, take a workshop from Andrew. He’s awesome! 

• “Coyotes,” The Theory of Light and Matter, by Andrew Porter

A son grapples with his parents’ strained relationship. In a telling sentence he sits on a roof, looking out into darkness, listening to coyotes:

…believing that if I stared long enough I might be able to discover something meaningful about the way the world worked.

Good stories change you. I will pay more attention to distant howls.

• “The Siege of Eristavis,” by Tara Isabella Burton, The Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review

The title creates a mood that is sustained in the story. Tatiana invents a world and moves in. Against a canvas of poetic language she paints herself into a corner and loses her mind, if not her life.

• “House Hunt,” by Charles Ramsay McCrory, Breakwater Review, Issue 9

“Margot led David up the brick path…” Actually, Margot is leading David up the primrose path in her hunt to house him with a baby that isn’t his. It’s an old story.

• “Also Possession,” by Randall Brown, Failbetter.com

You tell your story in second person, using lot’s of apostrophes. In the end, you place your tongue squarely in your cheek. Cheeky person! What possessed you?

• “High Frequency Words,” by Susan Daitch, The Collagist

This high concept story shows how academia manipulates vocabulary to create meaning. As a bonus, I now have a handy list of the number of tiles and points per letter in a Scrabble game.