Writing a title that works like a subject line

In an email newsletter, the subject line is the single line that decides whether an issue gets opened. On MossPaper the title of your issue does the same job. It is what appears in a reader's feed list, on the front page of the site, in the preview when someone shares a link, and at the top of your own archive. Most people will see it without the excerpt and without the cover image, often squeezed into a narrow column on a phone.

That makes the title worth a few extra minutes. Here is how we think about it at the desk.

Know where the title will be read

A title is rarely read on its own page. It is read in lists, among other titles, by someone deciding where to spend the next five minutes. In a feed reader, it sits under your name and above a dozen other writers. In a shared link, it may be cut off after a few words.

So the first words carry most of the weight. Put the specific part first. "Notes from a week of slow mornings" says less at a glance than "Slow mornings: what changed after a week". If the title gets cut off after four or five words, the reader should still know what the issue is about.

Keep titles reasonably short. Somewhere under about sixty characters usually fits comfortably in most lists without being cut, but treat that as a guide, not a rule.

Say what the issue is about

The most reliable title is a plain description of the lead. Readers who follow you already like your writing; they mostly want to know what this one is about. Compare:

• "Issue 42" tells a reader nothing except that there were forty-one before.
• "Some thoughts" could be anything.
• "Why I stopped buying houseplants online" tells them exactly what they are getting.

If you like numbering your issues, keep the number but put it after the description, or in the excerpt. "Why I stopped buying houseplants online (No. 42)" keeps the archive tidy without wasting the first words.

When an issue has several parts, title it after the lead, not after the collection. A title that tries to list three topics rarely reads well; one clear subject does. If you planned the issue around a single lead, as we suggest in planning an issue from loose notes, the title is usually already there.

Be specific, not clever

Puns and in-jokes can be charming in the body of an issue. In the title they often get in the way, because a reader who does not get the joke does not know what the piece is about. If you have a clever line, try it as the opening sentence instead.

Specific details do more work than adjectives. A few ways to make a title more specific:

• Name the actual thing: the book, the place, the tool, the recipe.
• Include a number when the issue really contains one, such as "three changes" or "a month without".
• Say what changed, what you learned or what you would do differently.
• Use the words a reader would use, not the ones you use in your head.

Keep the promise the title makes

A title is a small promise, and readers remember whether you keep it. If the title says "how to", the issue should give steps someone can follow. If it asks a question, the issue should answer it, or at least say honestly why it cannot. If it says "everything you need to know", it had better be complete, which is why it is usually best avoided.

Titles built to provoke curiosity without saying anything ("You won't believe what happened next") may get a click, but they spend trust. A reader who feels tricked is less likely to open the next issue. Plain and accurate wins over time. The site's guidelines also ask writers not to use deceptive links or misleading claims, and a title is part of that.

Write the excerpt as the second line

Where a title is shown with more room, it is often followed by your excerpt. Treat the two as a pair. The title names the subject; the excerpt says why it is worth reading, or what the reader will come away with.

A few habits for excerpts:

• Do not repeat the title. Add something new.
• Write one or two complete sentences, not a list of keywords.
• Mention the angle: a mistake, a method, a comparison, a story.

Where excerpts are cut short, the first half should stand on its own, just as with titles.

A quick check before you publish

Write three or four candidate titles, then run each through these questions:

1. If someone saw only the first five words, would they know the subject?
2. Could a reader who has never heard of you understand it?
3. Does the issue deliver exactly what it promises?
4. Would you be happy to see it in your archive a year from now?

Pick the one that passes all four, even if it feels less exciting than the others. Then read it out loud once next to your excerpt. If they sound like the same sentence twice, rewrite the excerpt. If they sound like a clear question and its answer, you are done.

Titles also show up in feed readers exactly as you wrote them, which is one more reason to keep them plain. Our note on following writers with RSS shows what that looks like from the reader's side.