Great realisation. And when it comes to titles, I’m totally with Jack Preston King and White Feather on this one. Particularly with literary work — such as poetry, fiction or personal essay, I think of the title as part of the art of the piece, and often something that doesn’t reveal itself until the end. (Case in point, I’ve been mulling over the right title for a poem in progress for days now — think I might have just cracked it — maybe…) And it’s about the heart of the piece — which usually doesn’t translate to click-baity headlines. Unfortunately on sites like Medium, this means newbies don’t find your work easily — but it’s about building up that audience.

I realise most of my titles here don’t turn up on Google searches, as many are one or two word titles. My one exception is a poem I wrote for my husband’s last birthday, which I titled (in the moment) “Love Song for my husband” — and which is currently turning up №3 in a Google search for those words (with my highest number of views ever, on a Medium piece). But again, there was no click-bait intention in that title — it was a spontaneous attempt to show the heart of the piece. Which takes me back to the point where I came in…