Listing chapters

[Emerita]

I have written my memoir and I am struggling with names for each chapter.
Any clues as to how to go about naming them? I have the chapters listed, chapter 1,2,3 etc. Does there need to be a title with each chapter?
Can you just have Chapter One......page 2.

Or should it be:

Chapter One "The Torment Begins".....page 2

Thanks for any help...

[dawinsor]

Chapters don't need titles unless you want to have them.

Are you talking about a table of contents where you list chapters and the page on which each starts? If you're submitting to an agent, you don't need to do that because you can't predict how the pages will come out in the published form.

[Emerita]

Yes, I guess it is the table of contents. So when submitting to an agent, just send it to them without a table of contents? Just start with the story?

[dawinsor]

Right.

[PretzelGirl]

There's no reason why you need a table of contents or even chapter names. If you really want to, think of the main "theme" of each chapter and use that, even it's just a word.

[Cosmic]

Personally, I love finding names for chapters.
You can get some good foreshadowing, which is always fun. A little bit of 'bait' to egg on the reader and get them to stay up another hour.

[areteus]

Chapter titles are personal preference. Some writers use them, some don't. I don't think publishers or agencies particularly care or have guidelines on it (at least none whose websites I have read don't seem to). Sometimes it is part of the style of the novel (for example, I have seen novels that have not only a chapter heading but a paragraph of description about the chapter which I suspect is homaging an older novel style). To be absolutely honest, there is not even any rule that says you must use chapters it's just that many prefer them both to write and to read because it breaks things up into easy sections and therefore gives a sense of achievement (i.e. because being able to say 'Yes, I have finished chapter XX, only YY chapters to go' sounds better than saying 'I have written X,XXXX words, only Y,YYYY words to go')

And no, publishers do not require you to have your contents page sorted out. That's the job of the typesetter and they should have the experience and the tools to do it properly (I know from experience of trying to do one for my thesis how much of a pain it is to do it in Word...).

[bonitakale]

semi-irrelevant: As a reader, I hate tables of contents that go, "Chapter 1, Chapter 2," etc. Why have it at all? If you're going to have a T of C, at least name the chapters.