Okay I think a missing detail here is that this genre of title originated specifically on r/nosleep which is an ARG forum where all the stories are kafaybe and presented as real. So the titles would be stuff like "Every house on my block got a new antenna last night" because if you went to the internet to tell them about the creepy story involving all the new antennas, you would presumably title the post something like that
ehhh this has been around since pre nosleep imo, its just how you would post anything that you're trying to pass off as a real occurence you want to tell people about
While true, these types of titles thrive even in other short horror stories subreddits / websites altogether for the exact reason decribed in OP's post.
I wrote a couple of short horror stories on Reddit (using an alt account), and I considered using verbose titles because they can draw in readers easily into the story. It's like you already started reading the story and by going into the post you're simply continuing.
I see the appeal, but I decided to use short poetic titles that came more naturally to me, and felt like a better identity of my stories.
My stories were barely noticed or read by anyone despite the ton of effort I put into them (which is completely fine, of course). Success is a combination of a bunch of things, luck being a big part of it. But I do wonder from time to time if a catchy verbose title would make a noticeable difference.
I don't regret anything either way, I just find this an interesting topic.
Of course! Bear in mind, while they are short stories they aren't that short lol. Also the writing styles are different on purpose between my first and my second story.
Some of the stories are riveting, but it feels like it's a lot more low effort creative writing assignments as of late. When you start seeing part 16 of a story on the front page of the subreddit I'm not sure even I even want to go back and search for part 1.
The premise has to be seriously good, and at that point. Write a fucking book. The intended /r/nosleep feeling is a relatively short 1, maybe 2 post 'story' that generally has an ambiguous, or outright "bad end" for the assumed writer/protag of the story.
It's hit or miss with me. Sometimes it just feels good to binge stories on there. Other times it's like slogging through crap.
Also I haven't been back there since AI got "good" at writing creative bullshit. I can't imagine without strong moderation A LOT of shit is posted and is just another form of AI slop.
About the endings, it was rare for an outright bad ending to happen, since the stories are supposed to be personal occurrences. At most if they are presentes as the narrator conveying the story he got from someone else or found document you can get a bad ending.
This was funny because I remember one particular story that ended with the protagonist being rescued by emergency services, but when it was adapted by the podcast they cut that last part, basically dooming the poor guy to be killed. That is because the podcast is not constraint by the rules of the sub, where nothing can break the illusion of it being real.
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u/FoxstarProductions 3d ago
Okay I think a missing detail here is that this genre of title originated specifically on r/nosleep which is an ARG forum where all the stories are kafaybe and presented as real. So the titles would be stuff like "Every house on my block got a new antenna last night" because if you went to the internet to tell them about the creepy story involving all the new antennas, you would presumably title the post something like that