Writing

Is Your House on Fire Too?

Remember this simple copywriting strategy to write winning titles

I learned a lesson the other day about writing titles. More specifically, I was reminded something I learned many years ago in training to be a copywriter. It is this: never approach the task of writing a title lightly. I remembered that it’s critical to dig deep to find unique titles for my articles, stories, scripts, and poems.

This is how it went down that day.

Realizing My Title Had History

I was sitting at my desk, in front of my computer…thinking. Yup, there I was sitting and thinking when I happened to look up in time to catch a glimpse of a notification on my iPhone screen. What I saw was ‘The House is on Fire’, a poem by…

I mentally screamed “Wait!”. You see, I published a little microfiction in July called House on Fire. (You can read it here.) So I was curious. I glimpsed a Medium writer’s name as it floated across my screen. And just as quickly, POOF, it was gone.

I grabbed my phone to try and retrieve that information. Did a quick search of my phone, my inbox, and Medium itself — -and came up with nothing.

Let me qualify that. I didn’t come up with the poem that I was looking for. But I did come up with similar titles. By that time, curiosity was burning me…like a house on fire! I was beginning to see the house on fire theme is a common one among writers.

Many Writers, One Theme

To illustrate my point, here are some of the writers (1–5 are on Medium) and their iterations of the ‘house on fire’ theme in their respective titles:

1. Shaunta Grimes: The House Is On Fire. We Still Have To Live In It. (September 20, 2019)
2. Rachel Edwards: The House is on Fire (April 26, 2019)
3. Mr. Mike Merrill: Chapter 1: The House is on Fire (July 15, 2018)
4. Andrew Thomas: The house is already on fire, so we might as well warm ourselves (April 29, 2018)
5. AJ Borowsky: Your House is on Fire (November 16, 2017)
6. Rise Against (a band) House on Fire (song released in 2018)*
7. Sia (solo artist) House on Fire (song released in 2016)*
8. Cate Kennedy Like a House on Fire (collection of short stories)

*These songs are different, each one written by its recording artist. It looks like the band Rise Against could be held for breach of copyright laws. Just sayin’. But that’s for another day, another article.

On Meaning

If you are old enough and a native English speaker, you might remember the ironic expression “…getting on like a house on fire.” The theme seems to be ingrained in our collective psychie.

On the platform Quora someone asked in October 2019 about the origin of this expression. Halina Minadeo expertly gave us this historical perspective of the expression after she defined it:

The Phrase ‘Get on like a house on fire’ means , as fast as a house would burn; very rapidly or vigorously. If two people get on like a house on fire, they like each other very much and become friends very quickly.

Then Minadeo adds a quote from 18th century Thomas Carlyle. According to her, he is quoted in 1741 on page 473 of ‘A history of New York, from the beginning of the world to the end of the Dutch dynasty, by Diedrich Knickerbocker’, by Washington Irving (1783–1859)

“In proportion, therefore, as a nation, a community, or an individual (possessing the inherent quality of greatness) is involved in perils and misfortunes, In proportion does it rise in grandeur — and even when sinking under calamity, makes, like a house on fire, a more glorious display then ever it did in the fairest period of its prosperity?

Unlike my microfiction House on Fire, all of the other content I’ve seen with similar titles, as well as the expression like a house on fire (dating back to at least the 18th century) are analogous. But the title in my wee story refers to a dream of a house actually on fire.

While I was searching for meaning in the content belonging to some of the above titles, I resonated most with Cate Kennedy’s. This award-winning writer wrote about Like a House on Fire:

…a house on fire is the perfect description for what seems to be happening right now: these flickering small resentments licking their way up into the wall cavities; this faint, acrid, smell of smoke. And suddenly, before you know it, everything threatening to go roaring out of control.

Final Takeaway

The lesson I learned about titles the other day? To think strategically about possible titles before settling on one. I learned years ago as a copywriter that an excellent approach to writing titles is to brainstorm each and every time you sit down to write a title. Write a list as long as possible — I have been known to aim for 25 — of ideas for possible titles. Narrow it down to a few, and finally to the winning one.

I went through a similar process to find a name for my new baby before she was born. Chances are, you’ve done that too. So next time you write a title, first brainstorm ideas like a house on fire! Only then, I believe, will you come up with the winning title that will not let readers pass by without clicking through to read.