Title a chapter or not title a chaper,that is the question

[atwhatcost]

[mammamaia]

'statics' is an amusingly apt misspelling there!

[cynfranks]

I love to title my chapters because it helps me to focus it and plot it on the story line. I do the same thing with scenes in a play. However, I cut them before anyone sees them. They often only make sence to me and either confuse the reader, set-up misguided expectations in the readers head, or tip my hand. As much as I enjoy creating them, I know I must cut them.

[cynfranks]

[MookyMcD]

I'd do it in a heartbeat if the project called for them. Neither my MS or WIP does, but I could certainly envision one that did. I don't know that there is an answer to this question beyond a case-by-case answer.

Although I keep finding that's the way with a lot of these things.

[Swallow90]

I'm writing a YA novel and have numbered the chapters as I'm writing and then will give them titles on the second draft when I've moved things around a bit.
As a reader, I like a quirky chapter title, particularly song lyrics etc, or something a bit cryptic.

[mammamaia]

avoid song lyrics unless you can afford to pay for their use, or they're in the public domain...

[DrG2]

I'm reading the first "Percy Jackson" book and every chapter has a "spoiler" title.

[kentsmith9]

For my current (first) novel, I decided to use the date as my chapter markers. Since so much happens in a day around the world, I thought it was helpful to the reader to know for sure when we had moved to the next day. That way when I returned to a scene in one location vs another, I would not have to blend in something to the scene about the day change every single time. The chapter marker automatically did that for me, keeping it more streamlined in my view.

If that turns out to be a newbie writer mistake, I can certainly make adjustments easily enough, but I think it helps me unfold the story one day at a time.

Within the chapters between scenes, I am just using a second double space gap. That seemed to be common enough in this genre.

[mammamaia]

dating the chapters is fine... often done for such storylines...

but 'line breaks' within the chapter should not have any blank lines or extra lines... should only have a single # placed in the center of the line between scenes...