Story Titles
The title is the most important word in a short story, for it encapsulates the entire idea. I chose two anthologies of short stories (The Best American Short Stories of the Century and The Art of the Tale) and visualized the titles of their stories in the form of two posters. These diagrams visualize the number of words per title (between 1 and 10) and the frequency of individual words (most apparent is the frequency of "The").
Poster 1 layers the individual words of each story at 8% opacity over 10 word slots, visualizing the fact that most stories are titled with 1–3 words and there are very few stories titled with 7–10 words. The layering also visualizes the overwhelming frequency of "The" in slot number 1. "The" turns the word that follows into a title, making the word singular and specific.
Poster 2 expands poster 1 into a legible key of each individual title, ordered alphabetically and by number of words per title, in decreasing tints of black.
Both of these diagrams are inspired by the idea that stories are layered upon each other, chronologically in time, creating a foundation for future stories. "The entire history of the short story is passed down, generation after generation, like a relay runner's baton, and the art of the story continues." —Daniel Halpern, Editor, The Art of the Tale
