I hate hate hate coming up with titles. Hate it. Sometimes they come to me, but that’s very rare.
My favorite title is for my short story, I Look Forward to Remembering You, about time travel and how our main character hires someone to go back in time to change her past. So it fit. I feel like that was my ONE CLEVER TITLE I’ll ever get.
Playing For Keeps’ working title was Keepsie’s Bar. That changed when Cory Doctorow workshopped the first chapters at Viable Paradise and wrote “GET A REAL TITLE” on the cover page. I’m still not 100% happy with it.
I wonder, if HEAVEN ever sells to a publisher, if i’ll need to change the title simply because it’s not a Christian book, it’s not inspirational, and the title could be misleading. Interesting that I never worried about this when it was a free podcast.
My work in progress after HEAVEN Season 5- War is called merely Project: Underground. That’s named after one of the businesses in the novel, Underground Publications, but I do know that the final book won’t be titled that. I still don’t know what to call it. It’s driving me mad.
Another book I’m brewing in the back of my head had a perfect title. Then I found out that a YA book is coming out this fall with the SAME DAMN TITLE. I know it doesn’t stop some people- hell, there are several books title “Playing For Keeps.” How many songs are titled “I Love You” or “Lullabye” or “Crackity Jones”? (OK, I’m pretty sure the last one has only one.)
Titles can come from characters’ names. Or settings names. The setting names seems like a cop-out. I just read Amberville by Tim Davys and the book takes place in Amberville. On the other hand, the TV show “The Office” is perfectly name, as it brings across the bland existence that the characters endure in the office. Titles can come from something that happened, or a specific maguffin in the story (“Charlotte’s Web”). But what symies me is when to decide what path to take. Person, place, thing? Action? Specific occurance in the book? How about a quote from the Bible or Shakespeare?
This is more of a rant than anything else. I struggle with this with everything I write. Sometimes I feel like I hit it, othertimes not so much. And I always wonder if a story/book would have more resonance if they had had the perfect name.
I’m dealing with a funk that was supposed to be done with on Wednesday night (Yes, sometimes I do demand my moods stay on schedule, don’t you?) and I’m really hoping to kick it this weekend. I don’t like functioning like this. So pardon the lack of useful blog post.
Writing prompt for June 12: New supporting character: The half-brother no one ever talks about comes home. He doesn’t need money, a job, or hiding from the law or the mafia. What does he want?
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I have a file that I started long ago. Nothing in it but clever titles. Over the years, I’ve managed to write to about half of them – like “The Fall of the House of Escher,” but many sit and wait.
I’m currently trying to finish a story titled “Glen and the Tart of Mortar Psycho Maine Tenants” – but the jury is out.
D
Man, can I relate to this one. (I usually can relate, actually, but this one moreso). I suck so hard at titles. Any stories I’ve written with titles I actually like were named by clever friends. This post actually got me to thinking about the title to my WIP, on which I’d pretty much given up and settled for the crappy working title. Okay, it didn’t help me come up with a better one (yet), but at least I’m thinking about it again. I’d call that useful.
Ironically, I have the opposite. The number of titles I have in my head dwarfs the number of actual story ideas by a wide margin.
One thing that could help you though is using song titles or lyrics as book titles. LOTS of authors do this. Black Magic Woman is the only one that comes to mind at the moment. Well, and my book too, but I don’t want to look like I’m just pimping it.
Poems are a good source too. I recently stumbled across a novel titled Wintersong after a poem by Sylvia Plath.
Well, I’m not sure how your writing prompts work, but I feel the need to do it.
The half-brother has returned tell main character he screwed-up big time, and needs main’s help. 1/2 bro is odd, and likes to mess around with “dark magic” which is why he’s never mentioned because everyone thinks he’s crazy. He got mad at his father, which happens to be main characters father as well , and did some voodoo from a musty old book he found back when he was ten. He didn’t expect it to work, but it did (kinda). instead of causing pain to dad, it sent him into a dual demention.
It turns out that 1/2 bro DOES indeed have powers that he didn’t know about, because when examaning musty book to try to find a way to get dad back, he saw the family crest imprinted on the side. Now he’s come to you for help because he can’t go to dual demention on his own, and the magic seems to run in the family.
Also, Titles can be a pain sometimes.
You don’t know how good it is to hear it’s not just me!
I’ve been referring to my current WIP as “Miracles”, which is not at all what I plan on calling it, but I don’t really have any better ideas yet.
Of the titles I have come up with that stuck, my favorite is “Nothing Happens to Xintesity Bateman”, but usually my working titles are fairly useless.
Anyone have a good system they’d like to share?
I dunno – I thought Playing for Keeps was an inspired title. It worked on multiple levels. Heaven, on the other hand…I can see the problem. You might like the sales from Christian groups, but the disappointed mail afterward might not be worth it.
For me, titles are a big part of the fun. All 60 chapters of my first novel, Between Heaven and Hell, are individually titled. For me coming up with a fitting title is a vital part of getting a sense of the story.
The title of my first completed novel is “Storm Chaser”. It’s about a storm chaser. There’s originality, for you.
Titles are hit and miss with me. I find it easier to finish a story if I like its title. However it is easier to name a story once it is complete.
My most recent title came from looking at the theme of the story and picking words that fit the symbolism, all stemming from one phrase that showed up twice in the story. Not exactly a repeatable process. (I consider it a plus that I was able to identify theme and symbolism in my own story when neither was consciously constructed.)
I always shy away from people’s names in my titles, probably because I can never remember names. I seldom have success building stories from titles, but I’ve been known to try. After all, why waste a perfectly good title?