Titles

[splinteredstar]

How do you figure them out? It's not something that comes naturally to me. Like, most of my stories, if I have to explain them to others, are referred to by "that thing with (____)" or "character x's story". I generally don't use them inside of my head - I know which is which, after all.

All of this means that I have a whole bunch of major ideas, only one of which has a title. (And that one was from three drafts ago and doesn't reflect the current story at all.)

So. Titles. Do they matter? What makes a good one? How do you pick them?

Comments

[serria]

Titles suck. :P Back when I wrote fanfiction, I'd think of the title right when I was uploading the fanfic. I actually liked a lot of my Death Note titles, though looking back, some were pretty cheesy or a little random. My original stories are pretty much never titled - the file name is simply a one or two word scene description, or character name.

I like titles that have meaning but are more subtle. It really depends on the work in question, though, because it has to suit the story's style.

In the fantasy genre, I think there are a bunch of words that should just be banned from titles, because they are overused and sound cliche. Sword, magic, scroll, most royalty titles, dark, darkness, light, any element (fire, water, etc), song, dragon, shadow, etc. Okay, so that's not a 100% rule, and any of those words could probably work in the right title, but still. Then again, on the other hand, should a fantasy book have a pretentious non-genre title? "And the guillotine laughs again", "I know why the caged bird sings", etc. That would be a little strange, too.

Bah! Titles!

[splinteredstar]

I kind of liked DN's method of titling - pick a word from the chapter and go with it.

Gah, genre titles! "Dragon king of darkness!" "Light song!" I totally know what you mean.

Strange isn't necessarily bad, I think.