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

[agilebrit]

I have the worst time with titles and don't usually title something until I'm done with it. I will usually grab a relevant quote from somewhere and try to distill it down.

So, my title for the thing I code-named "Hell's Process Server" became "Dash Thy Foot," from the 91st Psalm. My title for the cyborg werewolf story became "Too Much for the Whistle," from an essay by Ben Franklin. My mean streets story became "All Our Yesterdays" (and now I'm not sure of the source on that one) because my protag gets to exorcise some very personal demons from his past in that one. Clockwork Necromancer became "Servile Spirits to Invent" from Doctor Faustus. Etc.

But just the hunt for relevant quotes can take ages. I really try to find one that speaks to me and the story.

[ayumidah]

I generally give each story idea a title in my plot file. If they keep that title until I'm finished writing is up in the air, though. If I finish and the title doesn't fit the story any longer, I'll change it before posting it or whatever I plan on doing with it.

[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!

[serria]

I like those titles! Just saying. :D I like quote titles, if they aren't too long. Of course, the only thing is, people will assume your story has some deep connection or meaning to the title's source - which maybe it does. That's a good strategy for finding titles.

[lunabee34]

Oh thank goodness I'm not the only person who does this. LOL

When I have to title something, I go to google and search for quotes related to the theme of the story.

[inkdust]

I'm pretty terrible with titles. I might come up with a candidate while I'm writing, but other times I have no idea. But I haven't actually finished much, so I haven't been forced to go beyond a working title most of the time. I do give some thought to genre, though, like I intend for my story that's in editing to fit into general/literary fiction and so the title I'm considering for it fits the common The Adjective Noun format. My next story is probably going to be this medieval political fantasy idea, and I imagine whatever title I scrounge up for it down the line will not be that format. Of course I'm having trouble even finding a working title for saving documents for that one - I finally resorted to Character A | Character B.

[caecilia]

Few methods

- I keep a list of potential titles that I write down as they pop into my head.
- Sometimes I use them as prompts.
- I use random title generators, saving my favorites, and after a while I start to think of my own based on the patterns in the generators. My Fave
- Sometimes something comes to mind as I'm writing.
- When all else fails, use a line from the story.

[splinteredstar]

Hm. Relevant quotes is an interesting idea. Makes it all intertextual. Might try that some time.

[splinteredstar]

If they recognize the quote, which they might not. Might be a fun reference for someone who gets it as long as it's not meaningless for someone who doesn't.

[splinteredstar]

Yeah, I've got a couple that applied to the story as it stood... like, five years ago.

[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.

[splinteredstar]

Huh. Hadn't thought of generators. Interesting idea, might use those....

[splinteredstar]

Yeah, there's that - half my working titles are like "immortality thing" or "fish thing" or "vampire thing"

Yeah, genre matters. I haven't put much thought into that for my titles, maybe I should. Hm.