insert title here

[serria]

I had a friend - no, not even a hypothetical, conversation-starter friend, a real one! - who chose titles before she had even started writing her story. I think for her, the title acted as a guide for her rough ideas, and she never wrote anything if the title wasn't already decided.

For myself, I am horrible with titles. They are very much an afterthought for me. At the same time, I'm really picky about them. Of course I want the title to reflect the work, but in a subtle way (without being overbearing). In fact, none of the three novels I've been working on have a title yet, even though they've been in the works for a long time. My fanfics pretty much always got their titles right before I hit the "submit" button, and my original short stories might've had a working title at best.

When do you choose titles? How do you choose them? Does anyone have any professional experience with submitting work, and getting any feedback or suggestions about titles?

Comments

[agilebrit]

Ugh, yes, I'm terrible with titles, and generally title something long after I've written it. In fact, I was going through the "what do I call this damn thing" process last night. It's a necromancy story, so I just looked up "Necromancy quotes" on Google and found some from (of all things) Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus" that are pretty spiffy.

When I write, story comes first, and then theme sort of peeks through. So what I do is finish the draft, figure out the theme, and then google for quotes based on the theme. Meantime, since I have to call the file something while I'm saving it, it gets a nickname such as "zombunnies," "angry bitter angel," or "glam Ben." Then when I've got the final, formatted draft, I call that file by the title.

I've never gotten feedback on my titles, although I've submitted three dozen stories hundreds of times. I'm certainly not married to my titles, and if an editor figured out a better one, I'd probably be all over it unless it was a title I adored. I don't have many of those.

[inkdust]

My file nickname and theme processes are similar to yours. I might have an idea of a theme I want to address in the story, but I really just start writing the story and then I begin to see the true themes. Theme is also my favorite basis for a title.

[sarillia]

That's how I go about my themes too. I might have some idea of them before I start but mostly they're something I discover as I go along.

[sarillia]

I like to use quotes too. Sometimes I start with this Concordance Index from Bartlett's Quotations.

[inkdust]

Titles are the worst! My senior thesis novel draft didn't have a title until after I'd submitted it to my reading committee, and I still wanted to give it more thought than I was able to. For the six or seven years that I'd been working on the story, I just referred to it by the initials of the four POV characters - "JNIS." I still generally think of it as that.

My future ideas I tend to save as whatever sticks out to me the most. For one of those that's "Medieval political fantasy." Another one is "Lorelei," the main character. There's no way I can even begin to consider titles for stories I haven't started writing yet.

For my current project, I just refer to it as "Ghosts." I came up with a tentative/working title during the rough draft that I actually really like, but I don't feel like I can safely say that it's the best option until I've finished more editing. I didn't even realize one of the most significant themes of the story until I reached the very last page of the rough draft.

I do prefer to create titles based on theme more than anything else.

[sarillia]

I used to despise coming up with titles but I think I'm getting better at it with practice.

My projects start out being named after the main character or if it's a work with a lot of POV characters I'll name it after the world. I wait to give it a real title until I feel like I've gotten to know the story. Sometimes this is during the planning stage, but other times I don't feel like plotting things out too much so it doesn't happen until after I've started writing.

Then I start picking out words that relate to the story. It can be an object that plays an important role or a mood or something related to the theme or something related to the story's catalyst. I mix and match them and see if I come up with anything that sounds good. The name of one of my current projects came from a mix of a dream that was important to the main character and a creature that plays an important role, so I came up with A Vision of Wings. Another one, One Voice in the Dark, was one of the story catalyst type.

If I can't think of anything I like then I look up quotes that have to do with the words that I listed and see if I can pick out phrases from them. I also like using sayings and idioms if possible. I've got one called Among Thieves based on the saying "no honor among thieves" and another called The Lion's Share that was an animal story about a herd of elephants having a problem with a lion pride.

[inevitableentresol]

I admire titles based on quotes, and they make me more likely to pick up the story, but I can never do it myself without feeling a little pretentious.

I've got one story in progress at the moment with its title based on a Shakespeare quote. I don't know if I can bring myself to use it although it suits.

[ayumidah]

I will normally choose a title before I start writing, it's always iffy if it'll stick or not though. Sometimes I shorten the title, sometimes I change it completely by the time I'm done writing it, if the story starts to feel like the title doesn't describe it properly.

[inevitableentresol]

I'm also horrible with titles.

Sometimes I start a story with just the title, and it inspires me. Which is fantastic, because job done. Only I usually realise the title is terrible half way through and have to change it. At least it inspired me for a while.

Has anyone got any helpful methods or tips for choosing titles? I would love to hear them.

What are other people's favourite titles, irrespective of the story itself?

Here are some I admire:

The Lord of the Rings (the slightly stilted phrasing sets the fantasy tone)
Blame Jeremy Bentham (it makes me wonder who that is and why I should blame them)
Alice in Wonderland (it sounds fun before I've even read the first page)
Bleak Expectations (a play on two of Dickens' works)
Jurassic Park (descriptive and economical)

[inkdust]

I'm sure there are many I'm forgetting, but here are some great ones to me (haven't read all of them):

And Then There Were None
The Things They Carried
Neverwhere
The Knife of Never Letting Go
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Where the Wild Things Are

[sarillia]

Yay, favorite titles!

One that comes to mind right away is one that I picked up purely because of the title: Hygiene and the Assassin. (I like weird things)
The Thirteenth Tale (I seem to like number titles)
A Long Fatal Love Chase (I picked it up and immediately knew that it would be exactly the kind of shamelessly dramatic sensational novel that I wanted)
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (I love fairy tale retellings and this one sounded interesting)
The Door into Summer (I find the imagery very provocative)

And some other random ones that just made me curious or caught my attention:
The Child Buyer
Briefing for a Descent into Hell
Invitation to a Beheading
Six Characters in Search of an Author
Haroun and the Sea of Stories

[lady_phenyx]

I hate doing titles so much. DX I can never seem to think of good ones. I usually have a friend toss ideas back and forth with me to try and think of something. So far the only ones I'm sticking with are "Diary of a Vampire" and "Blessed Chosen" - pretty much anything else is changeable up until (if fanfiction) I start posting it. I'm enjoying hearing how everyone else picks titles, though, and hoping to get some ideas myself.