Write Away

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.