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.