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

[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