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Does anyone else have trouble thinking of a title for their work in progress?
I find choosing a title one of the most difficult aspects of writing a novel.
I have read somewhere that many authors come up with the title first.
I wish I could come up with a title that I like. Even when I do find a title the chances are that next week I will hate it. Then I am not happy until I obsessively go through all the pages written so far to change it.
Has anyone any tips on how to come up with a decent title?
I usually find the title first, all upcoming books have their titles, but before now, before 'organisation' by them around me, I used to choose a title from the work itself. It's something you can leave to the very end, if you have to, just call it XXX for now and work on.
I know I will want to change the title at some point as the story unfolds, so I just call is 'Space Story' (for a Sci-Fi piece) or 'Moving Home Story', or 'Angry Man Story'. Just enough of a suggestion as to what it's about, but then I can get on with it and leave the big decision until much later.
I don't stress over titles. I make something up - even if its just using the opening words of the story and then when I get ideas, I jot them down. The odd thing is though, that its often the very first idea I have that I go with. I did read that one word or two word titles are the best. Short and snappy.
I don't have a problem with titles, one of my strengths I suppose, because I always find the title for a story.
But I am not indulging in self-congratulation, what I am saying is that although finding titles may not be your strength (and I am saying maybe), but invariably you will have other strengths that you need to focus on and the rest will surely follow.
I can't name my stories until they're finished because it throws me and I start writing around the title instead of concentrating on the plot, characters etc. In order to save the drafts I'm working on I'll name them something bland and meaningless such as, 'Test' or 'Story2' etc. until I've completed the whole thing.
I find the title the easiest bit. I have loads of titles mulling around my brain - now all I have to do is unearth the stories to go with them. May take some time!
The Dandelion Clock came from an episode in the book.
Precipice which originally had a different title, but one with which I wasnt happy comes from the depression the main character suffers from.
All About Sex I toyed with the idea of calling this Josh after the main character; but then had Josh saying: You still think this is all about sex when its not. Its about love. And, as they say sex sells, I stuck with the phrase from the book.
The titles of all of the collections are taken from a short story inside.
A Different Kind of Love was going to be Atlantic Drift a story with no narrative and which begins with the letter a; but then we decided DKOL summed up the entire collection. (That story had originally been called A Different SORT of Love to avoid any confusion with A Kind of Loving but, when two people referred to it as Kind, I decided to go with the flow.)
The Loss of Innocence struck me as a strong story with a good, overall title.
Slubberdegullion a word your computer may not like I found when I consulted Rogets Thesaurus when two characters were having a slanging match. It was such an unusual word, but not a difficult one to pronounce, that I decided its memorabilty-factor would be useful.
I choose the working title from how I think about it the one Im working on at the moment is No.250 Chiaroscuro. Sometimes the working title is adopted as the final one. All About Sexs working title was Long Day. (I think I also considered something to do with butterflies for the final title.)
Apologies if this is duplicated - something odd's happening when I try to post.
I sometimes have a problem with naming the main character, so then I'd do the first draft with MC where the main character's name should be, and put the name in later.
I have to admit that at the moment the challenge for titles is a big one. I take them from the poems of John Drinkwater and the poem has to match the person as well as the title.
I took King Charles' title, 'Of Fools and Kings and Fighting Men' from a poem called 'Epitaph for a Masque,' the words fit this sad king. I later found out that his father had imported the masque from Italy.
Comments
I find choosing a title one of the most difficult aspects of writing a novel.
I have read somewhere that many authors come up with the title first.
I wish I could come up with a title that I like. Even when I do find a title the chances are that next week I will hate it. Then I am not happy until I obsessively go through all the pages written so far to change it.
Has anyone any tips on how to come up with a decent title?
But I am not indulging in self-congratulation, what I am saying is that although finding titles may not be your strength (and I am saying maybe), but invariably you will have other strengths that you need to focus on and the rest will surely follow.
Hope this helps.
I feel a bit better now about my lack of title.
I will try to put it out of my mind and I hope I can think of something later.
Precipice which originally had a different title, but one with which I wasnt happy comes from the depression the main character suffers from.
All About Sex I toyed with the idea of calling this Josh after the main character; but then had Josh saying: You still think this is all about sex when its not. Its about love. And, as they say sex sells, I stuck with the phrase from the book.
The titles of all of the collections are taken from a short story inside.
A Different Kind of Love was going to be Atlantic Drift a story with no narrative and which begins with the letter a; but then we decided DKOL summed up the entire collection. (That story had originally been called A Different SORT of Love to avoid any confusion with A Kind of Loving but, when two people referred to it as Kind, I decided to go with the flow.)
The Loss of Innocence struck me as a strong story with a good, overall title.
Slubberdegullion a word your computer may not like I found when I consulted Rogets Thesaurus when two characters were having a slanging match. It was such an unusual word, but not a difficult one to pronounce, that I decided its memorabilty-factor would be useful.
I choose the working title from how I think about it the one Im working on at the moment is No.250 Chiaroscuro. Sometimes the working title is adopted as the final one. All About Sexs working title was Long Day. (I think I also considered something to do with butterflies for the final title.)
Apologies if this is duplicated - something odd's happening when I try to post.
I sometimes have a problem with naming the main character, so then I'd do the first draft with MC where the main character's name should be, and put the name in later.
I took King Charles' title, 'Of Fools and Kings and Fighting Men' from a poem called 'Epitaph for a Masque,' the words fit this sad king. I later found out that his father had imported the masque from Italy.