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McAnally's (The Community Pub) => Author Craft => Topic started by: CSDylan on July 07, 2009, 12:10:53 PM
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It's obvious that a lot of series use a consistant style for their titles.
The [blank] for Animorphs
Dead is in the title of all the Sookie Stackhouse books (as far as I know
Jim uses two word phrases for Dresden (or used to I guess)
I was just wondering what you guys thought were some good patterns you've seen or are considering using. Personally I've taken to useing Bob Dylan songs, if only as working titles.
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It's obvious that a lot of series use a consistant style for their titles.
The [blank] for Animorphs
That's really not a very stringent constraint, dude.
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Maybe not stringent, but it was a definate theme: The Invasion, The Deception, The Stranger, The Message, ect. I'm just curious what kinds of patterns other people have noticed, liked, or used themselves.
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well, I'm not published, but if I had a wonderful classy hook series title pattern, I'd probably hold that card close to my chest, where I would share a plot idea easily. Hooks are much more valuable in my opinion. Sorry! ;-)
Note though that the Twilight Series sold, not because of the titles (or the witty dialog - tongue in cheek) but because of the phenomenal cover art that tied it all together. So even a good hook title pattern isn't the only way to go.
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Yeah, Meyers (or her publisher) was smart to choose iconic single images rather than a campy harlequin nonsense to match the crappy--excuse me, campy inside content.
I do think title patterns are a great idea if managed correctly, but not essential.
It's like rhyming in poetry. The important part is the concept, but what really makes a poem impressive is being able to have a beautiful flow of words while still getting the same point across, it makes for much better literary art. I hate those pieces of classic crap "poetry" that's like a long sentence divided up in random places.
A common title pattern is to leave one word the same throughout.
Ex. Inkheart, Inkdeath, Inkspell
Magic Burns, Magic Bites, Magic Strikes
I think they're cool, but they can only add to something that's already good. If the story's bad, it doesn't matter how clever the title is.
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It's obvious that a lot of series use a consistant style for their titles.
The [blank] for Animorphs
Dead is in the title of all the Sookie Stackhouse books (as far as I know
Jim uses two word phrases for Dresden (or used to I guess)
I was just wondering what you guys thought were some good patterns you've seen or are considering using. Personally I've taken to useing Bob Dylan songs, if only as working titles.
Jim uses two-word phrases with same number of letters in each word, I'd point out. :)
RA Salvatore's on a 'Fill-in-the-blank' king kick right now: Orc King, Pirate King, Ghost King, etc.
I can't title my stories til they're done. My novel has been title-less for six months now.
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I can't title my stories til they're done. My novel has been title-less for six months now.
I cannot make a satisfactory title until i finish a story. A real story, not my 2,000-5,000 word compositions or even the lengthier 35,000 word ones i have. The two attempts i made at an actual novel had several drafts of titles throughout the process of writing, but i assume that i'd ultimately come to the decision at the very end.
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Plus I've had published authors tell me that the marketers, agent, and even the bookstore buyers selected the name in the long run. Hey, if they publish it, I figure they know what titles will sell.
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Plus I've had published authors tell me that the marketers, agent, and even the bookstore buyers selected the name in the long run.
I know a fairly successful author who had a title changed at the last minute because it was judged too closely similar to the title of that month's flagship release from that publisher; so the first book in the series in question has the title that was ment to be the series title as a whole.
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Some other title patterns..the Weather Warden series is a different weather phenomena, the Rachel Morgan witch series are all takes on movie titles--all but the first are Clint Eastwood movies, I believe. The Harry Potter books all have a plot element in the title. The Alera titles are pretty easy to figure. I know there was something else I'd thought of, but now I can't remember.