Author Topic: Titles!  (Read 10612 times)

Offline Dom

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Titles!
« on: August 26, 2007, 08:04:10 AM »
I don't think this one has been asked here before.  How do you guys make up titles for your works?  Do they come first, or last, or does it depend on the story, or are you going to leave it up to your editor (if you eventually get the thing finished, out there, and nibbled upon) because they'll just change them anyway? (a la Jim's Semiautomagic => Storm Front or Jacqueline Carey's Elegy for Darkness => Godslayer and Banewreaker)  (Semiautomagic and Elegy for Darkness I think both rock as titles, so I'm unsure why the editors in question changed them!)  Do you follow a set procedure for making them up?

Me, I like titles, but they come very haphazardly.  Some stories I make have titles early on, some take some dedicated brainstorming.  One thing I do try to do however is make the feel of the title fit the story--ie, urban fantasy needs urban-fantasy-like titles.  Epic fantasy needs to be a bit more epic.  :D

Here's a few of my titles...

Daughter of Lilith, Son of Eve - This is a riff on C. S. Lewis's "Son of Adam, Daughter of Eve" phrase in his Narnia series.  The story basically has two major characters that are half demon, one that's more humane than the other (Son of Eve).  Lilith, in mythology, is Adam's first wife, the one who would not obey his commands and was punished by being turned into the mother of demons, a large number of which are slaughtered by angels over a certain amount of time.

A Mother's Sins, Sin & Hex, Hexagramicon, and Baphomet's Icon are four titles in a dark urban fantasy series I'm working on.  They all sort of came at once, after more than a year of wrestling with an unflattering working title for the first story.  The first one refers to the fact that the main character's situations are mostly the direct result of his mother's prior actions.  And the second two refer to a hex that plays a major role in those two books.  Fourth is there just because I think Baphomet is cool.  I had a fifth silly one of Baph Water but...it's silly.  So.  Not really a title.

The Dragon King's Wife sounds sophisticated, like my Dragon King, less like an urban fantasy, and is directly about who the book is about--his wife! (This story is actually science-fantasy coming from the fantasy side of things)

The Dragon King's Daughter follows the same layout.

I have several other stories that just haven't dredged up appropriate titles yet...one of those stories is 12 years old!  The Dragon King's Wife came pretty much with the start of the story itself.  Daughter of Lilith, Son of Eve took a couple of years.  So I don't really have a set anything when it comes to titles.

How do you guys work it?
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Offline Drew

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Re: Titles!
« Reply #1 on: August 26, 2007, 03:15:27 PM »
Last.  I find it is one of the hardest thind to write.

Offline Tasmin21

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Re: Titles!
« Reply #2 on: August 26, 2007, 06:05:38 PM »
Titles are the bane of my existence.  Both of my current works have "working titles" but I hope that someone cooler than I can come up with a title for publishing, when/if the day comes.

Though, I did think up a REALLY great title the other day.  Now I just need a story to go with it. ;)

Offline CrazyGerbilLady

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Re: Titles!
« Reply #3 on: August 26, 2007, 06:14:07 PM »
I am TERRIBLE with titles.  Just awful.  LOL
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Offline BjustaB

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Re: Titles!
« Reply #4 on: August 27, 2007, 05:17:44 AM »
I do think titles can have a lot of power when it comes to attracting (or dissuading) readers. I don't think I would have read Semiautomagic.  The title makes me think of guns; not a subject I would choose to read about.

Offline blgarver

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Re: Titles!
« Reply #5 on: August 27, 2007, 01:03:16 PM »
I never really concern myself with the title.  I just start writing, and eventually a cool title just comes to me. 

The one I'm writing right now is called "Between Shadow and Dream" but I'm not 100% satisfied with it. Once it's done I'm gonna change it I think.

My fantasy trilogy already has a title, though I haven't written it yet:  Rise of the Shadow.  I don't have titles for all the books yet, but one of them is called "The Isle of Tears."

I love titles, and I can usually come up with some pretty fitting ones when I don't force it.
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Offline LizW65

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Re: Titles!
« Reply #6 on: August 27, 2007, 02:28:29 PM »
I'm great at coming up with titles, EXCEPT for whatever I'm currently trying to write.  ;D  I used to have notebooks filled with titles, but could never think of any stories to fit them.
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Offline blgarver

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Re: Titles!
« Reply #7 on: August 27, 2007, 02:43:56 PM »
I'm great at coming up with titles, EXCEPT for whatever I'm currently trying to write.  ;D  I used to have notebooks filled with titles, but could never think of any stories to fit them.

A best friend of mine works title first.  Awesome titles, and then the stories are always really awesome.  Now if he would just get around to writing them...

ahem...he's a member of the boards here, but is rarely on.
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Offline Josh

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Re: Titles!
« Reply #8 on: August 27, 2007, 08:57:51 PM »
I don't stress over titles too much, though I do try to nail them down somewhat when I get to making up queries for agents, just so they're interesting and put across the type of story it is.

My latest two titles and works are:

Dyssomnia


and

Paramnesia

Unrelated stories, but they give a flavor for what happens. For me, a title, like a character's name, is almost always fluid. It can change if something better comes along and fits well.
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Offline Mickey Finn

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Re: Titles!
« Reply #9 on: August 27, 2007, 09:34:38 PM »
A good title will get you picked up from the slush pile. "The Winds of Limbo Roar" got me noticed at the story read, then bought.

Consequently, "From Japan, With Love" didn't do well.

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Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

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Re: Titles!
« Reply #10 on: August 28, 2007, 01:59:58 AM »
I like And to My Nephew Albert I Leave the Island What I Won Off Fatty Hagan in a Poker Game, which is one of my father's favourite books, a very silly comic novel; title gets that across and is also plot relevant, the book being POV of the unfortunate nephew in question and about the island.
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Offline Drew

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Re: Titles!
« Reply #11 on: August 28, 2007, 02:17:15 AM »

Consequently, "From Japan, With Love" didn't do well.


Would "Love Zombies From Tokyo" do better?

Offline meg_evonne

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Re: Titles!
« Reply #12 on: August 28, 2007, 02:53:27 AM »
OMG neurovore, is your father single???  I can't believe that someone else remembers "And to my Nephew....."  It's still on our local library's bookshelves because I went looking for it again.  If he's single fix me up!  We ATMNAILTIWIWOFAHIAPG fans have got to stick together!   Only I think the What was W'ot in the English colloquel if I'm not mistaken but who looks that far into a book title with 19 words?  It was also a riot to see on the old fashioned card catalog listing!  It's got my all time romantic moment broken up ever!  Nothing like a Russian warship running between you complete with Russian's and AKA's.  Okay were there AKA's in the 60's???? anyway they had guns as I recall.

Any of the rest of you young kids----go find it, that and the Modesty Blaize books.  They'll be in the out of print stack, if you are lucky, at the Planned Parenthood Book Sale.   :D :D :D

Sad news, a collumnest (my G** A***** spelling) for the NY Post told me that she knew an editor that threw away any query or manuscript that didn't have a great title and read no further.  Wow, that can probably move one through a slush pile fast huh?  Wonder what great works ended up in her burn pile...  Such is the life of an author, I suspect.  Now really, I've procrastinated long enough.  Back to the writing, Meg...  See you all in a few days.
« Last Edit: August 28, 2007, 02:59:11 AM by meg_evonne »
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Offline Dom

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Re: Titles!
« Reply #13 on: August 28, 2007, 03:54:17 AM »
Would "Love Zombies From Tokyo" do better?

Depends on the editor's stance on necrophilia.
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Offline Drew

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Re: Titles!
« Reply #14 on: August 28, 2007, 04:09:20 AM »
Depends on the editor's stance on necrophilia.

Would that be a dead subject?