Trolling for Titles
About ninety percent of the time, I know my title before I even have a firm grip on the story. Spanish Disco was always Spanish Disco. I briefly, during the writing, thought of changing Roland's and Cassie's dance to the tango. But the title, like Gloria Gaynor, survived, a glittery, disco-ball salute to excess.
The Poker Diaries . . . always The Poker Diaries. It was that title even before I quite knew who my lead character was other than a poker-playing teen. It was that title as the book's plot morphed completely.
Luckily for me, titles pop into my head all the time. Maybe it's a form of insanity. I have dozens of titles for books that don't exist and may never exist. A line in a song . . . suddenly I have a partial book title.
When I am stuck, I become a title whore and go trolling about the Internet, looking for good quotes, hoping something inspires me. I will read quotes by famous dead people. Eleanor Roosevelt or Albert Einstein. I will go read a physics textbook. I will just open my mind to the fact that perhaps, somewhere, one or two words will spring into my head and voila . . . I'll have my title.
Thus yesterday. My new book title/wip is The Devil's Agents from this quote:
The devil's agents may be of flesh and blood, may they not?
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
I like it. Suits my characters. Totally fits the storyline.
So what do you do when stuck for a title? Or are they always there in your mind? And do you have to have the title before you begin? I do. I can MAYBE write a chapter or two, but beyond that, I NEED a title to ground my metaphors and to help me see the big picture.
The Poker Diaries . . . always The Poker Diaries. It was that title even before I quite knew who my lead character was other than a poker-playing teen. It was that title as the book's plot morphed completely.
Luckily for me, titles pop into my head all the time. Maybe it's a form of insanity. I have dozens of titles for books that don't exist and may never exist. A line in a song . . . suddenly I have a partial book title.
When I am stuck, I become a title whore and go trolling about the Internet, looking for good quotes, hoping something inspires me. I will read quotes by famous dead people. Eleanor Roosevelt or Albert Einstein. I will go read a physics textbook. I will just open my mind to the fact that perhaps, somewhere, one or two words will spring into my head and voila . . . I'll have my title.
Thus yesterday. My new book title/wip is The Devil's Agents from this quote:
The devil's agents may be of flesh and blood, may they not?
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
I like it. Suits my characters. Totally fits the storyline.
So what do you do when stuck for a title? Or are they always there in your mind? And do you have to have the title before you begin? I do. I can MAYBE write a chapter or two, but beyond that, I NEED a title to ground my metaphors and to help me see the big picture.
posted by Erica Orloff at 6:45 AM
14 Comments:
I have what I think is a pretty good title for my wip, inspired by a Bible verse.
I like to come up with titles that have never been used (I Google them, and search Amazon), and I don't make them public because you can't copyright a title.
http://www.lulu.com/titlescorer/index.php is a fun little site where you can test the "bestseller qualities" of titles. The book I sent out last week scored a 70 (83 being the maximum), so I thought that was pretty good.
Because I happen to know your title . . . I think it's a great one.
E
Thanks, Erica. :)
I think all your titles are excellent, too.
Erica, I do the same thing. Usually the title does change once but I always know what it is.
Hi La:
I sometimes go through a title change, too. But I still can't get started until I settle on something. :-)
E
Titles are pretty tough for me. I'm afraid I'm not very creative. I go with the basics. Like Graffiti Girl, the book is about a graffiti girl. See? Simple. I wish I had better ideas!
haha!
Hah! You've finally struck on something I don't obsess about, and here I was all worried I had already developed every writerly obsession known to man!
A couple of decent titles have just come to me, and I hope I get to keep them if...when they go to publication. But mostly I just save the docs under whichever name I type first. Which can get confusing when you walk away from a project for a while. I've got a 'johnny.doc' on my computer. Hmm, what the hell was I writing about? A toilet?
kelly:
Yeah, but simple is best, I think.
E
lainey:
LOL! I save ideas under weird names, too. Then I open them and think . . . what the hell was this all about?
E
I have trouble with titles quite often.
Sometimes I throw something out to people I know who are excellent with them--like, "I've been calling it Seth Loves Julian but it's only dream sequences and they don't wind up together, it's more about the stresses of his new life with Cassie and the comeback of the band and the temptation of his old lifestyle versus the new demands and the ways Cassie has changed and yet the only thing that's the same is Julian at his side, solid and unchanging."
And then I wait patiently. :)
natalie:
LOL! Sometimes I used to ask my writers' group for suggestions, too. But usually, it does come to me.
E
I have to admit, it never works.
The first time, everyone liked the lame title I'd slapped on the book temporarily.
The second time, no one came up with anything. I dug out my Oxford Thesaurus (LOVE it) and pulled a good title together.
This time...well, the person just laughed. ;)
I always need a title to write, and I usually confer with my CPs until something hits us that we all agree fits perfectly!
The title of my book being pubbed in September 'The Second Virginity of Suzy Green' wasn't the original title, but I like this better.
sara:
Glad to know I'm not the only one!
E
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