| Ah yes, the title. The first thing anyone knows about your book. It has to be pithy. It has to be clever. It has to be dramatic. It has to perfectly encapsulate your whole book in just a few words. To be honest, I've never had much of a problem with titles. In fact, I actually love titles. I have a whole file of titles I may use someday. I would say nine times out of ten, the title is the first thing that comes to me. And I find I write to the title, or rather, the title shows its perfection to the point that by the end of the book, it fits the book in several different ways. Take Personal Demons for example. (Well, don't just TAKE it. Buy it, please.) The title came to me first. Wouldn't it be fun to use the old cliche about battling one's personal demons in a new and literal way? Yes, of course it would. So who might do that? Well, it's kind of cheesy to say you'll battle someone's personal demons, so it might be, like, a talk show or radio show, or the title of a book written by a fame-hungry type. Radio could be fun. But a likeable protagonist wouldn't be the type who likes the catchphrase. Ho ho! Now I have instant conflict and a smidgen of character. If my MC was somehow forced into employing the phrase...and the real personal demons heard it...and something about her made them think she was actually capable of destroying them, like maybe she's psychic... As the book went on I realized more and more situations and characters in the book could fit the title. Megan Chase's demon bodyguards become her "personal demons" in a way. So, possibly, does a demon love interest. And at the end...well, I won't give it away. But one of the most fun and satisfying things about titles is realizing it fits the book in more than one fashion. Of course, then you have the flipside. You sell your book, and then find out a Very Famous Author of Whom You're a HUGE Fan has given her upcoming book an extremely similar title. Or, as happened with the Personal Demons sequel, you've barely started writing it before you discover another book with that title (The Demon You Know) had just been released. Luckily I came up with another title which fits the book much better, and I'm getting ready to turn The Demon Inside over to my editor in the next week or so. In fact, I believe my new WIP is the first book I've ever written--with the exception of my awful trunk novel--that did not have a title immediately. Or rather, it did, but the title clearly didn't fit from the start (although I'm keeping the title in my file, because it is cool). So I retitled it "Hidden Spooks", which is AWFUL, and I basically just it slapped on there so I could save the file AS something. The other day I hit on the perfect title, Unholy Ghosts, which I know is perfect because, again, I can think of several ways it fits the book. That's not to say I wouldn't change a title. I have. Several of my EC books originally had different titles, and I just sold them a novella which needed a new title (which I'll announce on my own blog tomorrow.) Editors know more than me about what sells or how they want to market the book (and in the case of EC, they don't repeat titles, so once I [and my writing partner on that book] had to retitle because someone else had already used mine [ours]. Which I guess would make it THEIRS, but thpppt. MINE! MINE!) One of the first things you learn is not to get too terribly attached to any of your clever wordplay. Titles are a silly thing to get worked up about, IMO. Much better to wage war over semicolons. I'll go to the mattresses for semicolons. So back off. |
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Titles hate me. The perfect one for my WIP was right on the tip of my tongue last night, then it saw it was about to bestow itself upon She Who Brutally Abuses Monikers and fled, no doubt to someone better able to appreciate it...
I can't come up with a decent title to save my life. :-(
I have a hard time focusing on a story until I know the title. It seems to help me focus on the core of the story. But I usually come up with them after I have already started the book.
I love titles myself. Most of the time, I have a title that I just put in for a working title (Muddy Reflections) and it ends up being perfectly appropriate to the story. Others were planned from the title and I just framed the entire book around the idea of the title.
I have to have a title though, mainly because I have to name my notes file something. :)
I always title my wip but do my best not to become attached to them. Since I know it will probably changed anyway.
Titles fuel my desire to finish a piece. I love coming up with a title that gives information about what the whole book is about. Some titles give a hint, or a name, or mention one aspect of the book... I want the main point advertised loud and clear. And the fun part is thinking about what that point is in the first place! lol
Kelsey E. Johnson Defatte
Sorry, Kerry. But remember, there's always another fish in the sea... :-)
Don't sell yourself short, Bunnygirl! You're better than you think.
I agree, JC. They help me focus. I can always come up with more than one, but the one I used all along always feels best to me.
Lol, D, me too! I have to save the doc as something, which is why I ended up with awful like "Hidden Spooks". I keep trying to make things easier for myself by giving books titles that start earlier in the alphabet (so I don't have to clock so many times in my file directory) but they keep ending up near the end. Sigh.
True, Vicki. I try not to get attaced. But I do secretly love my titles. :-)
Exactly, Kelsey! (You don't mind if I just call you Kelsey, do you? My poor hands!) A good title, one I'm proud of, does give me inspiration and fuels me to keep going. I guess because it feels real when it has a title, even if I know it will change?
I'm not picky about titles - several of mine have been changed, including Zombie Jack, which was origianlly Jack's Back - but there was already a book by that title at Loose Id! LOL
I don't mind changing either.
And I won't go to the mat about semi colons either.
I'm picky about vocabulary. When my editor complained that readers might not know the meaning of a certain word, I told her not to underestimate my readers - or the power of a dictionary, lol.
I have a duology that I have titles for... simple titles, ones that hint at the book but don't give anything away. I amazon searched them just to see... and got anatomy books. And my favorite book I've put aside til I've improved my craft? I found that it was the title of a psychology text. Hahaha... I think I'm in the wrong business?
>>I have a whole file of titles I may use someday.
Me too :D
I continue to be delighted on how you turned that cliche on its head.
Sooo satisfying.
And I hear Jack's Back is awesome, too, Sam! Which doesn't surprise me. :-)And oh, I do hate that stuff about the vocab. Know just what you mean.
Lol, Missy, or just very clever.
It's a good thing to have, isn't it Michele?
Thanks Bernita! :-) I admit it does please me.