Titles

[Michigan]

Just curious...

When you write, do you think of a title very easily or does it take forever? Or do you just not bother until it's completely finished, or leave your writing untitled? What methods do you use to brainstorm titles? What do you think makes a good/bad title? Do you think titles are important?

 

[novella]

I always have a working title for fiction, but I never know what I'm writing about until it's done. Sometimes not even then, ha.

When I write nonfiction, it's usually on contract and the pub will have a person who's just brilliant with titles and does most of them, no matter what I put on there. That's a very distinct talent. You don't want something too corny or derivative, it has to describe what's in the piece, but also have pull.

In general, I'm very critical of titles. I abhor, for instance, those ABC cat titles, Robert Ludlum titles are easy to satirize . . . a lot of titles just don't fit. Also, if you have to have a subtitle, your title probably sucks.

 

[Crystal]

Just curious...

When you write, do you think of a title very easily or does it take forever? Or do you just not bother until it's completely finished, or leave your writing untitled? What methods do you use to brainstorm titles? What do you think makes a good/bad title? Do you think titles are important?

I do think title is very important. But usually i cannot come up with a proper and arresting one. I am also interested in getting to know how others think about what can make a good title?

 

[novella]

I have a friend who says she can't begin to write unless she has a title. We shared a byline on a weekly item for a couple of years (a fun thing to do for a while), and our fluency was so different. I would just sit down and thrash through load of nonsense until it came together, then title it. She would think forever, come up with a title and slowly write one draft. And we would edit each other. But, IMO, what she wrote lacked vivacity and was academic in feel.

I think there is a type of writer who feels that the work must spring, like Athena, fully formed from the head of Zeus. That they might be embarrassed otherwise. I like the messiness; it feels like cooking without a recipe.

The 98-draft school. Shitty first draft, keep going. Anyone who likes to work like that should read Bird by Bird by Anne LaMott. She teaches writing somewhere, and that book is pure gold.

 

[Cathy C]

I'm TERRIBLE with titles! We've renamed our latest paranormal three times, and I'm still only lukewarm about it. Sigh... I have to struggle to create blurbs and loglines, too.

Cathy

 

[Prolixic]

I don't know. Sometimes I get an idea for a title and a story just sort of flows out of it. Those are the ones that make the most sense and usually I can read the title and it is all the writing notes I need. Sometimes I get a story all in a lump and I have to write like crazy to get all the details down before they go away and the title comes as I'm writing. If not I try to read back through and get a feel for what the thing is about and do a sort of word association thing, maybe get out the thesauri--etc. If I can't think of a good title I'll usually let it stew awhile because its not done cooking yet, if that makes sense.

But, yeah, a title is a make or break sort of a deal.

 

[Billy Oblivion]

Sometimes a title is there straightaway but sometimes it can be a struggle. As a songwriter I need to have a title when I perform a song Even though the songs might be part of an ongoing narrative you can't get away with calling them song 1, song 2 etc - the musical equivalence of chapter 1, chapter 2 etc.
Sometimes the title is a direct quote from the song - a line, a word, a phrase - but sometimes the title may be utterly divorced from the content of the song.
Sometimes I've had to title songs before I've really worked out what the song is about and then I have to change the title later; this can cause problems with musicians who aren't always of the highest calibre intellectually.

 

[K-Dawn]

I never make a title first. You can change your mind about a what the book is going to be about when you're halfway done with it. Take Tolkien for example. I read somewhere that he started LOTR over tons of times. If you have a set title that you absolutely love and need to have, and then you write the book and it has nothing to do with what you had thought it was going to be, and the title is therefore the farthest thing away from the idea of your book, then what are you going to do? Rewrite the book to fit the title? Keep the same title and just have it suck like that? Or are you going to think up a new title? If you are going to think up a new title then wasting time thinking of a title before you started is kind of like wiping before you poop. It doesn't make sense.

That's just how I see it. Some people have a nack for thinding up titles then writing a story based on the title, but not me.

 

[Prolixic]

I never make a title first. You can change your mind about a what the book is going to be about when you're halfway done with it.

Do you do working titles then? Or is it just Story46 until you finish and think up a good one?

 

[Michigan]

I haven't said anything about my experience regarding titles yet. So here it is: I usually can't think of a good story until part way through it, when I have a better idea of where the story's going. I have so many unfinished stories which I think I might come back to someday, I categorize my stories into documents of specific genres rather than give them each their own document. So I don't really give them titles unless I really like them and can think of them. I don't often find it easy to think of a title, even a working title, and I can't stand the idea of using a working title I hate.

Hey, here's another question: Do you think it's easier to title short stories/non-fiction/sequels?

 

[K-Dawn]

Well, I'm just working on one novel right now (it's the first one I've accually stuck with) and I just call it 'untitled' for now. when I'm done I'll read it over and think of a good title for it. Btw, I suck with names and titles. That's one reason why I don't name them right away.

 

[Prolixic]

Hey, here's another question: Do you think it's easier to title short stories/non-fiction/sequels?

I usually write until I'm done so length-wise the story sort of determines its length.