Finding that elusive 'Title' ***share!***

[gwendy85]

Okay. You have a story idea. You have the plot. You have the characters. You begin writing.

Then, neglect the title.

This almost always happens in my case. For my first novel (backburner now, I'm concentrating on the second one), it took me three tries to get the title right. It's a love story set in the mob, jazz and booze-infested 1920s New York. There was "What Matter's Most", which seemed to tell of the story but not much with relation. Then there was "Across Oceans of Destiny" *shudder* which seem to relate to the overall background story and the circumstances linking the lovers together. Then, only after I had submitted to the publisher did I manage to revise it to "Harlem Nights". The publisher didn't push the change, but when I gave the new title, they loved it (loved the overall story too, though I must admit that the manuscript was very poorly written. I was 17 then, what the heck, I just turned my fanfiction into a novel w/in a single week, haha, but the publisher's encouragement sent me down a three year road to a new novel).

Like I said, I'm putting that story in the backburner for now but will be working on that once I'm done with this current novel I'm working on. Yeah, it's finished but the journey to the title...man oh man, that took a lot of work. It wasn't until last year that I finally got a title for it (worked on the novel since 2005). Genre is drama/romance/tragedy set in World War II Philippines. First title was "Ethics of War" *what? this a non-fiction strategy book?*, then "Two Sides of the Blade" *but this ain't focusing on action!* Then there was "In the Shadows of Falling Petals" *what a mouthful*, then, there was "Scattered Petals", "Shattered" *not original and vague*, then "Shattered Petals" *what the heck??!* and finally, after reviewing some common themes in the novel, I got the perfect title: "Fires and Embers", and I liked how it rhymed.

How about you guys? Care to share on how you got to your respective book titles? :hi::flag:

[Peachnuts]

Sure!
I give it a working title that changes as the story evolves. For instance, my novel (still shopping around) started as Boobs, then it changed to Hood Ornaments, and finally at the end the name came to me during a conversation with my husband: The Unravelling.
I never sweat the title because it will arrive by the last chapter.

[maestrowork]

The PACIFIC BETWEEN came about because the story happened in California and Hong Kong. Then there's the whole symbolic, metaphorical, poetic aspect of the title that fits the tone of the novel.

[mlhernandez]

I'm like Peachnuts. I give my WIP a random title that sort of relates to the story. For my erotica romances, I'll usually just title the WIP after the two main characters. When I'm finished I go to DH.

My husband is a title generator. I give him the hook, and within moments, he'll spit out four or five options. I don't know how the man does it but I love him for it, lol.

[blacbird]

I never worry about titles. Nearly always something arises in the course of the writing that offers a possibility of a good title, sometimes more than one, and I have to choose. Write your story; chances are something will come along.

My main problem lies with the words coming after the title.

caw

[Chasing the Horizon]

Coming up with titles is one of my favorite parts of writing (which is why I name each of my chapters too). I usually have my final title for a book within a few chapters of starting to write it. Of all my titles, I think the very first one I ever came up with remains my favorite. Chasing the Horizon, which is the master title for one of my fantasy series. It's perfect because most of the series revolves around pursuing magical artifacts, and also the hero's ship is named Horizon (he frequently ends up getting chased by things too).

My favorite individual book title is Never Let Go. The novel is about never letting go of your one perfect love, even in death, so it's extremely fitting. (I was shocked when a Yahoo and Amazon.com search didn't reveal any other books using this title). I had this book named before one word was written and never once doubted the title.

I generally name chapters after they're written. There always seems to be some line or theme that jumps out to be the chapter title (I make sure not to give away what happens in the chapter titles, of course). It's hard to choose a favorite of these because I have so many, but one that stands out in my mind is "Selling Out Antiquity" (in that chapter my hero discovers his enchanted relic has been removed from its ancient hiding place and sold by the governor of a small island to pay for a coastal improvement project to attract more tourists. I think I love the modern-meets-ancient theme in both the chapter and title.)

[Dale Emery]

How about you guys? Care to share on how you got to your respective book titles?

I have no deliberate process for creating titles, but I can I can tell you the sequence of events for the two novels I've written, my next one, and two ideas for later.

The first novel is about a twelve-year-old boy who returns home a year after running away, and finds that nobody knows who he is. The name Jeremy popped into my head within seconds of my thinking of the story idea. Within an hour or so, the name Jeremy Comes Home occurred to me, and it seemed just right. I've never considered changing it.

The idea for my next novel came from an idea someone offered on the NaNoWriMo forum: What if a single day repeats, but unlike in other stories (e.g. Groundhog Day) everybody knows the day is repeating? I went directly from that idea to the title: Many Happy Returns. I don't think I'll stick with that title because the novel is pretty dark, and I don't want an ironic title for this novel.

My next novel is a fantasy in which the magic has characteristics that make it fundamentally economic. Not long ago I read Stephen King's Danse Macabre, in which he says magic in fantasy stories is fundamentally about power. The juxtaposition of economics and power made me think immediately of my favorite book about power, Three Faces of Power by the brilliant economist Kenneth Boulding. So out popped the title for my novel: Three Faces of Magic. I still have to flesh out how Boulding's three faces apply to the magic (and its use) in my fantasy world, but I love this title so much that I want to adapt the story and fantasy world to the title rather than the other way around.

Two other unwritten story ideas with titles: A guy drops out of his life and builds a new life elsewhere under a new identity, but somebody sinister comes looking for him. My working title is Disappeared. That title seems obvious and lame, so I don't expect it to survive the first draft.

Finally, I have a story idea about two guys whose minds become linked over time, so that at all times each experiences what the other taking in through his senses. The obvious title: Mindshare. This time, for whatever reason, I like the obviousness. Unless something compelling comes up in the writing, this title will stick.

So my titling process is pretty intuitive. In most cases (so far) the title comes from the essence of the story. But in the case of Three Faces of Magic, it comes from my intuition combining a number of ideas only loosely associated with the initial story idea.

Dale

[kct webber]

I don't title anything until it's done. With my last novel, I named it after a festival that had been made illegal by the current rulers--a festival that would have taken place the day the story's climax happens. It makes sense, I swear. :)

[tehuti88]

Speaking from a non-publication standpoint:

I answered a post like this just yesterday in another writing forum. :o

To summarize, since I write mostly in series stories, the titles often build off of previous ones ("Manitou Island," "Return To Manitou Island," "Escape From Manitou Island," etc. etc.) and/or just come to me sometime during the "mulling" process. I. e., since I'm usually thinking about the next book in a series while writing the current one, titles will just sort of drift to the surface over time. The story probably exists in my head before the title does, but the title usually exists long before the story gets written. This is just part of the process of mulling over story ideas for months or years at a time.

With shorter stories, it's different. I usually write those (plus chapters in my novels/serials) without a title and come up with it when I'm done and after I've browsed over the story/chapter to see what would fit. I can't really say how I come up with one, it depends on various things. Sometimes it's a pun, sometimes it refers to something that took place in the story/chapter, sometimes it's a quote from it, sometimes it's symbolic. I just go with what works best.

Once in a while, the fit is awkward but there's little I can do. *shrug* And I still have a few where titles elude me. ("Random Scene 3," "Random Story 1," and "Random Story 2." Ugh.)

[Shadow_Ferret]

it took me three tries to get the title right.
Wow! 3x? You're good! I went through somewhere between half dozen to a dozen titles for the novel I'm currently subbing.

Sometimes my novel is almost finished and the title still says, "Title" and the file name is the first line of the story, or it's the name of the MC or something.

[Charlie Horse]

Hey, I'm writing the damn book. I figure someone else can come up with a title.

(Suffice to say, I suck at naming things and my apologies go out to every pet I've ever owned and also to my children.)

[AmusingMuse]

I wait until the end then decide what the story says the loudest.

"Light of Dark", there is a implication of good vs. evil, heaven and hell, struggle and resolution, duel levels of a playing field, contradiction - all reflective of my story line, primary character development and the conflict/problem needing to be resolved by them. I also have this "thing" with long titles.... eeeeeesh, and avoid them.

My "Adventures of Iggy Squiggles" and other children stories I've written, are more centred around actual life experiences either by myself as a child or what I see in my daughter, Katie. With this series, I use the fact that I often refer to her difficult side as Iggy, and her comedic side (yes, this child has inherited my sense of humor), as Squiggly, hence the title of this particular series.

A Moment In Time Series, reflects on adventures that happen in a different time/era, not of this world but uses references to it as a base. Each book is individually titled to reflect its contents and main storyline situated around my primary characters who embark on this incredible adventure towards self-discovery and resolution of a problem affecting their lives. Series writing is different and incredibly difficult. When asked how I achieved this, I simply state that I needed 20 years to get it right, lots of wine, rewrites, blah blah blah. But the simplist way I took to writing it and thus titling it, was to make it one great, big, huge story and divide it up into 12. That way my story flows and the adventure continues seamlessly and without fragmented breaks that make no sense. I simply added a title to reflect that stage in the adventure, again not big on long titles, and made sure it always reflected back to my main characters. I make it sound easy, but not necessarily so.

Within, is a sci fi book that I wrote in three nights during a time when my daughter was very sick and I couldn't sleep, hadn't slept for almost four days and nights straight. I poured this story out while sitting with her. This came out of me in one large gush. The story is about a complex built by terra farmering governmental agencies, on planets like the one in my book. But they cut corners and don't tell the terra farmers the entire details about this particular planet and without full disclosure, the people begin work settling this new world, without knowing of a darkness that has awakened and is hunting them. Greed, greed, greed and lack of truth for the sake of mankind, spurred on this title of "Within" because all true evil first comes from within us. I shelved this book for now. I was going to try and co-write it with someone more inclined to the sci fi genre but things happened, places to go, people to see... blah blah.

Dial 411-Dead, is exactly that. A phone, a call, from the dead. The twist is why. I am working on this now and it is almost ready for publication... ya ya (self-publication)...

My sequel to "Light of Dark", was titled "Sins of The Father", then "In The Name Of Sin", then "The Soul Collector"... now, I'm not sure which one I will go with, but it will be one of these. They all reflect the story-line tied to my primary characters.

I've co-written a book called "The Duplicates", which is a sci fi about cloning, I wrote with my uncle. Sadly, three quarters of the way done, he passed away. I really believe if I can find the right person to co-write the ending with me, this book will do well. But for now, it too is shelved until I figure out what to do.

I have many short stories too that I plan on extending into novels. But they too will be titled in the same manner, using the same principles I've used for the others.

Anyway, that's my 90 cents on the matter :D

Moving on...

[KTC]

My title comes within the first few sentences, usually. I don't really think about it.

The children's book I just finished recently had a bad character and one of the biggest hooks in the story was his ability to 'do things' to the kiddies who infiltrated his house. I called it: Dubious Pickles and the Space Between the Walls. (after the character's name and the fact that he was able to live within the walls of his house)

I wrote one about three boys who accidentally start a fire that provokes someone else to purposely start one to burn the evidence of a body...the story unfolds over the course of the summer. Its title: Summer on Fire. Now there's a stretch. I always feel that if I ever do anything with these novels, the titles will probably change anyway...so I don't spend a lot of time on them.

I just wrote one about a dysfunctional family. I called it by the family's surname. The Reasons.

Another one was about a folk singer who befriends and saves a young boy lost (metaphorically). I named it Sebastian's Poet. The young boy is Sebastian, the folk singer's nickname is Poet. Easy-peasy.

[Stew21]

My first novel was about a woman who returns back home (rather reluctantly at first because she's screwed it all up). She stays at her grandparents' lake house.
The experience changes her, (all the while being stalked by her evil almost ex-husband and falling back in love with a high school friend). I brainstormed one day on titles about half way through the first draft writing with no luck, then one day a character says "it's the lake effect" in reference to how they fall back into their old comfortable ways. So the title was Lake Effect.

My second novel is about a guy who has to straighten his life out in order to get his inheritance, has to help one of his father's old army buddies, and locate a woman that can put all of the puzzle pieces together of the increasingly strange messages left by his father. In order to do all of this, he has the help of Ernest Hemingway's ghost. So he's taking lessons on how to live his life the right way (with the help of someone who arguably didn't) and it only ever had one title. Taking Lessons from Ernest.
I have another one I'm working on now called The Big Empty - I'm still early on in the writing so can't tell you what it's really about, but I'm certain of the title.

I have a fourth one in the works now too, no title, but my word doc. title is The fish that saved the man. I don't know exactly where it's going either. But a young boy and his grandfather don't get along, and find themselves fishing together - the story of the fishing trip unravels against his present day adult life. When I do get a title, it will likely be a) obvious b) something a character says c) in the narration d) a metaphor for the theme

[ccarver30]

My titles have always come before the story. I'll think of a minimal plot then the title just pops in my head.

[RedScylla]

I suck at titles. After I have a story accepted I always have this sickening lurch when I realize it's going to be published under what I always considered its "working title." And then boom, suddenly that's the title and I think, "Oh crap, I didn't mean for that to really be the title."

The only exception to this is my novel (and short story excerpt of the same name soon to be published) "Other People's Dead Relatives." I love that title and it's just a phrase from the first sentence of the book/story.

[willietheshakes]

Sure!

I never sweat the title because it will arrive by the last chapter.

That used to be my belief, too.

Until I typed "The End" at the bottom of the new novel this morning, only to realize that I was no closer to having an actual title, and that UCNN (untitled children's novel novel) just wasn't going to cut it...

[cambric]

My title came to me before I started my book; it's actually the first sentence of the book too.

It the past, I've had hard times with titles but once I've gotten to the point of not worrying about it, it will usually pop into my head.

[James81]

I never sweat the title because it will arrive by the last chapter.

The only book I have finished (and almost revised and ready to go) I have YET to figure out a title for.

All unfinished stuff has a title.

I'm banging my head against the wall here.

[ricgalbraith]

differently to what seems to be most other replies, i had a set of words that i loved, decided they would be the title for my first novel, and wrote certain aspects of the novel around them.

They fit with the story, a sci-fi, pseudo philosophy batch of anger and madness. I'm not sure if convention usually works this way when it comes to naming books, but from the looks of other replies it's whatever works for you.

I've - from the start - left it a work in progress title as well, so i could change it any time i want, thinking that i was going to have to change it at the start. But it fits well, and does actually work so it's remained until this point, 2 chapters before i'm due to finish. interesting to read how everyone else has decided on theirs, anyone else find a 'title' and write a book around it?

[seun]

Titles usually come to me the closer I get to the end of the first draft. I don't worry about them too much. My WIP is Deep England which came as soon as I had the basic idea.

[BlueTexas]

I tend to find titles in revision, hidden somewhere in the text.

[WriterInTheStone]

Titles always came easy to me. I could come up with a 100 titles a day, easily. Then day dream what each of them would contain. It's filling the stuff in between that's kinda hard =/

[Deccydiva]

My titles have always come before the story. I'll think of a minimal plot then the title just pops in my head.
I'm exactly the same. I can't even start writing until I have the title. It's the focal point, it's what the plot hinges on and makes me jump up and down with excitement. The slight exception to this was "Polly and Friends" which is a compilation of separate works over an eight year period, and then some. I needed a theme so I could construct a beginning, a middle and an end; the title then became obvious. The first novel started life when I was was struggling with another one I was tossing around in my head. I started thinking laterally - quite deadly for an accountant so I use it sparingly - had an idea, the title came from nowhere and suddenly I had the whole concept sketched out in my mind. 100,000 words plus another few thousand in re-writes, and it's done. I have two more titles simply waiting for me the write the rest of the story...

[Paichka]

My title, which is unwieldy and perhaps gives away a bit too much of the climax, comes from the actual historical event that I pirated for my fantasy WIP.

"The Dance of the Burning Men"

I like it. But again, it may give away my ending. The actual dance isn't the important bit, though, and my Big Bad reveal sort of trumps it...so...meh. I had the title before I put pen to page, though, because I had the ending in my head before I had anything else.

[Phoebe H]

For most of my early short stories, the title would be a significant phrase, often the very last phrase of the story. This works well with twist stories.

For my most recent short stories, the titles have been thematic and evocative and came before I had even figured out the plot of the stories.

And then my novel is one that I have been working on for more years than I would care to admit, and always just had a working title "For the Glory of Vol" which I loathed. Actually, I thought it sounded an awful lot like a series title, but I was adamant that this was a stand-alone.

And then, the day I decided to put the novel aside for a few months to work on some short stories, so that I could, you know, actually complete something for a change, I had a pure flash of insight into exactly what one of the secondary characters was trying to accomplish (which was completely outside the scope of the novel), and instantly had plots for two more books, along with individual titles for all of them (Dissonance, Transposition, and Harmony), and the knowledge that "For the Glory of Vol" could be a series title after all.

So that's how my brain punished me for putting the book aside. Now I don't have one endless project...I have three. The only good news is that the first book will *absolutely* work as a stand-alone. If I ever finish it.

[Varthikes]

It's usually pretty easy for me to come up with a title for my work. Sure, I might change the title several times during the process of writing and/or editing. But, I'm not stressing over it. And, it usually changes only once or twice.

The first book of the series I'm working on was originally called "Draconia", which is the name of the series before I knew it was going to be a series. Then, I called it "Acts of Fear" for the misunderstanding that occurs between the Humans and the Dragons. Then, I changed it to its current title: "Forging Trust" for goal that the two main characters have of establishing a peaceful coexistance between their two kinds.

One novelette I wrote several years ago, though... There were actually two different stories taking place. One involving an dying alien needs treatment, but the only treatment is a source that must be kept secret from the greedy, and it may or may not work on the alien anyway. The other story involves the main character's daughter being threatened by a Dragon who disagrees with the Humans' presence on their world, and the other main character must fight to protect her. It wasn't until I was one of the last two chapters that I finally came up with a title: "Precious Life". Before that, my working title was "Drac3", where "Drac" was the series name abbreviated and "3" meant it was the third story I was writing for the series.

[sharla]

My title for my WIP came after the first draft...way after. It had a working title forever, then I did some major overhauls and added some edginess. I added sarcasm to my characters, and worked in one of my husband's favorite phrases he uses to irritate me when I'm in a huff about something... He'll tell me I'm being so salty. I used it, and then realized it fit the theme of the story. So my title of "A Little Salty" was born.

Probably better than "Bitchy OCD Psychopaths and Freaks"