Titles are so easy to come up with- what's your problem?

ccarver30 · Aug 14, 2012

Augsburg's Writer said:
My trouble is that the title for the story keeps changing. As the story progresses, the original title didn't fit. The new "working title" seems awkward and cumbersome.

So, I am trying to decide what to do. Title isn't really the problem, it's deciding how to tie to whole story together with a title.

Sounds like you're a "title laster".

SeanCordernay · Aug 14, 2012

I generally have a good idea of what my title will be while writing. When everything has come full circle, the title then comes rather naturally to me.

Niniva · Aug 14, 2012

Hmmm... This WIP is the first novel I've ever written with the thought of publishing in the back of my head. It titled itself "Taint" around 25k and makes use of the common definition plus the local hoodoo definition (evil spirit). I don't even know if it's going to stay that way. Until then, the working title was just a godawful thing that I never want to see again.

blacbird · Aug 14, 2012

I've generated short stories from title ideas alone. Our esteemed JAR has said the same thing, more than once. But that doesn't always happen, by any means. I've also changed titles on stories, and a couple of novel manuscripts, one at least four times, and still not entirely happy with it.

caw

sadbeautifultragic · Aug 14, 2012

I'm generally not very good at coming up with titles --- most of the time it just comes to me at some point during the WIP.

Actually, I have a funny title story. I was looking through names (like, names for people) for another WIP and I saw one (it was something Japanese, I don't remember it though. Uki or Saki or something short like that) and the meaning was "floating hope" and I was just like, DUDE. I HAVE TO WRITE SOMETHING ABOUT FLOATING HOPE BECAUSE DUDE. So I just started typing up this random scene between two nameless lovers and something about "mid-air hope" came up and... yeah. I was really happy with myself and decided I needed to write this "mid-air hope" thing. And now I am and I'm killing myself over it but you know what, I am still in love with everything about it.

Sunflowerrei · Aug 14, 2012

blacbird said:
. F. Scott Fitzgerald famously was awful with titles, which led to his publisher coming up with things that sound today like Soap Operas: Tender Is the Night, This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned. I don't recall exactly what Fitzgerald's original title for The Great Gatsby was, but it had something to do with eggs and was hilariously bad.

He wanted to call it Trimalchio in West Egg. I'm horrific with titling, but I'm not that bad.

Rhoda Nightingale · Aug 15, 2012

Most of the time I'm pretty good with titles. I've strugging once or twice for the same reason Ausbug's Writer said--the story changes as I go, and I have to change the title--but only once or twice. I have slightly more difficulty naming characters, but only slightly.

ccarver30 · Aug 15, 2012

blacbird said:
Titles and character names I have no problem with. They seem to come easy, and I never get so invested in one of either that I'm resistant to changing it when necessary. But I recognized that my experience here is not universal. F. Scott Fitzgerald famously was awful with titles, which led to his publisher coming up with things that sound today like Soap Operas: Tender Is the Night, This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned. I don't recall exactly what Fitzgerald's original title for The Great Gatsby was, but it had something to do with eggs and was hilariously bad.

BUT, I damsure do have big problems with other things, more important things, that many writers find easy and natural, so I ain't bragging here.

caw

You mean like the location of the book? West/East Egg? It's not like he wanted to name it Scrambled eggs in a time of sorrowful catsup!

Persei · Aug 15, 2012

I can't come up with titles to save my own life. Since I made the leap to write original fiction only, I just pray I will have a title by the time I end writing my first draft.

Ralyks · Aug 15, 2012

I don't put too much effort into titles. The publisher will just change it anyway. I have no problem thinking up titles, my problem is narrowing down from four favorites to one.

onesecondglance · Aug 16, 2012

I tell you what's annoying - coming up with a title, and then finding out when you Google it that it was the name of something else too famous to ignore.

I know I've never heard of the other thing, but I still have to write off a good title because of the misconceptions it might give others. Grr! :rant:

JoGrix · Aug 16, 2012

I have to be careful about titles, because if I don't, I tend to call them by their working titles, which do fit into the idea of the story, but can be trouble.

I have a WIP that I call Gemini Warriors, for instance, the problem is that The Gemini Warriors is supposed to be the series title and I'm stuck scrambling for something more original than 'The Gathering' or something.

On the other hand, my Camp NaNo novel is Warrior's Rage, but I refer to it as the Elven Story most of the time without confusion.

I think the worst I ever did was a fanfic that I entitled Hansel and Gretel intending to do a twisted version of the fairy tale, and then ended up having the story be just about kidnapped kids, making the title horribly awkward. Especially given that the sequel to that one might fit the title better.

If it's just a story idea, I tend to follow the "Friends" style, The One With The...(insert key aspect here).

Titles are so easy to come up with- what's your problem?

ccarver30

Nicole Castro

SeanCordernay

Niniva

Life is just a bowl of cherries...

blacbird

sadbeautifultragic

Sunflowerrei

Rhoda Nightingale

Vampire Junkie

ccarver30

Nicole Castro

Persei

Let it go

Ralyks

Untold stories inside

onesecondglance

pretending to be awake

JoGrix