Titles - how do you choose yours?

I find coming up with titles the hardest part of writing, honestly. Often, I let a friend of mine read my manuscripts, before I do anything with them at all. She's come up with more titles for my stories than I have. I don't know what I'd do without her.

I just wait. Something comes up. I don't freak about it. If I don't have a title, I just chose something that sounds reasonable.

I like creating mysterious titles that would attract the reader's attention. But most of all, it must also be related to your story.

My first book's title was easy. It was in my head by the time I'd written three chapters. Unfortunately while I was writing the sequel I referred to it as G2 (The Gatekeeper 2) and so a real title never came. After finishing the story, I had to manufacture one and I'm still not happy with it even though it will be in print in a few months' time. Unfortunately I'm having to rename the first book for USA/Canada because of a similarity with the name of another book already pubished by my publisher (The Gamekeeper).

So, yes. I find major problems with naming my stories.

ebwatt said:

I tend to struggle with titles for my stories. When I'm working on a story I'll give it a very literal name (e.g. if the story is about an old man it's called "Old Man").

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That worked for Ray Bradbury.

Hopefully this isn't a double-post--I'm having some Internet trouble ...

My current WIP title comes out of the tabloid/celebrity culture. When I came up with the hook (before I started the story), I wanted something that both showed that tabloid/celebrity culture and had a urban fantasy/magic aspect to it. So I hunted through the tabloids, looking for titles of articles and celebrity nicknames to get a feel for what I needed. I made a list of about ten of them and came up with a nickname that did the job.

Sometimes I get the title before I do the piece, other times, like for the series, I used the MC's name and 2 words for the secondary title which describe the whole mess: Sorceress' Game--almost everyone's a pawn; Soul Teind--a tithe spending time in a demonic realm is the cost for life, sucess, etc, but there's a monkey's paw twist; Balanced Scales--the MC keeping her equilibrium among her human/sorcerous/dragon parts; Labyrinth's Edge--just because you're at the end doesn't mean you are out of the maze.

I try to keep the titles 2-3 words--easyer to remember for buyers.

When I started my novel, I struggled to come with a title. It did bother me for a while but then I just figured I'd work out a title eventually so just let it go. Sure enough a title just popped into my head one day when I was at work!

I'm not great on titles. Mine usually just name some important person or thing in the story:

"Tomatoes"
"The Doll in the Window"
"Geldman's Pharmacy"
"Servitor"

The ones I like better are a little more mysterious, because a reader won't immediately know what I'm talking about:

"A Native Soul"
"The Patience Rose"

I have a list of over a hundred titles for my second novel, but haven't picked one yet.

For some reason, titles have always been the easy part for me. I great title will come to me and I create the story around it- kind of backwards i know, But I have to have the title in my head before I start to write-

Now that's now to say I don't change the title or the story somewhere along the way, and I know the title is subject to change once it is in the hands of a publisher.

You know, this is odd. I just realized that when it comes to titling my novels and serials (long items), there isn't really any thought in it, it just happens. Then again, this might be made easier by the fact that the stories are long (meaning I have more time to mull over a title), and are in series (meaning the sequels can often have a title that takes off from the title of the first story--e. g., my Manitou Island series--"Manitou Island," "Return To Manitou Island," "Escape From Manitou Island," "Beneath Manitou Island," etc.--though I admit I'm confused as to what comes after "Beneath"!).

It's a different story with short stories and chapter titles, though. I find that I'm kind of general and literal with short-story titles...they're often of just one word or phrase which has a bearing on the plot of the story. For example, a story about sibling rivalry was entitled "Two Brothers" and one about a stalker was called "Obsession." One about a little boy named Ihi stealing a sacred fish was called "Ihi & The Fish Of Ra." A story about someone remembering abuse by first recalling seeing a crack of light entering through their bedroom door was entitled "A Crack Of Light." So I'm not terribly creative in that respect.

I find my chapter titles are somewhat more creative because I often rely on song titles which are indirectly related to the chapter's action ("Dreaming While You Sleep," "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"), or are puns/plays on words based on the same ("Guns & Dozes," "Stealing & Stalling," "The Lair Of The Liar," "An Ice Twist"). Sometimes they're just goofy ("Dude, Where's My Camp?"). I try to make them relevant to the chapter but kind of interesting or fun at the same time. The ones that aren't, I try to make dramatic ("A Hatred Like Fire"--this chapter dealt with a fire-throwing character basically exploding with rage; "Prisoners Of The Fairy Realm" is meant to be kind of intriguing; etc.).

One good technique I've found is to find an interesting phrase in the story which is relevant to the main plot--even if it's just one little seemingly meaningless phrase--and make that into the title.

Eb, I find my titles in a few sources, so maybe it'll work for you, too.

First, I look within the text itself for the perfect short phrase. This is hit or miss, but my novel stalled on a not-good-enough query letter found its title this way. Ideally, the phrase will have two meanings, be insightful, address the theme, or serve some other lofty and/or dual function.

Second, I seek quotations about some aspect of the novel. If I'd written Black Beauty, for example, I'd seek quotes about horses, service to others, pulling a load, whips and other cruelty to animals, beauty, kindness, and such. Shakespeare, the Bible, and the Romantic poets usually come through when you use the right terms.

Last, if I just don't like my working title, I ask anybody who's critiqued a chapter or beta-read the whole if they've got any ideas for a better title. Often people are happy to brainstorm, especially face to face.

Maryn, hoping this helps

The titles of my short stories tend to be pretty literal and simple as well. The exception is the titles for humorous stories. Those titles usually just jump out at me while I'm writing. (For example, "Finnegan's Pig: Or How Saskatoon Got Bacon For Seven Years (A Cautionary Tale)")

Finding a title for my novel is proving to be extremely difficult. I'm about 1/4 of the way through the first draft, though, so I'm not stressing about it yet! My assumption is that a few different options will jump out at me as I continue to work on it. If options don't jump out at me, I'll ask my copy editor to come up with some good ideas. She's full of them.

tehuti88 said:

though I admit I'm confused as to what comes after "Beneath"!).

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Above! Beside!

After you run out of locations relative to Manitou Island, you get to start titling stories based on characters. Queen of Manitou Island. Cannibals of Manitou Island. Outlaw of Manitou Island. Monster of Manitou Island. Hunter of Manitou Island.

Then, it's major events. Storms, political uprisings, invasions.... Heck yes!

(I love me some serials.)

Above Manitou Island

Cannibals Of Manitou Island

You know, those two actually make sense. *LOL*

I never have any problems deciding on names for projects. At times, the name comes to me during the early stages of drawing out the plot. I've always seen a lot of writers complain about struggling to come up with a title but, to me, it's almost a natural process.

This is how my book titles are chosen:

1. I choose a title.
2. My agent and/or publisher hates it and asks me for a list of alternatives.
3. I write up a list of alternatives.
4. My agent and/or publisher hates them all.
5. Much angst.
6. My agent and/or publisher titles the book.

First, I decide what kind of sense I want the reader to take away from the name (whether it's a title, a character, a place, whatever, it all works the same for me). Once I know what the sense is, I start playing with stuff and being aware of what's around me until something feels right. When something feels right, it's a nice and crunchy (as Jennie Crusie phrases it) and it just works.

That is, until it changes. Then it generally needs a new title 'cause it's a new story. Which is where I'm at with my present MIP.

For me the title just pops out. I like titles that I can reference in the book. I often ask what/who are the main characters in other words how do they relate to one another? My first novel was about a family of cousins but they didn't relate to each other as cousins would. They acted more like sisters so "Sisters" became the title. In one of it subsequent sequels my novel focused on the cousins children so "Generation Two" became the title.

Tips for choosing the right title for your writing:

1. Create as many list of titles that you want.
2. Create titles that are catchy to make it very appealing to the reader.
3. Titles that are new and unique to the eyes of the readers is a plus.
4. Try to make a survey or ask the opinions of your friends and readers
5. From your list, try to remove the title that you do not want.
6. From the titles left, you can choose which is best for that writing.


Hope this helps..

I often find titles in the things my characters say.
Or sometimes I take them from well-known quotes or phrases that are relevant, or lines from poems - that sort of thing.

I don't choose titles....they choose me.

Seriously, this is the hardest thing for me (aside from getting disgusted with how to handle dialogue and dialogue tags).

Sometimes a title is there from the beginning (like my current WIP), but most of the time it's laborious to come up with a title.

I thought long and hard, and really let my creative juices flow. My novel is about a boy who plays ball. The title I came up with is, Play Ball! I may have got carried away with the exclamation point at the end.