How do YOU name your novel?

Regan Leigh · Oct 3, 2009

I'm sick of not having a name for my WIP. I sorta had one in mind, but its already taken.

My latest ideas:
Controlled Breathing
Lucid Death
Luckless
Untimely Tempest

Um, yeah. Clearly, I need help.

How do you name your stories?

scarletpeaches · Oct 3, 2009

Doesn't matter if it's already taken. There's no copyright on titles.

How do I name mine? I just have a search through my brain and see what phrase fits. Often this happens when I just have a vague idea for the story and any further development occurs as a result of me asking myself, "Now what further twists would resonate with my working title?"

Nine times out of ten, the working title stays.

Also, it's interesting how thethinker42 names her novels. She sends them to me and waits for me to come up with a title.

thethinker42 · Oct 3, 2009

scarletpeaches said:
Also, it's interesting how thethinker42 names her novels. She sends them to me and waits for me to come up with a title.

Yep, 'tis true. 2 of my 3 contracted books were titled by SP. Of my finished books, probably half, if not more.

The ones I come up with? Hell, I couldn't say...sometimes something just fits.

Regan Leigh · Oct 3, 2009

scarletpeaches said:
Doesn't matter if it's already taken. There's no copyright on titles.

I know, but I've heard it is best to have an original so that it isn't hard to find or for someone to know which is yours, etc...

How do I name mine? I just have a search through my brain and see what phrase fits. Often this happens when I just have a vague idea for the story and any further development occurs as a result of me asking myself, "Now what further twists would resonate with my working title?"

Nine times out of ten, the working title stays.

Also, it's interesting how thethinker42 names her novels. She sends them to me and waits for me to come up with a title.

Oh, maybe I'll try that if I don't have any luck.

I have had ideas for working titles, but hated them all.

Regan Leigh · Oct 3, 2009

thethinker42 said:
Yep, 'tis true. 2 of my 3 contracted books were titled by SP. Of my finished books, probably half, if not more.

The ones I come up with? Hell, I couldn't say...sometimes something just fits.

Yeah, I keep feeling like I should already KNOW it. I'm in another revision and I know the story well, but the name still alludes me.

What do you charge SP?

thethinker42 · Oct 3, 2009

Regan Leigh said:
Yeah, I keep feeling like I should already KNOW it. I'm in another revision and I know the story well, but the name still alludes me.

If it's any consolation, I worked on my fantasy novel for 10 years (3 full drafts, working off and on over the years) and didn't come up with a title until I was 20,000 words from the end of the 3rd draft.

What do you charge SP?

She steals a piece of your soul. Not a problem for me, since I don't have one, but I figured I should warn you.

Regan Leigh · Oct 3, 2009

thethinker42 said:
If it's any consolation, I worked on my fantasy novel for 10 years (3 full drafts, working off and on over the years) and didn't come up with a title until I was 20,000 words from the end of the 3rd draft.

Good to know I'm not alone!

She steals a piece of your soul. Not a problem for me, since I don't have one, but I figured I should warn you.

Yes, but will it catch an agent's/publisher's eye? I mean, that's what really matters, right?

Maybe I should keep brainstorming and then do a poll. Love the polls.

Regan Leigh · Oct 3, 2009

Regan Leigh said:
Maybe I should keep brainstorming and then do a poll. Love the polls.

Polls! Not Poles! Jeez, erotica people.

mscelina · Oct 3, 2009

usually, I'll name my books after a line I particularly liked or for the theme of a book in a series. My current urban fantasy that's out on submission, however, was named by committee. The working title was Carnival after a play mentioned in the storyline, but it wasn't quite taking me there. Since the story had to do with the theater, I was trying to find a way to make that an absolute within the title. So a couple of my betas and I debated it. At first, I was thinking of naming it Theater of Seduction because there are references in it to the theater of cruelty or the theater of the absurd. Then, we got sidetracked onto stage directions and from there ended up with Deception Enters Stage Left. At the moment, the title is working for me, but there's probably an 80% chance the title will be changed if it's bought.

Regan Leigh · Oct 3, 2009

I don't feel like I would even know a good title if I thought of it. How can I write an entire book, but blank on a small phrase or word? It feels so silly.

panda · Oct 3, 2009

I don't feel like I would even know a good title if I thought of it. How can I write an entire book, but blank on a small phrase or word? It feels so silly.

Not silly, titles can make or break a book.

Stephenie Meyers wanted to call Twilight Forks, her publisher made her change it.

What's the synopsis of the book?

Regan Leigh · Oct 3, 2009

A female ghost haunting a guy that she had never met, but falls in love with. That's the basic beginning premise. (A lot more happens that I wouldn't want to give away.)

I'm going to bed. Maybe I'll wake up and someone will have named my book for me.

DrZoidberg · Oct 3, 2009

I constantly write down name ideas. Either for chapters or the whole novel. My qualifier is that a name has to be clever, have multiple meanings, be poetic, catch the essence of the story, be selling and have punch.... oh, and needs to be short. I just brainstorm constantly.

panda · Oct 3, 2009

Cool Premise.

Ghostly
A Waking Ghost
Dust
A Dark Ceiling
Awake, I Dream
When Angels Visit

Sorry...past my bedtime best I can come up with..

Ken · Oct 3, 2009

... titling stories for me has always been difficult. I try to make them convey as much about my stories as possible, as if they were mini-summaries. I also try to make them intriguing enough so that they attract interest. Usually I'll go through several titles while at work on a story before I come up with one I'm satisfied with.

fringle · Oct 3, 2009

For the MG I'm working on right now, I was watching my kids play in the amazing kids' pool at The Madinat in Dubai, and a title popped into my head. It was totally unrelated to anything going on around me. Over the next few days, the story came to me in bits and pieces. It's the first time I ever worked from a title backwards to a story.

backslashbaby · Oct 3, 2009

I can't do it at all. I figure, before I submit, I'll hold a contest with a money prize!

A large part of that is knowing it's so likely to be changed anyway. I take it you still have to title it to submit, though. *grumble, grumble*

seun · Oct 3, 2009

I don't stress too much about titles. They come when they're ready. Could be at any point in any draft. When they're right, I know it.

Stijn Hommes · Oct 3, 2009

Regan Leigh said:
I'm sick of not having a name for my WIP. I sorta had one in mind, but its already taken.

My latest ideas:
Controlled Breathing
Lucid Death
Luckless
Untimely Tempest

Um, yeah. Clearly, I need help.

How do you name your stories?

Nah, you don't need any help. First of all, you can reuse a title that's already taken unless it's so incredibly famous people will notice. Don't call your novel "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". I haven't read your story, but the first two titles in your list look interesting.

aadams73 · Oct 3, 2009

Regan Leigh said:
A female ghost haunting a guy that she had never met, but falls in love with. That's the basic beginning premise. (A lot more happens that I wouldn't want to give away.)

I'm going to bed. Maybe I'll wake up and someone will have named my book for me.

Is it humorous or more serious? Because that makes a difference.

Lady Ice · Oct 3, 2009

Stijn Hommes said:
Nah, you don't need any help. First of all, you can reuse a title that's already taken unless it's so incredibly famous people will notice. Don't call your novel "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". I haven't read your story, but the first two titles in your list look interesting.

Controlled Breathing and Untimely Tempest sound a bit like innuendo (unless that's what you want).

Quotes from other works are often good as are phrases from your novel.
Choose a title that inspires you.

ChaosTitan · Oct 3, 2009

Titles are hard, and it's pretty difficult to come up with something unique and that hasn't been used before. When you can, you're golden. But books come out all the time with the same title as three others before them.

Someone once gave me some advice that I used to create the title "Three Days to Dead." They said take a piece of paper and make three columns. Column 1 - nouns/people/places from the book. Column 2 - adjectives that describe the book. Column 3 - verbs that describe the book. Then start mixing and matching until something works.

C.M.C. · Oct 3, 2009

I heard it in a song lyric and thought it sounded like a good title.

Libbie · Oct 3, 2009

Painfully, that's how.

I really struggle with titles. They always feel either too bland or too cryptic. I settled on the title for A River of Light while writing a scene in which the MC hallucinated, seeing a river made out of stars. It was a fairly important hallucination to the plot, so I figured it might work for a title.

It'll probably be changed by an editor anyway, so I'm not too attached to it, but I just can't slap a half-assed, boring title on my work. I think it sends a clear message of carelessness to editors and agents. It's like creating a very nice product and then trying to sell it in a Zip-Loc bag instead of nice packaging. I just can't do it.

So I agonize over titles a lot, even though they're subject to change by people who are much better at titling books than I.

Fortunately, Strange Songs, my next WIP, titled itself easily. It's about Houdini, and I was able to lift a portion of one of his quotes for the title. Thanks, Ehrich! You saved my ass.

willietheshakes · Oct 3, 2009

See, titles just come to me, no effort at all.

Take my current one: For a while UCNN (Untitled Children's Novel Novel) just seemed to fit, until I woke up one morning and had an epiphany. It's now called UVLCNN (Untitled Very Late Children's Novel Novel).

See? Easy.

How do YOU name your novel?

Insomniac Writer

Abnormal Romance Author

Insomniac Writer

Insomniac Writer

Abnormal Romance Author

Insomniac Writer

Insomniac Writer

Teh doommobile, drivin' rite by you

Insomniac Writer

its harders sto type withh paaws

Insomniac Writer

aka TomOfSweden

its harders sto type withh paaws

always abroad

~~~~*~~~~

Horror Man

Know what you write...

A Work in Progress

Makes useful distinctions

Around

Archetype

Worst song played on ugliest guitar

Gentleman. Scholar. Bastard.

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