The Perfect Title!

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icerose

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Do you ever have a title pop into your head and think "That's a great title!" but have absolutely nothing to go with it? That happens to me from time to time, and it happened to me today. I always put them in a file just in case I ever come up with a story to put with it or if it someday matches a story I'm already working on and they find each other and instantly want to make babies together.

It's frustrating and exhilarating at the same time. I love this title but dang it! I don't have anything to go with it.
 

alleycat

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Yep, all the time. I have a separate file called Title and Story Ideas; whenever anything from an interesting title to a full story premise pops into my head, I put it in the file (then I try to go back to whatever I'm suppose to be working on). It is literally about a hundred-page long.
 

LilliCray

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Yep. I get that ALL the time. Well, often, anyways. And I totally had an example until this thread loaded. >.< I hate when that happens...

Oh! I remember. This was in... a literary magazine class, I think. I misread something as Loving Fenrir, and decided that would make a great title for something someday.

Hmm... alleycat, you've got a good system goin' there. Centralized. My ideas are all written on random scraps of paper somewhere in my many piles of writing-related stuff. It's very inefficient. :D
 

icerose

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"Bloodbath and Beyond" and "Lies, Murder, and Everything Else" are my biggest two right now.
 

icerose

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Yeah, I really like the first one, it's what prompted this thread. I always research my titles once I fall in love with one to make sure it's not too close to anything else. Bloodbath and Beyond has been used once as a video game, but that's it. So I shouldn't have any problems if I can ever find a freakin' story to go with it.
 

thehairymob

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Sometimes but then when I write something I find I have to search to find the right title. At times I get them from my wife or kids but then at others the story just gives itself a title.
 

Phaeal

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Yes, this happens to me, and I put the titles in the bunny hutch with their opposites, the ideas without titles. Sometimes they hook up and create something larger than either alone -- that happened to me recently, and what a delight!
 

Alwoody

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Meanwhile, I'm having a hard time coming up with a perfect title for my MS.

But, I get it, and I do have a file for ideas with no titles and titles with no ideas to go with them, albeit a small one.
 

dgiharris

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My English instructor's roommate in college wrote a creative paper with the title

Bimbos of the Deathstar

The then teacher told him that he simply had to write a book with that title, that no matter what, the book would sell.

Five years later, the friend did write a short 180 page book with that title and it sold.

I read the book, it was pretty good. It was about a murder at a sci-fi convention. Pretty damn funny

Mel...
 

icerose

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Meanwhile, I'm having a hard time coming up with a perfect title for my MS.

But, I get it, and I do have a file for ideas with no titles and titles with no ideas to go with them, albeit a small one.

Oh, I grapple with that plenty of times, in fact most of the time. It's what kills me when I get the perfect title (imo) and have nothing to go with it.
 
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Happens all the time. I am, of course, The Title Ninja. I've got titles coming out the wazoo.
 

benbradley

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Yeah, I really like the first one, it's what prompted this thread. I always research my titles once I fall in love with one to make sure it's not too close to anything else. Bloodbath and Beyond has been used once as a video game, but that's it. So I shouldn't have any problems if I can ever find a freakin' story to go with it.
Where have you been shopping? I just SO can't help but think of "Bed, Bath and Beyond." :)
 

icerose

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Where have you been shopping? I just SO can't help but think of "Bed, Bath and Beyond." :)

It's really funny. When the title came to me I could hear this announcer in my head saying "Here at Bloodbath and Beyond, we cover all our customer needs."

It strikes me as a horror comedy title because of those very same similarities.
 

Cassiopeia

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It's really funny. When the title came to me I could hear this announcer in my head saying "Here at Bloodbath and Beyond, we cover all our customer needs."

It strikes me as a horror comedy title because of those very same similarities.
I'm so glad you confessed to this.

Yes, you did confess. ;)

When I write query letters, I hear an announcer's voice. "When Eden Died...one day for the reckoning, one for salvation, which will be...the beginning....or the end? Out in theatres May 15th, 2010."
 

icerose

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I'm so glad you confessed to this.

Yes, you did confess. ;)

When I write query letters, I hear an announcer's voice. "When Eden Died...one day for the reckoning, one for salvation, which will be...the beginning....or the end? Out in theatres May 15th, 2010."

Yes, I have my own personal set of announcers who are slaves to my various books and movies. It's fantastic. :D
 

Bartholomew

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Bimbos of the Deathstar. :ROFL: That's a good one.

My English instructor's roommate in college wrote a creative paper with the title

Bimbos of the Deathstar

The then teacher told him that he simply had to write a book with that title, that no matter what, the book would sell.

Five years later, the friend did write a short 180 page book with that title and it sold.

I read the book, it was pretty good. It was about a murder at a sci-fi convention. Pretty damn funny

Mel...

I thought it was called Bimbos of the Death Sun?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimbos_of_the_Death_Sun

Same book, right?
 

shaldna

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I have real trouble with titles, so when a good one comes along I keep it on file too.
 

happywritermom

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Titles kill me. I have a horrible time with them. I had the same trouble as a journalist. Every now and then, when I was the night crime reporter, I'd tried to help the editors if things were slow. Headlines were the one thing I just couldn't do.
 

DeleyanLee

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This happens to me consistently.

Over the decades, I've never found stories for these titles. Always seems like a shame to me, but my life isn't over.

Of course, if I should happen upon the untitled story of a friend and it fits one of these titles--they're gonna owe me at least a "Thanks!" mention when they get it published.
 

S.J.

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Yep, all the time. I have a separate file called Title and Story Ideas; whenever anything from an interesting title to a full story premise pops into my head, I put it in the file (then I try to go back to whatever I'm suppose to be working on). It is literally about a hundred-page long.

I have one of those files too, haha. It's imaginatively called 'Ideas'.
 
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