Tips for titling?

I often find titles in the book's theme or main conflict, since that usually lends itself to more interesting, witty or even poetic wording. Don't know if that'll help you.

I can't help myself. When I saw the title of this thread, I couldn't stop thinking about Frankie Howerd...

Titles seem to go in cycles like fashion. In the eighties we had adjective noun titles like Lethal Weapon, Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction. All of which were moderately meaningless and interchangeable with each other.

Robert Ludlum likes titles in the format "The Name Noun", as in the Eiger Sanction, the Bourne Ultimatum.

Adventure novels often have something like "Firstname Secondname and the Something of Something else". Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Sky Captain, Flash Gordon

Do you have a memorable name for one of your characters: King Kong, Silas Marner, Lolita?

Is there a surprising linkage between two things which you might not expect to be linked? The Unbearable Lightness of Being. The dog that didn't bark in the night. The girl with the dragon tattoo.

A phrase or witty aphorism that you used?

A term you invented for your book: The Hunger Games. Under the Dome?

A single word that sums up your book: Twilight, Alien, Psycho?

Or try this - describe the plot of your novel in one sentence. Now take each of the words of that sentence and jumble them up into pairs. Anything sound interesting? Think of synonyms for each word. Anything yet?

A phrase from Shakespeare or classic poetry generally works well, as in The Sound and the Fury or Death, Be Not Proud.

Titles are tough. Sometimes I think of a great one, apropos of nothing, and then create a story to fit it. Otherwise, I generally look to the thematic underpinnings for a telling word or two.

Just don't go with this formula: The Blankety-Blank's Daughter/Wife/Mistress/Aunt/Mother/Any Other Female Generic Noun. I'm sick to death of that one.

Hmm...

"Blankety-Blank's Any Other Female Generic Noun"

... the story of Blankety Blank; abandoned as a newborn to be raised by rogue lumberjacks. A story of personal growth, of love, of family secrets. His epic search for women taking him away from the logging camp that's been his life to discover... women in general.

...

The man lumbered (geddit, he's a lumberjack) through the unfinished wood door of the small cabin that had been his home for the last year, bowing his head in deference to the rough-hewn log over it. His massively boned head, while nigh on indestructible in his imagination still hurt when he banged it on the door-frame. That was something he'd managed to avoid for a month now, he considered it a small victory over his environment, the place was slowly beginning to feel like home, he was learning its little tricks.

He glanced down just in time to stop his size fourteen boot from landing on a small bundle wrapped in a pink blanket. (guess where blankety gets his name from) A small bundle that was looking back at him.

...
Cut to chapter 15
...

"dad", said little BB, "where do the men go every friday?"
"They go whoring" rumbled his father
"What's a whoring?"
"A whore... is a woman, don't worry about that yet, son. You'll learn all about it one day"
BB looked puzzled, but he knew better than to press the issue. For several years, that was the only noun he could associate with women.

Would you feel up to posting a blurb/synopsis? Maybe the geniuses here could come up with some suggestions for you to mull over.

I might, too.

Well, I suppose if it matters, you want to be sure to keep the center of gravity above--



What? It's not...? Oh! Titling!

Woops.

I had a working title going for eight months. Then three critique partners looked at a chapter title I had and said, "That's the title."

They were right. Sometimes, the moment or principle that drives the story will also provide a key word or phrase that inspires the title. Sort of like when a song gets its title from a phrase only given once in the song itself.

Are responses here still useful or has the deadline passed?

Titles are incredibly tough. I think of mine as "working title". I give it two words usually, the first ones that come to mind that are easiest to type out, and then stop thinking about it.

The next book I'm outlining is a YA UF and I've had trouble on a title, so what I've been doing is making word lists of words that I might associate with the book. Then sometimes I'll take a glance at it and see what pops out, and mentally combine words however, and see if something happens. Nothing useful yet.

Lord, I read the title as 'Tits for Tipping'. No, never again before my first coffee..

dondomat said:

Lord, I read the title as 'Tits for Tipping'. No, never again before my first coffee..

Click to expand...

Did anyone not misread this thread title? I know I did.

Liosse de Velishaf said:

Did anyone not misread this thread title? I know I did.

Click to expand...

Yup, had the title trip up too. I think all these suggestions are neat. That's what I try to do too, something poetic, a phrase or strong word that best fits the vibe of the story.

For instanced. The Pencil tortured me with making a new title. haha. But I loved her for it. Ironically enough, "Disconnected" was my original title. It jumped out at me because the MC has a split personality. But I changed it to make it more unique and poetic. But once I got the contract, the editor, like I said, wanted me to change it. FOR MONTHS this went on. God, I threw out so many. She was like, no, no, no...keep trying. She liked some of course, but she didn't LOVE it. Then the org. title crept back up. And I was like, watch, she's gonna like this one best. And whammo, she was like that's it.

I was still hesitant because there were other books with that title and I still thought it was kinda generic. Plus it sounded techy, techy to me. And that's not what the book was about. Cause with the word "disconnected" it sounds like it's an online thing. But I figured it's destiny, because it was just too ironic not to go with it in the end.

Perks said:

I can't even title a thread. *bursts into tears*

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No, it was good. Very attention-getting. It's why I clicked!

Apropos of tits. Any title with the word "titmice" in it would rock. Especially with some alliteration or even assonance. Like:

Titania of the Titmice

or

A Titillation of Titmice

or

The Titanium Titmouse

or

For Whom the Titmice Twitter

G'head, use one, use all!

Perks said:

So. They want a title. They want it today for the placement meeting tomorrow. I'm stumped.

Any little tricks you guys use to rattle a title loose in your head?

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I have been called the TITLE MASTER by my friends. I have helped SEVERAL people with titles. I usually read their work first, though. Myself...the title is what I use to write the novel, so I can't really help you there. I come up with the title and then freefall from it to find the story.

dondomat said:

Lord, I read the title as 'Tits for Tipping'. No, never again before my first coffee..

Click to expand...

Liosse de Velishaf said:

Did anyone not misread this thread title? I know I did.

Click to expand...

Well, tripe does have a honeycomb shape that's pretty good for tiling, but it would start to smell after a while.

I usually have little trouble with titles ... except for what I'm outlining right now, naturally.