Title

For a fantasy story dealing with privateers, the overarching title is The Chronicles of the Sea Dragon (Sea Dragon being the name of the ship). The three books in the series are Dragon Couchant, Dragon Passant, Dragon Rampant.

If you've studied heraldry, you'll see the progression in those three titles.

Even without studying heraldry, I can see the progression (which is clever); but je parle le français, n'est-ce-pas? Would your readers? Still, I like the titles.

caw

I love coming up with titles, but it is difficult. (Then again, I have a lot of experience with titling economic policy reports, so at least titling fiction is a bit more fun than that.) The fantasy novel I'm querying now is called The Torchbearers, which is the name of an important group in that world's history and alludes to both the generational passing of the torch that takes place in the story and their culture's preferred execution method for witches. I have a tentative title in mind for the sequel I'm working on, but it's a semi-spoiler for the first book.

I always begin with a title and go from there.

My current project is called NIGHT OF SORROWS. There was a real-life battle that occurred during the Spanish conquest of Mexico in the 1500s called "La Noche Triste" which means "Night of Sorrows." During the event this massive treasure was lost during the slaughter of the Aztecs. I thought the name was really neat, so I borrowed it for the name of the treasure that the pirates in my novel are searching for, translating it into French instead: "La Nuit de Tristesse." Therefore, NIGHT OF SORROWS!

I often use the pattern MODIFIER SUBJECT.

Occasionally I'll reverse the pattern to SUBJECT MODIFIER.

• The Once-Dead Girl is about a girl, who died and came back to life.
• Sea Monster's Revenge is about revenge, of a woman who becomes a sea monster who can shapechange to her original identity.
• The Super Olympian is a duology about an Olympic athlete, who becomes a super human.
• Shapechanger's Birth, Shapechanger's Progress, Shapechanger's Destiny, are each about shapechanger Mary McCarthy, and the three stages of her life as a shapechanger in Ireland. (After her death she returns as a child and emigrates from Ireland, beginning a new series.)

In various stages of writing are these.

• The Twice-Dead Boy is about 325-year old man, who returns to life as a teenager after dying a second time.
• Cameron of the FBI is about a woman named Cameron, who is an FBI special agent.
• The Unexpected Heir is about a teenager, who is left a fortune by his long-estranged billionaire father.

So, to repeat, some combination of a SUBJECT (a noun, usually) and a MODIFIER (an adjective or adjectival phrase, usually).

There are plenty of other patterns, of course, but this is one I found useful.

My first fantasy novel, 'The Song of the Sword,' derived its title from a song/poem I had written some time before—and which I made sure to incorporate into the narrative (some of the main characters are minstrels, so it fitted). The three sequels sort of had to follow the same pattern, that is 'The something of something.' Well, maybe they didn't actually have to but I wanted them to. I like consistency through a series.

I used to struggle with titles. They were the last thing I ever addressed in a project and even then it was usually forced. Then one day it all changed and I still fail to understand how it happened. Something just clicked in my head! Finding titles, for me, is now simply a matter of knowing what the story is about and coming up with something that encapsulates its essence. This has also extended to chapter headings as well (sometimes cryptic), which allows me to navigate my way through partially edited manuscripts with much less confusion than had previously been my way.

When I completed my most recent novel I went looking for some feedback from a particular author who specialises in that field and fired off an enquiry, including nothing other than the genre and title of the book: The Myrmidon. The response was somewhat more than I had anticipated, but essentially the reply was along these lines; “Unless I am mistaken, that is a novel of the Trojan War as seen through the eyes of one of Achilles’ band of brothers?” That was the first time that I really felt that I’d nailed it.

Sometimes I have a title before I start, but most often it comes to me while I'm writing the story. And I like to come up with recognisable titles with more than one meaning, as I did with my screenplays, BLOOD LET (a group of friends rent a haunted house), LOVE LIFE (a romantic comedy about a ghost in love with a living person) and FOOL'S GOLD (a heist story about veteran bullion thief, Eddie 'Fool' Osborne). All good fun.

I really, really struggle with titles. Just don't understand how to do them at all.

My first book had at least four different titles before my publisher and I agreed on one. In the end we went through the whole manuscript, looking for phrases we liked. Near the end the narrator says something like "he was a paper man standing in front of a paper house", so we called it The Paper House.

The next one was a bit easier, but honestly I mostly just stare at the words until my eyes are bleeding and then ask someone else to come up with something.

screenscope said:

Sometimes I have a title before I start, but most often it comes to me while I'm writing the story. And I like to come up with recognisable titles with more than one meaning, as I did with my screenplays, BLOOD LET (a group of friends rent a haunted house), LOVE LIFE (a romantic comedy about a ghost in love with a living person) and FOOL'S GOLD (a heist story about veteran bullion thief, Eddie 'Fool' Osborne). All good fun.

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Hey, I like those ones. They're really neat! Good job.

I always come up with a title at the end of my final editing run. I experiment with technique.

Sometimes, I go through and pick a phrase or select few words to represent what I wish. Other times, I try to encapsulate the theme with an original title that I create offhand. Other times, I look online for strategies on making titles. It's all fascinating to me and I'm willing to utilize new methods AND/OR return to existing ones-- or even modify those.

Good topic! : D

Norman Mjadwesch said:

When I completed my most recent novel I went looking for some feedback from a particular author who specialises in that field and fired off an enquiry, including nothing other than the genre and title of the book: The Myrmidon. The response was somewhat more than I had anticipated, but essentially the reply was along these lines; “Unless I am mistaken, that is a novel of the Trojan War as seen through the eyes of one of Achilles’ band of brothers?” That was the first time that I really felt that I’d nailed it.

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I NEED TO READ THIS BOOK! Or if you ever want a beta, please throw it at me. Ancient Greece is sorta my thang (classical philologist, reenactor, HF reader and writer), and there just aren't enough novels about it out there.

As for my own novels... I struggle with titling them too. I often end up throwing any old working title at it, which ends up sticking. Or in the case of my unsuccessfully shopped Egyptian novel, my agent suggested a title based on one of the main locations in the book, to which I appended another word to indicate the genre, and 'The Blue Lotus Conspiracy' was born.

I never really liked that title, but I always assumed a publisher would change it anyway. Then it didn't get published and now I'm bloody stuck with a sucky title. Grr.

The sequel ended up with it's working title in a slightly dafter way. I foolishly fell into the trap of describing the plot to some cheeky young chaps in my reenactment group, who were highly amused by the slight suggestion of BDSM in one of the relationships, and when they heard the main character was a Medjay (ancient Egyptian police)... it was inevitable that they started calling it 'Fifty Shades of Medjay'.

And it's only gone and bloody well stuck in my head now. ALL my google docs files are now labelled 'FSOM' at the beginning.

Seriously, FML

Oh, I came up with the title for my series. What I'm struggling with is giving subtitles to each one of the books.

It is, of all things, the Windows 95 slogan: Where Do You Want to Go Today? There's a scene at the end in which the narrator installs Windows 95 with his nephew--a weird and hopefully poignant moment of connection--and I think the title also reflects his mental state throughout the book. It was fun to stumble upon!

Kallithrix said:

I NEED TO READ THIS BOOK! Or if you ever want a beta, please throw it at me. Ancient Greece is sorta my thang (classical philologist, reenactor, HF reader and writer), and there just aren't enough novels about it out there.

I foolishly fell into the trap of describing the plot to some cheeky young chaps in my reenactment group, who were highly amused by the slight suggestion of BDSM in one of the relationships, and when they heard the main character was a Medjay (ancient Egyptian police)... it was inevitable that they started calling it 'Fifty Shades of Medjay'.

And it's only gone and bloody well stuck in my head now. ALL my google docs files are now labelled 'FSOM' at the beginning.

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Hello Kallithrix,

Sorry not to get back to you sooner but I’ve been in a bit of a correspondence marathon with one of the other AW members and haven’t had time to check on anything on the actual forum. This is my first visit in a couple of weeks. Many apologies!

If you were after a Kindle edition of The Myrmidon you can find my book on Amazon, but at the moment I’m having no end of problems getting the print edition formatted with CreateSpace. If it’s a print copy you’re interested in, let me know and I’ll get back to you as soon as it’s ready (it might still be a few weeks - that place is driving me mental at the moment), otherwise you can check it out on my Amazon page (or PM me): https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=UTF8&text=Norman+Mjadwesch&search-alias=books&field-author=Norman+Mjadwesch&sort=relevancerank

I write in a few different genres but do in fact have a few more outlines for novels set in Classical Greece, but as you would know time is a very demanding friend (and sometimes the type of friend that you wish was someone else’s). I’m happy to find Beta readers, though unfortunately for your tastes I’m smack in the middle of a near-future novel and the completion date is still some way off…

Hey, I like you new title (FSOM) even if you’re not happy with its origin. However, whether that is a title that works for the book is only for you to judge (well, maybe not only you, but certainly not me!). Happy hunting!

This is me too. Can't think up a title for love or money. And my agent has just brought up the fact my book needs a new one before we sub. After years of revision, the placeholder title no longer applies.

I need something fresh and contemporary that hints at the hook/premise. Easy, right?

The title Dress Her in Chameleon is based on a fire opal sort of dress that Jenny Brandon Morgan wore in either Sweet Savage Love or Wicked Loving Lies.

My titles are... slightly strange, but there is a theme. The overall series is called The Soularmis Chronicles, which relates to the main plot idea of the whole series. From there, each individual book usually follows a theme of something related to either light or shadow, since that's a central theme present throughout. Usually I like to stick with the first thing that comes to my mind, which honestly works better than one would think. That's just this series, I have others that follow varying title structures, but there's usually a theme related to an important point in the book.

I don't start with titles, and usually my working titles are just the names of the main character(s). In a few cases, the working title has stuck ("Hamilton Gray", "Alice, Called Wendy"). Most my other titles are important/central place names: "Channing", "Hayfield Manor", "Grove of Venus". Only in one case did I pick something completely abstract, "The Cotton Wars", and that comes from an argument two brothers have over, you guessed it, cotton (it's the antebellum South).

Place names and character names probably won't work for a series, though they might. But lifting a bit of dialogue or focusing on a central conflict might work.

As The World Falls Down - current working title, came from a song in one of my favorite movies.

I'm still not convinced about the title of the book I'm querying and my WIP is just the main character's name.

I've read quite a few times that starting with the title helps keep the book on track so I'm going to rectify this while I'm only a few chapters in. It's pretty painful though, I've had to name events in the past and find trying to symbolise something big in just a couple of words an impossible task. Some authors really do nail it, some book titles reel me right in. I just haven't managed it yet myself.

As a thriller writer, I wanted a title that was short, punchy, intriguing... but also related to the plot. I LOVE Lee Child and Dean Koontz, but I do feel the titles of most of their novels are interchangeable with any of their other novels. Intensity. Velocity. The Good Guy. Bad Luck And Trouble. Worth Dying For. Die Trying. The Visitor.

So I choose SHARK BAIT. Short and snappy (pardon the pun), and it's about a loan shark who picks on the wrong guy.

For the first book, the inspiration came to me via a song I was listening to while waiting for the bus.

For the second book, it took over two years for me to find a title I actually 'liked' despite road-testing several and even that came from a previous title which I dismantled.

For the third book, it came to me out of nowhere almost immediately. I hope it works like that again in the future!