Struggling with names

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SnugglePuggle

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Argh. The writing comes pretty naturally to me, and I don't struggle with much writer's block, but now that I am wanting to seriously work on the first of my series and start to branch it out there for betas and agents,
the naming has me stumped.

I have a little bit of my Dad's perfectionism where I want the names to be PERFECT. But trying to have the name not only tie into what the book's main plot is about, but also a little tie into what the series is about, and
make it perfect to boot has me frustrated!

My tentative name for my first in my fantasy series I'm not liking much anymore. (Beautiful Woman). Although it ties into a theme of the book (ML calls his girlfriend "my beautiful woman" in his native tongue), it doesn't really
tie into my fantasy series, and I just don't feel like it's perfect for the first book.

So now I've been struggling with a list I've made and I still don't even like them 100%.

Gah. This sucks. :(
 

Helix

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Don't worry about it too much at this stage. If the working title is a bit blah, then an agent will suggest an alternative. If it's sold to a publisher, they'll have a say too.
 

Introversion

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Ah, I thought you meant person or place names -- you mean the title?

Yeah, well, unless you plan to self-pub, chances are fair that an agent, or publisher, or both will want to rename it anyway. ;)

Sympathies though! I have no idea yet what to call my WIP. It's titled "Tea Story" in Scrivener for reasons not worth going into, and that's definitely a placeholder.
 

frimble3

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Pick a name, any name and write 'working title' immediately under it. If you're only working 'seriously' on the first book, a perfect title may come to you later, but not if you're not working on the story itself.
As others are saying, the title may change as the story passes through other hands, don't let it stop your writing.
 

Chris P

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I agree with those above: don't worry about the title yet. It's nice to have a cool one if you want to talk it up to friends or when you go to query, but I've gotten pretty much to "The End" before I've had titles for some of my works.
 

ChaseJxyz

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I still refer to my current wip as "gay birds"; I'm not 100% set on the actual title I have for it and that marks it clearly in my mind as to what it is, compared to other things. The one short fic that I've gotten published I didn't have a title until I was staring at the submit form. I've never been very good at titles.

A title doesn't have to be super deep or mind blowing or have a play on words. But you might have a eureka moment and figure it out later down the road. Just keep yourself open to possible ideas.
 

Woollybear

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Funny story. Aerovoyant was originally "Discernment's Edge" for multiple years in drafting. (The sequel would be "Inferno's Edge." You get the idea.) During a critique from a friend here, that friend labelled the protagonist an aerovoyant. I saw the brilliance of her nomenclature (and felt even more inadequate than ever) ... and all the other names of the abilities on this world fell into place. Now the series names are all easy.

Here's the funny part. I thanked her after the fact for the name and she swears up and down that she never suggested aerovoyant. And we can't find a paper trail to prove me right, or her right.
 

SnugglePuggle

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Aw thank you guys! I feel better now :)

I decided to tentatively change it to Alpha Enchanted. It sounds better than Beautiful Woman and ties into my series better. Yipee!
 

armgrab

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For what it's worth, I've personally finished writing many projects without having any idea what they would be called. Usually, the title just sort of comes to me when I'm doing something else (or just lying in bed). It usually goes better when I don't force myself to come up with something clever or unique.
 
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