The Art of Choosing a Title

[luxken27]

(post title totally swiped from the MeFi thread)

Because I've had recent interesting discussions on the matter, here's an article about how to choose a title for your story/novel/series. Even if you don't agree with the rules, it makes for good fodder for the brain. I tend to go for the opaque, myself...maybe that's another one of my problems, LOL.

Comments

[farawayeyes4.livejournal.com]

Titling is a bitch. Seriously.

Best title, as far as I'm concerned, is Gone With the Wind. It just is.

[knittingknots.livejournal.com]

Titles. Now, you got to admit, with over 380 pieces on FF.net, and even more than that on dA, I've had a lot of practice with titling. I used to hate it, but now, I am pretty happy with most of my titles. After the End, Yesterday's Tomorrows, The Evil in Men's Hearts all pleased me as titles. The one important story (for my post manga sequence) I don't like is Future Legend. But I couldn't and still can't think of a more appropriate title for it, so I ran with it.

I'm at the point in numbers that I often have to look carefully to make sure I'm not trying to duplicate a previously used one, though, and that sometimes means I don't really title a work what I want to call it.

One of my favorite titles for a short piece is Accidently, One Summer Afternoon. There's something neat and evocative about it. I title my photographs over at dA, and my favorite title of any pic is probably "Fist of the Firegod," a photo of a pyrocumulus cloud over a wild fire, because it looked vaguely fist shaped to me...It would probably make a good title for a fantasy novel. LOL.

I have no theory or strategy...I look at the work, and slap a title that seems fitting on it. Am I good at it? Heck if I know, but I'm not worried about it for fanfic.

[kmoaton.livejournal.com]

I loved the article. The title is always the hardest part for me. In the beginning I have an idea for a title but by the end, it becomes something else. I think I'm getting better the more I write but there have been times where I'm last minute posting because a title just won't come to me.

[chickenpattysan.livejournal.com]

LOL. Oh, titles. I liked that article. I think I've probably done all of the different bad title examples at one time or another.

[psyco_chick32]

As we discussed (yesterday?) - this is why I have my beta ;) I can toss out a few titles here and there (Bitter, Pack Law, Truth & Lies) but Eight-Fold Path was all her, as was CID and pretty much everything else xD

...
We're both still stumped on my news!fic, tho I think we're getting closer.

I guess it doesn't help how much I prefer one-word titles...

[landofthekwt.livejournal.com]

I forever discovering that my chapter titles are from one of Quirky's stories or a chapter title form ToHoTM.

[beermoney5.livejournal.com]

I hate trying to figure out a title for a story, and I think it’s the hardest part of writing ( and I’ve come up with some lame titles ).

[eggplantlady.livejournal.com]

I hate titling my fics. Either I can't come up with anything, or I can't come up with anything that actually fits the story. It's a ridiculous cycle.

[yumi-michiyo.livejournal.com]

Titles... I have a love-hate relationship with them. I'm partial to poetic, lyrical titles myself, quoted from songs (I firmly believe all songs are poetry set to music) but good lines are kind of hard to find... Most of the time, I go with my gut. If it pops out, it pops out. <3

[starzki.livejournal.com]

I'm embarrassed by roughly one-third of my titles, delighted with one-third, and just "meh" about the others. A lot of my embarrassment stems from the fact I thought the title was terrific, but in retrospect, it's either pretentious or it just plain sucks.

And then there's my "The Birth of a Fan." I knew it sucked, but just couldn't think of anything better. That's the title I hate the worst. Just, ugh.

I do, however, love coming up with pretentious chapter names (in the rare instances my stories are more than one-shots). I figure they're supposed to be pretentious then. :-P

[zigsa.livejournal.com]

I find titles to be a mixed-bag. Sometimes they leap out at you and there's simply no other choice. Sometimes, the title comes before the story content is focused on - and sometimes I can't even focus on creating a chapter or story in detail without having a title first, even if it's just a working title. Sometimes I can't come up with a title for love nor money, even with detail written down.

That's the most frustrating thing I find, however, is my muse's need for a title of some kind to be there before I can focus on writing the detail of the story or the chapter. I find that even more frustrating than having the story or chapter completed and still being stuck for a title.

That said, I tend like my titles to have meaning. It depends on the atmosphere I'm going for as to whether I go for an obvious connection or something more subtle, or cryptic, or abstract, etc.

The last story I wrote (my MiroSanta story), I ended up with a mixture of titles for the story and chapters. The story's title was based on the main thread the story was based on (the journey through life the two characters were on and the misfortunes they've experienced to get to Chapter 558) and when I learned about the symbolism of pillows made from twisted grass, it just seemed to fit - so that title was both literal and poetic.

Of the chapter titles, however, the third chapter gave me the biggest headache. The first two chapters had titles thatwere pased on poetic themes I'd noticed in waka, and were there almost from the first moment I began writing the story, but the third chapter's title was a headache - it was straight-forward and literal, but it was also poetic because of the poetic connotations of the tree, but I wasn't at all happy with it for a long time, probably because it was a blunt title by comparison with the others I'd been using.

[vikikibouki.livejournal.com]

Not easy choosing a title, but I do have 2 favs:

1: The Sound Of Music

(which happens to be one of my favorite movies)

2: Victor/Victoria

(my real name is Victoria)

Although I was never really fond of the movie ****sigh****