Titles

[Trom DeGrey]

It’s said that if you can’t come up with a title for your story, you don’t really know what it’s about. We’ll talk title creation here. What should a title tell your reader? What should it not tell them? How can you come up with a title? When should you come up with a title?

[raspberryhat]

For my part, I find titles pretty challenging. I usually find titles only suggest themselves towards the completion of a piece. I often brainstorm a long list of possible titles and the filter. I find proverbs a good source of inspiration. Especially Latin proverbs. It's probably not very original but occasionally I've found something perfect in an old proverb. Have a look to see what I mean.

I am sure there are other/better ways. Just my two cents worth.

[Auburn]

What's weird is that I usually have half my story written by the time I chose a title and I often pick the title of a story from a line I've used within it. It could be from something a character has said or thought, a line I've used to describe an action.... the list is endless.

I haven't met anybody yet who has this method.

[raspberryhat]

I don't think that's weird at all. I always think I should be able to do that and often try. I just never seem to find it working. So end up with titles that reflect general themes. I like that approach too, but I can't seem to come up with the other approach which never seems like it ought to be that hard. Yet it often is. For me at least. Different styles I guess.

[Trom DeGrey]

I find titles a total pain in the ass! I'm horrible at them! Sometimes, they just present themselves to me. A moment of inspiration, a line that just stands out... but most of the time, I struggle with them. They usually come at the end of rough drafting or during early editing. Sometimes I have two or three and keep a notecard with all of them to try and decide later. I've given up on trying to name chapters. The whole thing is hard enough. Does anyone have a full-proof way of finding a title?:lol

[The_Lord_J]

Fool proof way of finding a title: let other people suggest lots of titles, and pick the best one

It works for my band and our songs, so why not for fics? I'm dreadful at titles, my current fic really needs one and I'm stuck. I have a working title, but the fic is going to deal with so much stuff that it's hard to nail it down to a short title that describes the whole fic well enough, y'know? I might just end up using a completely random bit of dialogue or something.

[raspberryhat]

I just brainstorm titles. It's like the writing itself. For me, more comes out when I am typing than when I am thinking. I'll write down ten or twenty possible titiles and then order them from the one I like best down to the one I like least. I just write everything I can think of and distill it.

[JustSkipIt]

Will everyone hate me if I say that the titles arrive with the stories in my head usually? Other than that, I'd say try to come up with something that will be poetic, succinct, and descriptive. If your title is "what happened next" you might get some curiosity but other people may skip it because they don't know what you are writing about. At least: "Willow's Arbor day Date" tells you what to expect in the story. Ok, I don't have as much to say as I thought I did. Have a great night.