After Life
Crossing the Line
Stepping Back Over the Line
The Heir’s Hunt
A Hunt Among the Living
A Dark Day on Ymris
Hunting ReBirth
Losing One’s Self
It Happened Under the Red Sun
Redlight Is Always a Transition
Redlight Heralds a Transition
There aren’t many other aspects to the story I can draw on for a title. After all, the title has to mean something in relation to the story.
[This message has been edited by arriki (edited January 25, 2008).]
The Heir's Hunt--this has a sort of high-fantasy feel to it.
A Hunt Among the Living--this feels a little more flexible in genre.
Other thoughts:
After Life--cliche
Crossing the Line--cliche
Stepping Back Over the Line--a bit cumbersome
The Heir’s Hunt
A Hunt Among the Living
A Dark Day on Ymris--hm... "dark day" sounds a bit unsophisticated.
Hunting ReBirth--not sure what this even means.
Losing One’s Self--cliche
It Happened Under the Red Sun--too clumsy--what happened? Also, sounds a little like an Agatha Christie novel.
Redlight Is Always a Transition--Feels unsophisticated.
Redlight Heralds a Transition--a bit clumsy and too functional. Lacks artistry.
And yes, none of them is really a WOW!
The story is a rather quiet one on one level though it does have action in it.
How about shortening some as in--Under the Red Sky
or -- Stepping Back
You could use something like -- Redlight Transitions-- or --
Transition Line
The title needs to grab and refer to the story so I can't really offer better ideas without reading the story.
Good luck
quote:I couldn't disagree more. The title may incline people to read a story, but if the story isn't what the title led them to expect, they won't like it. They'll forget it. The purpose of the title should be to attract the people who will like the story, and as few other people as possible. That way all the initial word-of-mouth is positive. You also want people who like the story to remember the title. They won't if it isn't terribly relevant.
Since the title is the first thing you read of a story, I'm looking for how much of a draw the these titles are. Whether they truly represent the story is an entirely different matter.
I'd suggest "After Redlight". It's not a grabber (but really, not that many people read a short story because of the title, they read it because it's the next one in the magazine, or because they've heard of it. For novels, it's more important from the start), but mention of redlight does permeate the story. It would work from the point of a person who just finished the story, liked it, and thought, "What was the name of this? Oh, yeah, After Redlight." I was originally going to suggest just "Redlight," but that would probably make people think of a certain district of town.
Life After (Or Life After Life)
Over the Line
Lifeless in Ymris
Red Sun Dark Day
Great Divide (Extremely different from "The Great Divide")
At LH, a while back, we were discussing titles and how we formed them. Some people choose a key phrase from the story; some pick the protagonist's name; some an event; some a metaphor; some the idea that sparked the story. While all methods work, someone quoted an author (I wish I could remember the exact quote and to whom it was attributed): The name should make the reader think consider the story from other aspects long after it has been read.
As IB states above the title in my opinion should reflect and refract key elements of the story, making it an essential part of the the process of authorship.
Stringing together somewhere between one and five words to create something snazzy when you don't even know the story becomes pointless, fun (in a nano-fiction kind of way), but pointless.
Just my opinion.
Anyway, After Life is just fine if you ask me. If you ask me, a good title should be short. There are plenty of classics in all mediums out there with long titles that are quite awesome (I don't count subtitles. Star Wars is Star Wars, not Episode _ the ___ ____ ____, and Dr. Strangelove is Dr. Strangelove, not Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb).
That said, the name shouldn't be misleading and yet it should be vague. I'd also advise against introducing new terminology in the title if it's an awkward and/or bulky term. In other words, we don't know what the Matrix is, but matrix is a cool and easy word. If it had been called The Sub-Mental Transitional Mainframe Relay nobody would have bought a ticket.
That said, I'd go with something along the lines of:
After
The Hunt
Red Sun
The Line
Crossing
The Heir
Just my thoughts... I love working out titles. I find it easier to write when I have a title. It helps set the mood of a story...
Heh... this gives me an idea for a thread in the other forum
Redlight
Crossing
After Life
Hunt
Most of the other ideas from the story are too alien to evoke an image or feeling in an, ahem, "human" reader.
I think maybe some form of "crossing" is the way to go. It implies action, movement, a significant change.
Crossing Back -- ?
Stepping Back Over the Line -- ?
Hmmm...but it's not really "back" to where he came from but crossing forward into something new.
Crossings -- ?
Crossroads -- ?
Hmmm...bring in the redlight idea
Crossroads Under the Red Sun aack! Too unwieldy.
Crossroads of the Red Sun better?
Once again, the title is static, but it flows when read out loud which is an improvement.
shorten it to -- Redlight Crossroads
A couple of paragraphs into the story the reader learns what redlight is -- when the white sun leaves the red one alone in the sky: redlight. A confusing time when day sight and heat sight are mingled, confusing these people's vision.
Redlit Crossroads -- ?
Long, but could I get away with --
When the White Sun Leaves the Red One Alone in the Sky
Evocative, hmmm?
[This message has been edited by arriki (edited January 26, 2008).]
quote:
it's not really "back" to where he came from but crossing forward into something new
So I'd recommend "Crossing Forward."
quote:
The term "redlight" immediately conjures up images of prostitutes, so I'd avoid it, even if you have a different definition for it in your story.
...Unless it's a story about prostitutes.
it's a story about redemption
no humans in it
some nudity though (not that the characters noticed that!)
So what words/phrases/ideas are paramount in your story? Aside from Christian and vampire?
It's also about killing people and sucking blood.
So yeah...
'red light heralds a transition' reminds me of my Grade 12 physics class. Under the doppler effect waves moving towards an observer will have their frequencies compressed (blue-shifted), while those moving away will have their frequencies stretched (red-shifted).
To make a long story short. Doppler Shift would be a good title for a story.
Faith Sucks
I think thats funny
~Sheena
Without reading it, I can't really suggest any better titles I'm afraid .
Maybe a sequel 
And I still think it's odd to have two uses of the letter H so close like that. Maybe "The Heir's Search", or some other possibly more relevant synonym...
But that isn't very evocative of anything.
It only sort of means something: two people are going to run into each other.
Converging Dangerous Lives -- promises more, but it's awkward and still kind of...bland.
I'm really starting to like the long title --
When the White Sun Leaves the Red One Alone in the Sky
It's awkward, but doesn't it stir "something?" emotionally when you read it? More so than "Converging Lives" does?
Merging Dangerously
Converging Dangerously
Crossing Dangerously
Some related terms: join, marry (as in Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"), mingle, meld.
This is pretty tough without more insight into the story.
quote:I'm afraid it only stirs my "Are you serious?" response. It sounds, if anything, childish. Any of the others would be better.
When the White Sun Leaves the Red One Alone in the SkyIt's awkward, but doesn't it stir "something?"
As for Redlight sounding like prostitutes: anything that doesn't make clear that it's a time will have that effect, such as "Redlight Crossroads" (although that one actually sounds more like a stoplight). But I don't think a title that puts it in the context of a time would do that ("During Redlight", "When Redlight Falls", etc.) (Not suggestions, by the way, just pointing out that it's hard to interpret the Redlight in those as referring to the district.)
implies that it isn't always alone, maybe?
With the change in the opening paragraph, that makes sense moer quickly. It also describes a bit what happens in the story -- redlight:when people are confused and sometimes make bad choices.
A big thanks to everyone who helped me work through the title for this story. It's an important story for me and deserves as good a shot at publication as I can give it.