Of the titles you've given, #5 definitely appeals to me most. However, having recently read James Maxey's "Nobody Gets the Girl," any talk of people not existing probably gives me the wrong impression. Of the other titles, I think that #1, #3 and #4 sound like non-fiction, and #2 sounds frivolous. (If the story is comic, frivolity is ok.)
posted
Thanks for your help: Now to narrow it down a little more, to choose the very best.
0) The Sister Who Didn't Exist [fine as it is] 1) Her Sister Didn't Exist 2) Her Non-Existant Sister 3) The Fake Sister 4) A Non Real Sister
Hmmm... I need to get to the very best choice--people do judge a book by its title.
[Do you know that when I use a word too much, I forget what it means? I stare at the word, and I wonder: "Why does this mean anything? Do I really know what Sister means?]
posted
Punch it up. I'm not always in favor of shortening a title, but in this case, I think that you should cut it down to two words or less.
Nonentity She is not (okay, that's three, but they're short) Unreal (Oops, already taken) Dis-sorority (just plain strange) Sister (leaving out the theme of nonesistance, though) Existentialist
Or you might go with a fuller title, but only if we knew more about the book. Without knowledge, I can only offer such shots in the dark as...okay, I won't try.
posted
OK, none of them really click with me. The one everyone else has picked is the best, but I still don't like it. (Just being honest.) I've been kicking around ideas but I'm not sure I've come up with better...
1. Sister of a Lie (I'm assuming that both the non sister and the main character are girls, it could also be Brother of a Lie.) 2. There is no Sister 3. Lies (Going with Survivor's one word title ideas.)
Of course, this is difficult without truly understanding the major theme of the book. Perhaps if you described a bit more...
posted
I'm definately a fan of "The Sister Who Didn't Exist". I don't think any of the other titles hold a candle to it. I also don't think it needs to (or really can) be shortened. It loses too much that way.
posted
I don't like "the sister who didn't exist" so much. "The sister who wasn't" is better. How about one of these?
Unsister False Sister Counterfeit Sister Sister of Deceit
Ooooh. I quite like that last one. You could even work it into some sort of prophetic verse or aphorism. Something like LeGuin's "Left Hand of Darkness." Let's see, maybe
"Say neither too much nor too little, for indiscretion is the brother of slander, and reticence the sister of deceit."
And then one could always go this way:
Tran sister Re sister Ex sister In sister
Even better, change POV to a child of the original POV character:
I actually like Sister of Deceit myself, it has a nice syncopated alliterative quality, and it kind of scans. The problem with a number of the proposed titles is that they just don't sound good. I'm going to add Existential Relation to my list of suggestions.
Of the other suggestions, the following didn't strike my ear the wrong way.
Power of the Lie (but it sounds like a non-fiction philosophy type book rather than a novel) Nonentity (...well, all the ones I've suggested ) Lies (But this is actually a bit too short) Ex Sororitas (always go for Latin if all else fails...oh, wait, this wasn't already suggested?)
posted
Okay, I've got to ask, since this is the second time I've seen it. (The first time I thought it was a misprint. ) Is "it kind of scans" or "it scans" some kind of new jargon?
Posts: 1810 | Registered: Jun 2002
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posted
Strictly speaking, 'scans' as I have used it is a vulgar or slang usage, and isn't quite grammatically correct. But it is hardly new, or particularly 'computer nerdy'.
It is simply a back-formation similar to the secondary meanings of 'look', 'smell', 'feel' and so forth.
The computer nerdy form would probably be 'compile' as in "this program won't compile right." This has superseded 'compute' as in 'the data doesn't compute.' This use of 'compute' has long since passed from computer nerdy to just plain nerdy.
posted
The way that I usually figure out a title is by a good ol' Roget's invention called a "Thesaurus." What you do is you take a title like "The Sister Who Didn't Exist" (which I think does not roll off the tongue well enough to catch my attention) and you slamit with big, fancy, flowery words that no one understands. People have and always will be obvious in what they are truly interested in and that is what they want to pretend that they understand. Sister of deceit sounds alright but it still seems too manufactured to my mind's eye. Fiddle around with it before you decide. Titles are like poetry. Only a certain number of syllables will do and they will only do if they are arranged in a manner that is appealing to the eye. Honestly, I don't think you should take any of the suggestions that you have been offered as they were not dreamed up by you, but if you can live with that then by all means.
Oh, and hi by the way. I'm new. I've been reading the posts for quite a while and never felt the desire to join, but I'm pretty bored right now so I figured I would.
quote:Oh, my. I know what "scan" means , I've just never heard it used this way
I thought it would be a bit odd if you didn't :-)
What other way can you use it, though?
quote:Strictly speaking, 'scans' as I have used it is a vulgar or slang usage, and isn't quite grammatically correct. But it is hardly new, or particularly 'computer nerdy'.
I would say according to the definition I quoted it is perfectly correct (an intransitive verb that means 'to conform to a metric pattern' or something similar).
quote:The computer nerdy form would probably be 'compile' as in "this program won't compile right." This has superseded 'compute' as in 'the data doesn't compute.' This use of 'compute' has long since passed from computer nerdy to just plain nerdy.
'parse' would probably be better. A very nerdy word, which also has the advantage of having an original meaning which is quite similar to the one you want to convey, but which has been hijacked by the computer community to mean something related yet slightly different...
posted
Sorry, to scan specifically means to analyze in terms of rhythmic components. Thus only things that can be scanned in this way (the transitive, correct form) can then use the backformed verb (intransitive).
You could use it for documents and other things that can be digitally scanned (which sort of counts as being scanned--analyzed in terms of the pattern of lighter and darker components or so forth), as when you backform them it is still (to us) clear what the process of scanning involves.
But it is not clear how a person or other object not typically scanned by a particular object would "scan". In other words, when we say, "this line doesn't scan," it is clear that we mean that a person trying to analyze the line in terms of rhythm will encounter a difficulty. "This photo won't scan" clearly means that the digital photo scanner won't scan it properly. "He kind of scans" doesn't make it clear who or what is scanning him in what sense. "He scans as a scuz," on the other hand, makes it clear that he is being scanned by a person (or a device with a sense of humor) for his moral or ethical bent. "He scans clean" strongly implies that he has been scanned by a specific method for detecting some particular kind of uncleanness. Thus, both of these usages are current in our language.
posted
This is what I get for just scanning these threads. Among other things, I totally missed this:
quote:The computer nerdy form would probably be 'compile' as in "this program won't compile right." This has superseded 'compute' as in 'the data doesn't compute.' This use of 'compute' has long since passed from computer nerdy to just plain nerdy
I had no idea. Now I’m afraid to admit I never heard “compile” used this way.
quote:'parse' would probably be better. A very nerdy word, which also has the advantage of having an original meaning which is quite similar to the one you want to convey, but which has been hijacked by the computer community to mean something related yet slightly different...
“Parse,” too? Will the computer community stop at nothing?
quote:“He kind of scans" doesn't make it clear who or what is scanning him in what sense.
I was using the phrase as a possible bit of faddish jargon, as in “He gets my goat” or “He’s really out there, man” or “He’s bad,” where the words don’t really mean what they mean, which is where I thought the “It kind of scans” was going.
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) Is "it kind of scans" or "it scans" some kind of new jargon?
