I'm at a point where I feel it's appropriate for people to start reviewing my novella - about half-way in, when a major tone shift is about to take place. I feel it's ready for Fragments and Feedback, except for one problem - I have no title!
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My current novel has a title---I've got to have something to file it under---but I expect it to change, especially 'cause it doesn't really fit the story, mostly due to changing concepts.
On the other hand, the novelette / novella (whatever twenty thousand words is) had one title that stayed on it. I played with a couple more titles, but the one I had seemed to fit best.
I think a good and dynamic title would help sell the damned things. Right up there with getting a good First Thirteen, don't you think?
quote:My current novel has a title---I've got to have something to file it under
Right now it's filed by the name of the main character, filed by "protonovella" (as in prototype-novella).
Not very creative, I know :P
I remember a website that supposedly calculated how likely a book was to succeed based on title. I'll dig it up in a bit, but it doesn't actually make a title for you, just calculate its supposed success, so I have to still have a place to start.
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I'm awful at coming up with titles, and often work a whole story without a title at all, and then name it last.
Most titles strike me out of the blue, I've got no idea how I get them. And most of my titles go through four or five changes before I'm done with them. Usually, I just try to think of the main idea of the story, or what the main character is/does, and derive it from that. Occasionally, I think of my favorite theme or idea in the story and use that as my title.
I've a friend who uses throwaway lines in the story itself as her title.
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I don't think coming up with a title is the hardest part, I once named a WIP and also came up with names for 17 sequels incase I decided to write that many. In fact I have files full of titles with little descriptions of the stories that might go with them, maybe I should give my titles to people :-P
My advice is just have some fun, think of something catchy that at least has something to do with your story, if you post a quick summary I'd be happy to suggest some titles,
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I used to take various books, usually SF / fantasy, open them at random, stick my finger in, and write down what they landed on. Then I'd see what kind of idea they suggested, one I had on hand or one inspired by the title. I got some pretty good ideas that way (or so I thought), before my production tapered off and I put out so little product. But I've still got the lists around somewhere...and I've still got books and could make new lists.
As for which books to use---well, I found some of the more, er, "ornate" writing produced the most interesting titles.
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Indeed, coming up with a title is worse than making up an opening or a conclusion.
I try to make my titles short and unique so they differ from other books or stories. For my current work I intend to make the title simply the name and surname of my protagonist.
The problem with my native language is that the alphabet doesn't include q,x,y,w, but it does have letters š,č,ž (let's see how these will look when I post this...). Therefore I try to make the title without any of these letters to be compatible with my native book market plus any foreign one so I don't have to change the title if I suddenly go publishing abroad.
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Seems to me I heard of some writer who never titled their pieces as the title always got changed anyway, but maybe that was articles, not novels.
Posts: 283 | Registered: Feb 2006
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For me the title’s desperately important. It summarizes the book and, hopefully, makes it stand out from the crowd on the shelf, or the slushpile.
I think finding a title is an art combining pith, poetry and promotion.
I found JeanneT’s SFWA link amusing, and helpful at least in the sense that it offers a classification of title styles. It prompted me to visit my friend Google and here’s what I found:
It thinks Stranger in a Strange Land has a 10% chance of being a best seller, and rates ‘Ender’s Game’ at 51% and ‘I Robot’ at 55%. You have to be a grammar expert to drive it, so mileage is gonna vary. I don't think it knows any more than computers usually do, which is never as much as their programmers.
There’s a random book title generator here, www.kitt.net/php/title.php, but for me that’s a cop-out. I think the title leads the reader into the book, somehow with a promise, however indirect or mystifying.
Finally, perhaps the best advice Google helped me to find is here: http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/titles.shtml . John Floyd offers a useful list of ‘sources to jog the imagination’ and says,
<Quote> But does the fact that the editor may change your title mean you shouldn't spend a lot of time creating a good one of your own? Absolutely not. According to Pat Kubis and Bob Howland in The Complete Guide to Writing Fiction and Nonfiction, "You need a good title to attract an editor's eye. Remember, it's the first thing he or she sees of your work--and the editor who likes your title will begin reading your manuscript in an optimistic frame of mind." <End quote>
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Heh, I just used the title scorer site and my title got a 41% chance of being a bestseller. This is good to know!
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I used that Lulu title scorer and had fun with it. My novel is the first of a series, so the title is "Star Sons 1: Dawn of the Two." The first time I tried the scorer, I said the title was "concrete" not "figurative" and then everything else was the same for both tests. With the title labeled as "concrete" (or whatever that word was, I was interrupted before posting this and forgot the word!), my title scored 10.2% chance of being a best-seller. When I said the title was "figurative" with EVERYTHING else the same, I got a 62.7% chance of it being a best seller!! LOL! Go figure. . .
Lynda, who hopes the second figure is the accurate one!
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