Perhaps it is just me - but I find it rather off-putting if I name a document containing my book title and then carry on writing it. In my opinion, it really foreshadows what's going to happen in the book - hence I'm not able to continue writing it. That's why I name a lot of document titles as '-' until I have actually sufficiently worked into them so that I can produce a title. Is this just something I have, or does anyone else seem to have the same problem with naming documents?
I'm the opposite. I feel antsy until I have a working title, even if I know that title will change. There's something so unsatisfying about having a manuscript called 'untitled' or 'Document1' or whatever. But then I'm also very comfortable with knowing what's going to happen in my book...
I'm quite the opposite to that. When I write, it's like I'm reading the book for the first time - I follow every twist as the reader would do because I have absolutely no idea where I'm going when writing.
Me too, @Skibbs . As for titles, I don't find it off-putting to have one, but I'm terrible at coming up with them. I was so excited to finally have a title for my current WIP I excitedly wrote an entry about it in my Progress Journal here.
I have working titles right from the start, just so I can keep track of projects. But I don't get too attached to them, and they're rarely the titles the books end up being published under.
I always start off with a working title. It might just be a general description. For example, the WIP I'm currently finishing, a crime novel, I started out by simply calling it "Mystery". After I've been writing for a while, I'll usually come up with a working title that relates to the story - the name of a character, perhaps. Then, when I get well into it, I usually come up with a title I intend to use. If I could come up with a good title early, I would use it.
Whilst working as a technical author titles were self explanatory - never had to think about it. With the odd bits of creative writing that I've done and certainly my main current WIP I'm very much in line with Tenderiser in that I really have to have a working title. I have found that it helps me stay focused on the purpose and guts of story even though, like Shenanigator, my characters take me where they want me to go much of the time. However insane it might sound I sometimes have found myself having a verbal argument (uh-huh, spoken out loud) with my main protagonists to resolve an issue. Come to think f it, it is crazy but being at least a little crazy has helped me get through the dark patches in life.
I never thought of it as a working title before, but now that you mention it, there is usually a description-based working title for the document. Thank you for expanding my view of what a title is supposed to do. Maybe I'll find it less stressful to "not have one" next time. ;-)
I'm the same. I usually slap a stupid working title on the manuscript, then worry about the real title later. Problem is, a lot of the time I get attached to the 'stupid' working title and have trouble changing it later. I have a book called "Vampire with a Shotgun." I can't convince myself to change it.
I have a working title in my head ( this changed twice already) but my book is split into chapters, so therefore my documents title is 'chapter 1' then 'chapter 2' etc. I much prefer it to 'untitled'
Working titles, yep. The HFN is named after the Highly Flavored writing experiment. Of the ideas that I've ruthlessly put aside to focus on one just one focus on one bleepit!!: Coriolis Effect is based on one aspect of one scene. Tulips and Butter just refers to gardening and cooking. Shuteye, now, actually could be the title, but it doesn't remotely need to be. I know I'm forgetting another one.
