Novel Titles

I use working titles for some, but none are funny; they tend to be just short Word file names until I decided on a real title. Sometimes the book is done before I sort out what I want the title to be.

 

My favorite was Zombie Cupcake Romance. I really need to revisit that onw but I was writing it for a very specific anthology (which I missed the deadline for) and I don't know where else I would find a home for it even if I did manage to finish it.

 

I absolutely need a working title. It helps in keeping my WIP on track until it derails on its own, and it usually does, for whatever reason. I then have to work the title a little more to get me to the end of the piece. This may happen a few times depending on the length of the story.

My most recent working title is : (don't laugh damn it!)

a seemingly democratic system of switches (about democracy. pinball machines and "le hazard" of finding yourself alive)

 

See, I knew they'd be good.

 

Funny, no. I try to match based on what the story is about.
Most obscure is The Mirror That Flatters Not, which takes
place around to sister cities that work very differently on a
societal level.

Unless you count an old entry into the shorts contest.
There was one titled Cheetopire.

 

Most of them have boring working titles, like Steampunk, Teenage story, New Gay story, Punk Fantasy, New Dark Fantasy...

A couple of weirdish ones:
Bricks : medieval fantasy novel WIP, and since it has three 'books' by now, they're imaginatively named Bricks 1, Bricks 2, Bricks 3.
Bullion : some kind of flintlock fantasy thing. This story never really got off actually, there's only like 50k. I guess cos it lacked the story so it was just about these characters stumbling about.

 

I write little notes for myself in the working titles. Listing current works in progress and the titles.

From the Desk of the Anti-Christ(Too revealing maybe...)

Elemental Poetry(To have the name poetry in the title or not...)

All Hope Lost(Humorous Apocalyptic novel... definitely not keeping this name.)

Creature Poetry (Mythical Creature Poetry?)

 

I have a sensible official working title for mine, but the UNofficial title happens to be Romeo and Juliet With Volcanoes.

 

I count everything! Cheetopire is funny though. I have no idea what it's about but I can't deny the allure of the title.

I appreciate pragmatic naming. Reminds me of the Germans. Hopefully there's something you can salvage from those 50k words though, at least for another project.

I like this, it makes sense. It's a good start to organization, at least before it all falls to shit.

Hah! All this sensibility is so stranger to me. You people and your "sense-making".

 

Hi!
How does one go about finding a good title? What are some creative processes that help one come up with a good title?
Thank you so much for your time.

Peace and Love!

 

Think about the content of your story, can the title describe it in some creative way? Can the title have a subtle meaning that becomes clearer as the reader progresses in the story, or perhaps only make sense at the end of the story?

Generally, the title is the first thing people will see, it therefore may need to be somewhat relevant to the content of the story.

For example, your story is about a girl with amber-like hair, she lives an itinerant life due to her father who is a military attaché (or really a spy), the reader follows her through a turbulent life and stuff happens. With the theme of the story being teen–parent relations or something. Here you could have the title relate to her natural hair color as well as to the fact that her father is a spy, to produce a title such as: Father of hidden Amber, to relate to the fact that the girl's father is probably often busy with important things and may neglect his daughter who consequentially feel like a ghost in the family.

Just my European cent.

 

I'm considering using themed titles for my works. The only reservation I have is whether these proposed titles (STOLEN .... in my case) should have anything to do with the storyline itself. I've read a lot John Sandford's PREY series, and half the time, the title has nothing to do with the story.

Would you use a themed title series? Do such titles attract readers? Other than standing out, any advantage to using such titles?

Working a fourth draft/book for my detective series and was just wondering if this would help.


Thanks for the inputs.

 

I’ve read Prey many times and it’s very related to the title. The nanobot swarm acts like the perfect predator and anything it can devour is prey.

I think most people work out titles after the story is completed and put a placeholder title in in the mean time.

 

I have a feeling you're thinking of Micheal Crichton's Prey. John Sandford's Prey series is more of a murder mystery thriller type thing, but even so, the book titles do have something to do with the story. Prey refers to both the murderer hunting its victims and Lucas Davenport hunting the murderer.

 

I definitely think that the title should have something to do with the story, regardless of whether it's a series. Seems like a weird choice for it to not

Before I decided to completely rework my SF series, I'd picked out titles for each planned book. Might still be able to use them in some way, I dunno, but a main theme of the series is/was decay, so one character's arc's titles reflected physical decay, one mental decay, and one just straight up entropy.

 

I like themed titles. They can draw a series together and also allude to the underlying theme of each entry in the series. Wool/Shift/Dust/Sand come to mind (though Shift didn’t entirely fit the pattern). What I don’t particularly like are themes with the main characters’ names in them, like the Harry Potter and Indiana Jones series. “Firstname Surname and the Noun of Adjective” becomes really tiresome.

 

This may just be born of a moment of self-doubt, but I've been wondering lately about the advisability of giving one of my books a French title. I do speak French (to A-Level standard) so I know what the word - la tache - means. (The stain.) I thought that it was a good title, but that it sounded better in French, and since the characters do speak French, I felt it was justified.

Do you agree? Or do you think that it will just sound pretentious or detract from the appeal of the book since not everyone will understand the title?

 

If the story takes place in France, or the language plays a big role, I think it would be justified. Yes, it might sound a bit pretentious, but it could also be taken as a clue/nod to the importance of France/french.

Is it finished? Because if it's not, keep the name and have another feel when it's done.

 

I'd point out that 'tache' is going to make people who don't know French think of mustaches. That might not be what you want.

 

Bolded mine.
If there's one thing I've discovered in learning various languages, it's that everything sounds cooler when it's not in English. Personally, I think "The Stain" sounds cooler than "La Tache".

 

I wouldn't know what it meant, and probably would assume the book wasn't in English, thus wouldn't pick it up. Sorry if that sounds harsh, I may not be your target market.

 

It's not really a matter of the title coming off as highbrow so much as will it entice folks to want to read your story?

My WIP is a story that takes place in France during the Revolution... It would be nice to call it, Soeurs de la Rébellion... but I won't.

 

I'm in need of a title. I know that's about the dumbest ask ever, but in my past works I have either come up with a title that ended up being really stupid and cheesy, or I've just opted to omit the title since it was a private work that never saw the light of day or was for an assignment in a class. I want it to be something symbolic (I've been toying with the idea of 666, since there are 6 main characters, "6 secrets to be revealed," and 6... something else I dunno yet) and meaningful, but I have no goshdarn clue. If the plot would be helpful in this (as I'm sure it is), here's a summary:
At 2:46 PM on Thursday, November 21st, 2019, an anonymous email is sent to 6 students at Golden Oak High School. The topic? A suicide note for someone they all know, or at least they think they do. The note gives them 24 hours to figure out their identity or they will take their own life. It's up to these 6 people to figure out who sent it before it's too late, banding together to find out the truth about this anonymous messenger, while also having to confront their own truths. With only about 7 hours left, will they figure out the truth? Or will another face in the crowd simply be forgotten?
Let me know if you have any ideas. Thanks!