I don't have any method of coming up with titles. They just come to me, usually in some sudden revelation, but I don't think I've had to spend much time on titles before. I don't make up any titles before hand, only when I need one. Although I must say, I tend to use a little word play in my titles. Titles are the last thing you need to bother about if you haven't thought of one already. It isn't really that important unless you're one of the few that just can't write without a title.
my titles for everything i write [some of us don't write just 'books' you know ;-) ] come to me easily, 'on their own'... i next to never have to 'think up' a title and most of the time i have one in mind before i even start writing...
My titles tend to come to me naturally as well. If you're having trouble having an idea float to you, dont worry about it. I find things like writing a particular scene or thinking up a specific phrase are harder when you actually concentrate on it, probably because I feel writing is a very fluid activity and so your thoughts should reflect that. One guidline I do give myself is to have my titles be short. I dont like having to abbreviate titles --my own or another authors. Also, if publishing is your eventual goal, short titles are easier to market and tend to leave more of an impact on the reader.
Mine come to me in a flash, at any time from original idea to the finished first draft. I don't sweat it, as a publisher or agent may well change it anyway if I get that far!
The only time I have trouble coming up with a title is when I am trying to come up with something for my poems. I like the titles of my work to express something from the work. That is easy to do with short stories. Sometimes I will have a title before the story. is even finished. It is fairly easy becasue in longer works there is so much to draw the story title from. I hope that helps.
I used to have lots of trpuble with titles, but at some point that just went away. I end up stamping interesting yet relevant titles onto my stories. I also find myself browsing bookshelves at Barnes & Noble and rolling my eyes at bad book titles. Many title are so boring that I can't bring myself to even pick up the book to read the synopsis. "The *NOUN* of the *NOUN"; "The *COLOR* *NOUN"; "*NOUN* of the/a *ADJECTIVE* *NOUN*. A title shouldn't just sum up the work it should be a grabber, as it's the first thing most readers will see.
I always give a title before I even begin the story; although, I most always change it by the time I am finished with the story. I try to think of a title that reflects on what the story is about without giving the story away. What I like most is that at some point in the story the reader goes, oh, that is why the book or short story is named that. I want them to feel like they discovered something when they realize why the story was given its title.
Mine either fit into a series ("Manitou Island," "Return To Manitou Island," "Escape From Manitou Island," "Beneath Manitou Island," etc.) or just kind of creep into my mind over time. I tend to spend a lot of time thinking about a story before I write it so the title gradually comes along in its own time. With shorter stories, I have to think about it a bit more, but I'm not saying my titles are absolutely wonderful or anything. I end up with novella/short-story titles like "Obsession" and "Two Brothers," you see. With short stories/novellas I usually title them afterwards, but novels/serials have titles in mind long before they're written. I don't come up with "lists" of ideas before coming up with stories because then the titles wouldn't fit the stories that emerge afterward; I'd have to shoehorn them on and it wouldn't work. The titles have to fit the stories. I honestly can't say where they come from, they just come. *shrug* It's somewhat different with chapter titles. With those, I actively think them up because I have a much shorter amount of time in which to come up with them. I use quotes, puns, dramatic titles, obscure titles, funny titles, descriptive titles, whatever fits the chapter. But with longer/single works, it's just this kind of vague process I can't really define.
Wow, I'd better avoid "The Lord of the Rings", and"The Scarlet Pimpernel". (I do see your point though)
I like double meanings. The project I'm working on right now has the title "the Immortals" which refers both to the primary group of characters that the story centers on, and to the story's theme (which I hope readers won't notice till the book is over. Sort of one of those "oh so that's what it means" sort of deals). I've done it a few times but I don't really go out of my way to make it work. It's easy sometimes because I probably overuse symbolism in my pieces. Half the time though I don't think anyone notices my constant historical, sci-fi, religious, philisophical, and pop culture references -_-. One time I literally wrote in "He's dead Jim" just because by coincidence my character's name was Jimmy. I hadn't really planned on it it just sort of happened and I thought it was funny, but no one got the joke...
I know that you don't name your book until it is done and I am assuming because the title will be a word, paragraph, ect with in the book, but what if you come up with a name and then you look it up and there are 50 million other books out there with the same name. I have looked up different names for book titles and they all come up with already exisiting. Is that copyright infringment? How do you over come that? I have some titles that I want to try, but how do you go about doing a name of a book if there are already books out there named that?
I've seen a few books with the same or similar titles. This is because book titles, to my knowledge, are not copyrightable. Sure, it's better if your title is at least fairly unique to avoid confusion, but it's not the end of the world if you take some else's unwittingly. Correct me if I'm wrong.
You could run into a problem if you named your book Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, but apart from such blatant infringement, book titles aren't covered under copyright law..
I always name mine before I write anything else and it doesn't come from a word or paragraph in the book so I'm a bit confused by this "rule" you are assuming. The name I choose sets the tone for the whole thing, which I have as an outline in my head anyway. If you have already found *50 million* with the same name, doesn't that answer the question? Anyway, if it ever gets published there's a real possibility that the title will be changed at that stage so I wouldn't worry too much.
I named both of my completed novels before I started writing them ... but then renamed both of them after I'd finished the first draft because I felt they were kind of cliche and didn't quite fit the themes as well as I wanted. Go figure. (I'd ever so slightly incline towards picking a name before writing just because it would be easier to do an effective title drop.) And naming your book can't be any worse than naming a song. Just take a look at Wikipedia's disambiguation page for "Angel", heh.
I'm gonna be strange and say that I've already decided on my title, at least temporarily, even though my story is only it it's development/conceptual stages. I highly doubt that it shall remain being called 'A Tale of Broken Dreams: From Cardiff to Chicago via Kaitaia' because some would argue that it is a mite long for a novel title.
I just searched my book titles and they are unique. tee hee. Actually, I come up with titles during the initial idea part before I start writing. Anways, unless its apparent, you don't need to worry about titles. If you've found alot of books with similar titles, it's a sign that it's ok.
I usually come up with the title as I have written down what the plot is. After reading your post though I checked my titles and they are unique so I am lucky. If book titles are not covered under copyright law then I wouldn't worry about it.
If book titles are not covered under copyright law then I wouldn't worry about it. ...they're not... see the legal details here: www.copyright.gov
Maia, I have a question. I do know that copyright law specifically says titles are not copyrighted. But what about protects titles that are obviously misleading if applied to another work, like the above-mentioned Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince? The dustcover art would be protected, but anyone who titled their book that would clearly intend to defraud purchasers.
I was reading a bit into the copyright law to see if I could find an answer to the question. I, in all honestly, have never looked into it before, so I have no background in this knowledge, but I wanted to see if I could come up with an answer anyway. At face value, it seems as if that is perfectly legal. Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans are not protected under copyright laws. Since that is a title and contains a name, as long as the concept used isn't the same, it doesn't matter. For all we know, the half blood prince could be a prince in some random place during WWII that was half jewish and sent to a concentration camp and some englishman named Harry Potter who was having a sordid affair with this random prince helped him escape the Nazis. It is illegal to put J.K. Rowling's name anywhere in the work unless she agrees, though. In my rudimentary search, I found nothing that would expressly forbid the use of that title as long as the subject matter was not, in any sense of the word, Rowling's subject matter. I'm sure she would be able to fight it in some way, but I have not been able to find that. I do want to look further into it though, because now I'm curious.
I don't intend to name it that, or any other popular names, I was going to name my bood soulless and a million of books came up.
