'Your, your "manifesto pledge" was it senator? To slash teenage birth rates? A pledge. My pledge? You bastard, I pledge to destroy you.' said 17 year old intern, Jake Wankofa. 'And the evidence, is all here on my iphone 7, my cell. I know everything about your dirty tricks, you and Michelle. A poker night, eh?' Across the executive suite, senator Bill Passage slumped visibly at his zimmer frame. 'She tucked me in, so, so I admit. But it was forfeit chequers, you little motherfocker.' Jake's quest for power was insatiable. 'You make me sick,' he said. 'I say supermax. I say Colorado. A whole new dungeon for you, Pops.' The two men wrestled atop the carpet...
I've found myself using the phrase "project name" a lot here on writingforums. Not many others seem to be using it. I think it's just one of those terms I started using because of necessity and coincidences and just stuck with even though others may not even understand it, because it's somehow enough that it does to me. Personally I use the term to refer to a working title, like films and video games often have before their creators agree on the final name. I don't like merely numbering my projects, referring to them as "that novel I'm writing with that girl and the dog finding an ancient chest", calling them Untitled or giving them names immediately upon conception. So I gradually grew into giving each project a short, arbitrary (yet fixed) word of at least four letters as their name, often with "Project " or "P" in front to avoid confusion with other things, because I have a lot of potential future project ideas stored on my computer at any given time that benefit from having titles. How do you handle this? Only one project at a time? Tentative, informal names that change over time? Referring to them by your best guess as to what the title will be? How do you label and organise your folders, if you have any? Here's my current list of projects and the reasons for their names: Anaconda - the first name of the MC Blonde - the love interest is blonde Butterfly - involves the butterfly effect Catie - the love interest's nickname City - the MC plans to conquer the world one city at a time Claire - the love interest's name Colour - there are three magical towers, each with its own primary colour Come - about two people who come together both physically and idiomatically Dark - the classic tale of a small group of good-hearted people trying to defeat darkness Detect - the MC has the ability to choose not to be detected on radars and to be invisible etc. Dine - centred on a family sitting around the kitchen table eating and chatting Emma - the love interest's name Fantasy - the story's genre Female - the love interest is female Forest - the characters are in a forest Four - a sci-fi set during a time when humanity has established settlements on three other celestial bodies France - set in France Gale - the initials of the two primary characters are GA and LE Ghost - about a boy who befriends a ghost Homo - the two primary characters are a gay couple Invi - the MC's nickname Jack - the main contender for the MC's name when I first conceptualised the project Joke - most of the characters are from jokes King - the MC works for the king Last - I can't remember, but it probably has something to do with the setting League - the characters are league of superheroes Magora - the surname of the MC's mentor/boss Milk - a sci-fi set in the Milky Way Myth - a fantasy set in a world of myths, mythical creatures etc. Natalie - the love interest's name News - I have no idea, probably picked at random Prim - the setting and situation is quite similar to Primrose Everdeen's in The Hunger Games Quadrant - a sci-fi where space is divided into quadrants Scandinavia - the antagonists are Scandinavians Stream - about two men who frequently communicate with eachother via an Internet live stream Suicide - the two primary characters both separately plan to kill themselves Time - it's a time travel story Tower - the MC's people all live in a single tower Travel - travelling away from a certain diameter around the MC basically makes you a zombie Utts - the name of an alien species featured in the story Vampire - the love interest is a vampireesque creature Vision - the MC sporadic experiences visions of the fates of people he meets Wright - the MC's surname
Sorry, I don't really understand the question. If I have several works in progress, the title of each is the title (maybe temporary) I chose for it.
I think you understood it perfectly. This is exactly the kind of answer I was looking for. You have a much simpler system that I do, that's all.
I just call them by the working title. But when I have rough ideas and want to jot them down in a Word file and save them for future inspiration, I just start typing and then when it's time to save, Word suggests a title using the first words of the notes I wrote, and I leave it that way. Too early for a title, but it's kind of useful to have, for example "Warrior society where those who lose battles" as a title. It doesn't tell me everything I need to know, but it lets me know the idea is probably some sort of spec fic, not a contemporary romance or whatever.
I slap any title on every project including projects still just ideas. I rarely call anything untitled unless I don't want to reveal the title or I'm torn between titles. For a while my Road Trip story was dubbed road trip on this site but it actually had two working titles - Switch-Hitcher and Casey. By the fourth chapter I finally settled on Vulture Bait. I rarely call a work doc by what the project is - for one reason it would be too hard to search through all those synopsis sounding titles but also because giving it a title can perk my interest if I've forgotten a project.
Mine has gone through a few working titles and probably will get more. I try to get a firm title and occasionally think I've hit it, but either it doesn't fit or readers really dislike it. Here's the evolution so far. "The White Zuchetto" -> "White" -> "WorldWide" (not really a title as much as a stand-in project label) -> "The Midst of the Fire" -> "Millenial Reign" I thought I'd really hit something with Millenial Reign but my writing group hated it and said it made them expect sci-fi rather than what it was meant to be (A biblical reference to the millenial reign of Christ twisted into a reference to the Millenial Generation) I think for now I'm changing it to just "Millenial"
For me, they are working titles. My working titles list: Ties That Harm (current wip, follow up to published fiction book) Ties That Heal (at the 'may not happen' stage) Sebastian's Inferno (offshoot from a character in Ties That Harm) Alexandra's Kitchen (non-fiction/fiction crossover) Through A Father's Eyes (non-fiction at the research stage follow up to published non-fiction book)
My current main WIP is 'A Serpet's Trap' - that's the working title anyway. It's the story of a cycle of violence and murder.
Mine tend to start out with the first names of the main characters so this one I'm working on at the moment was called Aiden, which then changed to Eve and Aiden and later evolved into Summer's Eve. I doubt I will be changing it from it's current title as I think it works well with the plot.
I wish there was some deep thoought process but the name of the piece is often the very last thing I think about. Usually a single word that roughly describes the plot to begin with, I have 'Ghost' 1 and 2 and now I've got a working title 'You're Not There' which kind of evolved as the drafts went. Otherwise, I'll name them after the main character or genre. I do have one file named 'Thingy' and 'Sci Fi thingy' because I couldn't be bothered to think of anything. Should probably try and organise myself.
I was thinking of starting a new book project and as such I was wondering what to call it. My current idea is "The Order: Tarvoss Tide" Does that sound silly? To give a bit of a background all of my writing currently involves this one universe. The main story of that universe I call "The Order" In addition I have more working concepts from that title that I currently call; "The Order: Redemption" "The Order: Return of Alptraumkatze" "The Order: Reborn" <- that one I am also on the fense about. Is this a silly way to name things? Is this bad? Am I over thinking this? To give more depth to the one I made this thread about. Tarvoss is the surname of the main character and her motive in the book is witnessing a family member die. Tarvos spelled with 1 S is the name of a moon. So I thought, moon, tide the death of a moon motivating the main character or pulling them forward. Or at least that is how my mental thought process went. Sorry it was kind of scattered. Is that symbolism? Is that cool? Is that lame? i have no idea. Help me please!
Assuming just Alptraumkatze? Or did others give you trouble? Alptraumkatze translates to "Nightmare Cat"
Tarvoss doesn't exactly roll off the tongue either, but yeah it was alptraumkatze. I see this kind of vocabulary and sometimes bizarre names in a lot of books and it does nothing for me. Why not call it nightmare cat? As for tying your series together by calling it, "The Order: XYZ", I think that's fine.
Yeah Tarvoss is a bit wierd admittingly. Well Alptraumkatze is a code name of a character. The idea is she was a terrorist and that was her known name. I figured "Nightmare Cat" doesn't come off as cool. "The Order: Return of the Nightmare Cat" Didn't seem as epic? Want do you think? Thanks for the imput
I actually like the sound of "Tarvoss Tide". Even "The Order: Tarvoss Tide", although "the order" in general sounds a bit cliché to me. Makes me instantly think of a secret society of warriors in a fantasy world. Also, I prefer "Tarvos tide" over "Tarvoss tide", regarding your explanation about the names. Tide on the moon somehow sounds better to me than tide of the surname While it is perfectly clear that the main character could be connected to the moon, and to the tide. Or you could simply name your character Tarvos. As for the other titles... The Order: Redemption - too cliché, déjà vu, etc. "The Order: Return of Alptraumkatze" - Huh? Of what? "The Order: Reborn" - again, a bit cliché. Why not making the entire series having a title "Tarvos Tide" if that is something you can relate every book to, and then you could come up with short, catchy titles for each book separately?
Generally when I refer to the stories I only use the after the order name. So I call them "Tarvoss Tide" "Redemption" "Return of Alptraumatze" actually in that ones case I generally call it ORA. The order comes not from a secret society but from the origin of this world Which is pretty much futurist. Magic developed which inspired a world war three. When the dust settled the suvivors founded a UN of sorts but instead of united nations it was The United World Order or The Order for short. I always liked calling my main book The Order. I tag the others with it because I thought it was cool and because it acts as a easy tell that they all take place in the same universe. Is that lame? Alptraumkatze is German for Nightmare Cat Yeah Reborn needs work too. I suck at names!
Out of the options I would call it Tarvos Tide, and remove The Order. As others have said, The Order, Redemption and Reborn sound cliché. Nightmare Cat sounds like I've come home and Tigger has crapped on the carpet, and German isn't exactly obscure, I'd imagine most people would get the meaning.
No, you don't - "Tarvos tide" is pretty cool. I'd say you just need to dig a bit deeper into your story and find something that's really vital to it, like something truly meaningful to the story and to you, not necessarily something which is expected in the genre... Why not "The World United" or something like that for the series, since I can see from your description that's something this order is fighting for...
I asked something similar, and ended up dropping part of a name, I think in this instance you need to drop The Order. or call the series itself The Order, then you still get something similar when written down but its not a mouthful, plus Alptraumkatze is a bit of a mouthful, even for someone who is used to European language. maybe something like "Nightmare" or "Dreams of the Dark" would be a bit better.
