Got these SF story titles from FantasyNameGenerators.com's book title name generator:
Veteran Of Life
Girl Of Darkness
Foreigners Of The Moon
Agents Of The Sun
Officers And Recruits
Traitors And Men
End Of The New Order
Border Of The Stars
Mother Of The End
Perfection Of Time Travellers
Not everything you'll get is usable, but there will be a couple that are interesting (A Perfection of Time Travellers would make an awesome short story title.) If you hover over the categories at the top of the page, you'll see links to the other five million or so free naming generators at the site, like the tavern name generator, which gave me this list:
The Secret Bat Pub
The Open Shoe Bar
The Huge Rabbit
The Gullible Sugar
The Spotless Unicorn Bar
The Dusty Cashew
The Modern Curry Inn
Ye Olde Bass Inn
The Warm Hawk Bar
The Victorious Stream
Ye Olde Bass. Even I'd have a drink in a tavern named that . . . .
Showing posts with label titles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label titles. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 07, 2015
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Title Logic
Like most of what I do with the work, titling stories evolved as part of my natural writing process. With the very first stories I wrote I used character names as titles or part of the titles (Jean, Glenna, The Diary of Sebatina Hariski) and I think that is a pretty common default among young writers. I then went through a mercifully brief flirtation with Faulkneresque titling (The Wounds of Yesterday, The Power and The Glory) and shock-o-ramas (Postcards from Hell, Let's Drink the Draino) before I began shedding all my drama and paying a little more attention to the story itself and mining what I'd written for title gold.
The first title I can remember being proud of was Realm, a 100K fantasy novel I wrote in four weeks back in 1984. I wanted something that sounded as epic as the story, and since the otherworld I'd built in the book was called the Realm nothing else would do. I wish I could take credit for it, too, but while world-building I actually borrowed it from the very first computer BBS I ever visited (local via the old Prodigy network, and it didn't last long, but it was a neat place to hang with other writers.)
I know the influence that one title had on me as a novelist. I loved the sound and the brevity; it had impact without all the frilly hoopla of my earlier titles. Had I published that book the title probably wouldn't have survived the editor's first pass, but that experience got me thinking in what would be the right direction for me.
From that point on I tackled titling with three goals in mind:
Keep it Simple -- use only one or two words whenever possible.
Make it Unique -- draw the ideas from obscure sources or the story itself.
Go for Memorable -- choose something that would be easy for the reader to remember.
I used to drive myself crazy trying to find that one perfect title (and occasionally still do) but lately I've been trying to change that. Presently I compile ten to twenty possible titles for every story, a list to which I constantly add during the writing process. I'll use my favorite from the list as a working title, but if the editor or marketing doesn't like it, I've got plenty more on hand to offer as alternatives. I can't give you statistics on how many writers' original titles are changed by their publishers, but about half of mine didn't make it onto the cover. If like me you're invested in titling your own stories then it's probably a very good idea to have some backup ready, just in case.
Related PBW links: Playing with Titles ~ Poetry Sparks ~ Ten Things to Help You with Titles ~ Titles That Brand ~ Wordling Poetry
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Creative Collisions
A first-time reader e-mailed to ask if Christian Lang, the female protagonist in Nightbred, was named after the male protagonist of that very popular, allegedly Twilight fanfic-based, book that everyone but me has read. While it's true they have the same first name, I used it first, beginning in 2006 when Chris first appeared as a character in Dark Need, book three of the original Darkyn series. Not that it matters to anyone but me, but she's also named for one of my nieces. I'm quite glad that when I created her character I didn't also decide to use Gray, a family surname, for my Chris.
This type of creative collision happens infrequently, but when it does it can create a lot of stress for the writer. I'm fortunate that I have public creative provenance on my use of the name; no one can argue with a published book with an earlier copyright date. But what if I was a writer who had yet to be published, and what if I had used Gray instead of Lang? Is that okay?
Before I answer that, let's talk about the legalities surrounding the commercial use of names. According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, a trademark is "a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others." Names can be trademarked to protect a brand and to prevent others from using them, and I believe (and I'm not an attorney, so don't quote me on this) that is the only way you make any name you create exclusively yours.
You've probably heard that copyright protects anything you write from the moment you create it, and it does, with an important but. Copyright protection applies to the entire work, not individual names or titles used in the work (as stated in this Copyright Basics .pdf from the U.S. Copyright Office, which breaks down the federal law in simple language.)
Creative collisions in the Publishing industry aren't quite as black and white as trademarks and copyright. Most ethical publishers try to avoid or prevent creative collisions, especially among in-house authors. This happened to me when I titled my third Kyndred novel Winterfire, which by complete coincidence was the same title author Jo Beverly used for a historical novel that was being reprinted within the same year. My editor let me know about the collision, at which point I contacted the author myself to let her know about it. She was very gracious and had no objection to me using the same title, and no doubt there would have been zero shelf confusion. I prefer to use original titles for my work, however, so in the end I decided to change it to Frostfire to eliminate the collision.
I've heard tales of editors encouraging writers to lift names or titles from authors who work for other houses, and I wanted to comment on this, too. I've worked for a lot of publishers, and I've never once had any of my editors tell me to do that, but it's possible that it happens among the less ethical. It's not fair, and it's unpleasant when it happens to you, but it's not illegal. Bottom line, there is nothing we can do about it, so my advice is to stop worrying about things you can't control or change, and always try to be original with your work.
Which brings us to how the writer should deal with being on the downside of a creative collision. Let's go back to my little creative collision of Christian Lang with that other Christian. This time we'll pretend I'm an unpublished writer who has been tinkering with my manuscript Nightbred for some time now. For the sake of argument, let's also imagine I named my character Christian Gray when I started working on the story back in 2006, and have only just now discovered the existence of the book I haven't read with the more notorious Christian. I love my character's name and I can't think of them as anyone else. What do I do?
If I were me (which I am) I'd change the name. Oh, in a heartbeat, without a second thought. For one thing, I don't think I'm going to get my Christian Gray past any ethical editor I submit to; they're going to assume that a) I'm trying to hitch my story wagon to a very popular novel, b) I'm clueless as to what's going on in the market or c) I have no imagination. That's definitely a concern as we want to show editors we are original versus knockoff artists, but it's not my primary motive to make the change.
No matter how much it hurts, I'd rather retrain my brain to think of the character by a different name than have my work even accidentally associated by any reader with that other Christian and that other author. This is where you get to the core of who you are as a writer. I'm seriously invested in being original, so I'm willing to sacrifice just about anything to protect my work and to keep it free of any creative collisions.
Finally, when you get into a situation like this, think about what's most important to you. I know how attached we get to characters; to us their names aren't simply words on a page. We bring them to life, we get to know them, and we live with them in our heads for months and even years at a time. Often they can seem as real to us as a member of the family or close friend. The resistance to change is natural; you'd never rename your brother or your Dad or your best pal. But remember what Shakespeare said about roses? Whatever you call them, their beautiful fragrance doesn't change. Same goes for your character. Take it from me, a writer who still occasionally thinks of her two most popular characters as Vanessa and Jacques-Sebastien (and if you're scratching your head, that's what I originally named Alexandra Keller and Michael Cyprien.)
This type of creative collision happens infrequently, but when it does it can create a lot of stress for the writer. I'm fortunate that I have public creative provenance on my use of the name; no one can argue with a published book with an earlier copyright date. But what if I was a writer who had yet to be published, and what if I had used Gray instead of Lang? Is that okay?
Before I answer that, let's talk about the legalities surrounding the commercial use of names. According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, a trademark is "a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others." Names can be trademarked to protect a brand and to prevent others from using them, and I believe (and I'm not an attorney, so don't quote me on this) that is the only way you make any name you create exclusively yours.
You've probably heard that copyright protects anything you write from the moment you create it, and it does, with an important but. Copyright protection applies to the entire work, not individual names or titles used in the work (as stated in this Copyright Basics .pdf from the U.S. Copyright Office, which breaks down the federal law in simple language.)
Creative collisions in the Publishing industry aren't quite as black and white as trademarks and copyright. Most ethical publishers try to avoid or prevent creative collisions, especially among in-house authors. This happened to me when I titled my third Kyndred novel Winterfire, which by complete coincidence was the same title author Jo Beverly used for a historical novel that was being reprinted within the same year. My editor let me know about the collision, at which point I contacted the author myself to let her know about it. She was very gracious and had no objection to me using the same title, and no doubt there would have been zero shelf confusion. I prefer to use original titles for my work, however, so in the end I decided to change it to Frostfire to eliminate the collision.
I've heard tales of editors encouraging writers to lift names or titles from authors who work for other houses, and I wanted to comment on this, too. I've worked for a lot of publishers, and I've never once had any of my editors tell me to do that, but it's possible that it happens among the less ethical. It's not fair, and it's unpleasant when it happens to you, but it's not illegal. Bottom line, there is nothing we can do about it, so my advice is to stop worrying about things you can't control or change, and always try to be original with your work.
Which brings us to how the writer should deal with being on the downside of a creative collision. Let's go back to my little creative collision of Christian Lang with that other Christian. This time we'll pretend I'm an unpublished writer who has been tinkering with my manuscript Nightbred for some time now. For the sake of argument, let's also imagine I named my character Christian Gray when I started working on the story back in 2006, and have only just now discovered the existence of the book I haven't read with the more notorious Christian. I love my character's name and I can't think of them as anyone else. What do I do?
If I were me (which I am) I'd change the name. Oh, in a heartbeat, without a second thought. For one thing, I don't think I'm going to get my Christian Gray past any ethical editor I submit to; they're going to assume that a) I'm trying to hitch my story wagon to a very popular novel, b) I'm clueless as to what's going on in the market or c) I have no imagination. That's definitely a concern as we want to show editors we are original versus knockoff artists, but it's not my primary motive to make the change.
No matter how much it hurts, I'd rather retrain my brain to think of the character by a different name than have my work even accidentally associated by any reader with that other Christian and that other author. This is where you get to the core of who you are as a writer. I'm seriously invested in being original, so I'm willing to sacrifice just about anything to protect my work and to keep it free of any creative collisions.
Finally, when you get into a situation like this, think about what's most important to you. I know how attached we get to characters; to us their names aren't simply words on a page. We bring them to life, we get to know them, and we live with them in our heads for months and even years at a time. Often they can seem as real to us as a member of the family or close friend. The resistance to change is natural; you'd never rename your brother or your Dad or your best pal. But remember what Shakespeare said about roses? Whatever you call them, their beautiful fragrance doesn't change. Same goes for your character. Take it from me, a writer who still occasionally thinks of her two most popular characters as Vanessa and Jacques-Sebastien (and if you're scratching your head, that's what I originally named Alexandra Keller and Michael Cyprien.)
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Poetry Sparks
Whenever I need inspiration for a particular storytelling task the first place I usually run to is my collection of poetry books. Great poets have the gift of expressing concepts with the most uncommon words and phrases, and gleaning and recombining fragments from these verses often results in a unique title or story idea.
To try this yourself, pick up a few poetry books at the library, grab a notepad and pen, and start reading. When you find a phrase that has appeal to you as a title concept or story inspiration, jot it down (and remember to note the author and the title of the poem so you can go back to it, cite it, etc.)
Here's a list of title sparks I made while reading through The Poetry of Pablo Neruda:
Poetry is also a great place to find story sparks; poets tend to load up their verses with devious imagery and ideas. If you're in an inspirational lull you might find a word or phrase that spontaneously jump starts your muse.
Here's a list of some story ideas I got while reading through Ranier Marie Rilke ~ Prose and Poetry:
Sometimes when you mine poetry you'll get a mixed bag, especially if you read through an anthology with verses written by many different poets. Here's a mixed sparks list I put together while sifting through Poetry That Lives Forever:
Getting sparks from poetry is also a great way to break through a writing block; try looking for words and phrases that create instant imagery and resonate on some level with you. Once you have a list of ten, write out a short premise on what they brought to mind, and then choose one and write one page about it. If the idea doesn't hold your interest, go back to your list, choose another premise and repeat. Even if you don't end up with a complete story, it's great writing practice and might help you get past whatever is blocking you.
To try this yourself, pick up a few poetry books at the library, grab a notepad and pen, and start reading. When you find a phrase that has appeal to you as a title concept or story inspiration, jot it down (and remember to note the author and the title of the poem so you can go back to it, cite it, etc.)
Here's a list of title sparks I made while reading through The Poetry of Pablo Neruda:
- habit of dreams (Joachim's Absence)
- fallen night (We Together)
- between garrisons and maidens (Ars Poetica)
- the moon dwells (Sonata and Destruction)
- her dark star (The Night of the Soldier)
- I listen to my tiger (The Young Monarch)
- garden in the dark (Single Gentleman)
- dreaming of bandits (Sexual Water)
- the midst of rain (Autumn Returns)
- stones of silence (What Spain Was Like)
Poetry is also a great place to find story sparks; poets tend to load up their verses with devious imagery and ideas. If you're in an inspirational lull you might find a word or phrase that spontaneously jump starts your muse.
Here's a list of some story ideas I got while reading through Ranier Marie Rilke ~ Prose and Poetry:
- shadow's falling (The Book of Hours)
- signs of winter (The Fourth Elegy)
- angel gaze (The Seventh Elegy)
- Lords of the House of Lament (The Tenth Elegy)
- with early death (The Tenth Elegy)
- fall of light (The Sonnets to Orpheus, #22)
- racks no longer required (The Sonnets to Orpheus, #9)
- shade or shine (The Sonnets to Orpheus, #29)
- night without objects (The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge)
- those who burned their letters (The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge)
Sometimes when you mine poetry you'll get a mixed bag, especially if you read through an anthology with verses written by many different poets. Here's a mixed sparks list I put together while sifting through Poetry That Lives Forever:
- When his wings enfold (Of Love, Kahlil Gibran)
- A whiplash unbraiding (A Narrow Fellow, Emily Dickinson)
- Not yet in quiet lie (Daybreak, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
- speak silence (To the Evening Star, William Blake)
- with spiders I have friendship made (The Prisoner of Chillon, Lord Byron)
- too hot the eye of heaven (Sonnet XVIII, William Shakespeare)
- all the pleasures prove (The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, Christopher Marlowe)
- at sundawn stirred (A Child's Laughter, Charles Algernon Swinburne)
- halls of pleasure . . . aisles of pain (Solitude, Ella Wheeler Wilcox)\
- the one less traveled (The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost)
Getting sparks from poetry is also a great way to break through a writing block; try looking for words and phrases that create instant imagery and resonate on some level with you. Once you have a list of ten, write out a short premise on what they brought to mind, and then choose one and write one page about it. If the idea doesn't hold your interest, go back to your list, choose another premise and repeat. Even if you don't end up with a complete story, it's great writing practice and might help you get past whatever is blocking you.
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
Titles That Brand
Harry Potter and Twilight are two mammoth author brands. When anyone says the name Harry Potter, one inevitably thinks of Harry's author, J.K. Rowling. The same is true of Twilight; that single word forever owns Stephenie Meyer. Both are series titles; Rowling used Harry Potter as a title prefix for her global-bestselling novels, while Twilight began as the title of Meyer's first novel and went on to become the brand name for her entire series, the movies, the merchandising, etc.
On a far more modest level I've branded and rebranded my works and myself with multiple titles: Darkyn, PBW and StarDoc have proven to be the most popular. I coined Darkyn and StarDoc; PBW is shorthand for my blog title. Single, easy-to-remember words can be powerful brands for lesser-known authors, especially multi-genre/multi-series writers like me. You may not remember which pseudonym I'm currently using, but PBW will stick to the roof of your mind because 1) it's extremely short, 2) it's simple and 3) it's an identifier: PBW, aka Paperback Writer, aka that chick with the writing blog.
Branding is an art all on its own, and you can spend years chasing the right word(s) that define you and/or your writing. Your first idea may not be your best, either. Before inspiration struck me one night in the shower, I called my SF medical adventure stories the Border FreeClinic series. Back in 1998, I dubbed my Darkyn tales the Darkling stories (which wasn't bad; it simply wasn't right.)
For novel branding, I prefer brand words that tell a story in a single glance. Star + Doc = galactic physician. Dark + Kyn = shadowy relatives. When I had to come up with a title for the books my publisher had me write as a spin off of the Darkyn series, I worked for weeks combining and recombining words without success. Finally I threw out everything and meditated on it. I knew I wanted to use Kyn for the connection to the original series, but what to pair with it? Who were these characters? I knew them as ordinary mortals with extraordinary abilities whom the Darkyn should really dread. And that was when the light bulb came on; dread was the word I needed to complete the series brand. Kyn + dread - a = Kyndred.
To find brands for your works or yourself, the best place to start is with word lists. Begin jotting down every word that describes you, your stories, your style, or anything that is strongly related to you or what you write. You don't have to automatically go for one-word or simple branding; the keyword here is memorable. For example, you may not know who Daniel Handler is until you hear his pseudonym: Lemony Snicket. Marjorie Liu's series title Dirk & Steele invokes images of honed, bladed weapons (which aptly applies to her characters.) Patricia Briggs's Alpha and Omega pulls double duty by reflecting on the soup-to-nuts hierarchy of her werewolf pack's social structure as well as the unusual relationship between her protagonists, an alpha and an omega werewolf.
Don't instantly discount your pseudonym as a brand - I can't ever recall any of the titles of author Carl Hiassen's novels, but I remember his name due to the surname. I do the same with Susan Elizabeth Phillips because hers is probably the longest author name I know, plus it's as elegant as her writing.
If you can't think of memorable words off the top of your head, hit the thesaurus and make some synonym lists based on your keywords. Focus on words that invoke an immediate emotional reaction, or that invoke instant imagery. Once you have a couple of pages, play with the words by pairing them with each other as new compound words, changing the spelling slightly and/or recombining parts of them to form coined compounds. You can also feed your lists to Wordle and generate a cloud that will shuffle the words around and create interesting groupings; I find this works best if you select a horizontal or mostly horizontal appearance so that you get a more linear cloud.
To run a fun test of how memorable your brand is, add it to a list of similar words, show it to someone for a minute, take the list away from them and ask them which word they remember first. If they say your brand word(s), it's probably the winner.
On a far more modest level I've branded and rebranded my works and myself with multiple titles: Darkyn, PBW and StarDoc have proven to be the most popular. I coined Darkyn and StarDoc; PBW is shorthand for my blog title. Single, easy-to-remember words can be powerful brands for lesser-known authors, especially multi-genre/multi-series writers like me. You may not remember which pseudonym I'm currently using, but PBW will stick to the roof of your mind because 1) it's extremely short, 2) it's simple and 3) it's an identifier: PBW, aka Paperback Writer, aka that chick with the writing blog.
Branding is an art all on its own, and you can spend years chasing the right word(s) that define you and/or your writing. Your first idea may not be your best, either. Before inspiration struck me one night in the shower, I called my SF medical adventure stories the Border FreeClinic series. Back in 1998, I dubbed my Darkyn tales the Darkling stories (which wasn't bad; it simply wasn't right.)
For novel branding, I prefer brand words that tell a story in a single glance. Star + Doc = galactic physician. Dark + Kyn = shadowy relatives. When I had to come up with a title for the books my publisher had me write as a spin off of the Darkyn series, I worked for weeks combining and recombining words without success. Finally I threw out everything and meditated on it. I knew I wanted to use Kyn for the connection to the original series, but what to pair with it? Who were these characters? I knew them as ordinary mortals with extraordinary abilities whom the Darkyn should really dread. And that was when the light bulb came on; dread was the word I needed to complete the series brand. Kyn + dread - a = Kyndred.
To find brands for your works or yourself, the best place to start is with word lists. Begin jotting down every word that describes you, your stories, your style, or anything that is strongly related to you or what you write. You don't have to automatically go for one-word or simple branding; the keyword here is memorable. For example, you may not know who Daniel Handler is until you hear his pseudonym: Lemony Snicket. Marjorie Liu's series title Dirk & Steele invokes images of honed, bladed weapons (which aptly applies to her characters.) Patricia Briggs's Alpha and Omega pulls double duty by reflecting on the soup-to-nuts hierarchy of her werewolf pack's social structure as well as the unusual relationship between her protagonists, an alpha and an omega werewolf.
Don't instantly discount your pseudonym as a brand - I can't ever recall any of the titles of author Carl Hiassen's novels, but I remember his name due to the surname. I do the same with Susan Elizabeth Phillips because hers is probably the longest author name I know, plus it's as elegant as her writing.
If you can't think of memorable words off the top of your head, hit the thesaurus and make some synonym lists based on your keywords. Focus on words that invoke an immediate emotional reaction, or that invoke instant imagery. Once you have a couple of pages, play with the words by pairing them with each other as new compound words, changing the spelling slightly and/or recombining parts of them to form coined compounds. You can also feed your lists to Wordle and generate a cloud that will shuffle the words around and create interesting groupings; I find this works best if you select a horizontal or mostly horizontal appearance so that you get a more linear cloud.
To run a fun test of how memorable your brand is, add it to a list of similar words, show it to someone for a minute, take the list away from them and ask them which word they remember first. If they say your brand word(s), it's probably the winner.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Scrabbling Ideas
I've been playing Scrabble® since they tried to teach me how to spell in elementary school, and after chess it's my favorite board game. It's an excellent way to spend an unplugged evening with the kids. We regularly have Scrabble® nights here at Casa PBW, and (when I can get a couple of teams together) the occasional Scrabble home tournament. Last weekend Mom and I paired up and kicked everyone's butt all over the board.
I also have an electronic version of the game that allows me to play against the computer. A game takes about ten minutes to play by computer so it's the perfect mini-break past time. I usually win about half the games I play up to the expert level, at which point I always lose, but I do try to be graceful about it. Plus one of these days I am going to beat it; I just have to figure out how to make a word out of Q, J, K, X and three Is (I swear, the expert mode always sticks me with the worst letters.)
A Scrabble® game can be used for other things, too. Tonight while I was playing against the computer these were the first three words that landed on the board:
I arranged the words in my head -- Lost City Loot/Loot Lost City/City Lost Loot -- and realized I had three different basic premises for a story: Someone finds treasure from a lost city; a lost city is discovered (and looted); a city loses its treasure. While I probably won't get story ideas from every game I play, from now on I think I'm going to be paying more attention to what lands on the board.
At the moment I'm putting together a trilogy proposal, and I needed six names for the protagonists. My usual methods weren't producing much, so on a whim I took out my hands-on Scrabble® board (Diamond edition, naturally) and started playing with the tiles. I had the first four names I needed in a couple of minutes, and after switching out tiles for a while I hit on the last two. I even got a bonus in the process; the name of the character who brings the final two protagonists together.
Although the limited number of letter tiles can seem restrictive, I find it's actually a good thing. I think in some cases too many choices can be overwhelming. I had to do some creative thinking while I was working with the letters versus using as many as I wanted, and that helped me focus on what was important. If you want more letters, you can make your own from squares of cardboard, or pick up an extra game from a thrift store just for the tiles.
Other ways you can use a Scrabble® board:
Set up keywords and rearrange them to find new ideas for titles, settings and other named story elements.
Work with the tiles to coin words for world-building purposes.
Sort out the names in your story by first letter and eliminate sound-alike given names (this prevents your cast from sounding like a new branch of the Duggar family.)
Have you ever used a Scrabble® board to work out something with writing? Are there any other ways you can think of using one to help? Let us know in comments.
I also have an electronic version of the game that allows me to play against the computer. A game takes about ten minutes to play by computer so it's the perfect mini-break past time. I usually win about half the games I play up to the expert level, at which point I always lose, but I do try to be graceful about it. Plus one of these days I am going to beat it; I just have to figure out how to make a word out of Q, J, K, X and three Is (I swear, the expert mode always sticks me with the worst letters.)
A Scrabble® game can be used for other things, too. Tonight while I was playing against the computer these were the first three words that landed on the board:
I arranged the words in my head -- Lost City Loot/Loot Lost City/City Lost Loot -- and realized I had three different basic premises for a story: Someone finds treasure from a lost city; a lost city is discovered (and looted); a city loses its treasure. While I probably won't get story ideas from every game I play, from now on I think I'm going to be paying more attention to what lands on the board.
At the moment I'm putting together a trilogy proposal, and I needed six names for the protagonists. My usual methods weren't producing much, so on a whim I took out my hands-on Scrabble® board (Diamond edition, naturally) and started playing with the tiles. I had the first four names I needed in a couple of minutes, and after switching out tiles for a while I hit on the last two. I even got a bonus in the process; the name of the character who brings the final two protagonists together.
Although the limited number of letter tiles can seem restrictive, I find it's actually a good thing. I think in some cases too many choices can be overwhelming. I had to do some creative thinking while I was working with the letters versus using as many as I wanted, and that helped me focus on what was important. If you want more letters, you can make your own from squares of cardboard, or pick up an extra game from a thrift store just for the tiles.
Other ways you can use a Scrabble® board:
Set up keywords and rearrange them to find new ideas for titles, settings and other named story elements.
Work with the tiles to coin words for world-building purposes.
Sort out the names in your story by first letter and eliminate sound-alike given names (this prevents your cast from sounding like a new branch of the Duggar family.)
Have you ever used a Scrabble® board to work out something with writing? Are there any other ways you can think of using one to help? Let us know in comments.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Playing with Titles
I have met writers who say they never obsess the way I do over titles for their stories. According to them, a title is something they throw together in a few minutes, like salad out of a bag. They claim they're never rattled when a publisher tells them their title won't work. And when their editor suggests a replacement title, they're also fine with having that slapped on their book.
To me these writers are very bizarre people, and I don't entirely trust them.
I admit, I am deeply, madly, totally obsessed with story titles, and we have a very rocky love-hate relationship: I love them, and I hate them. When I hit on a great title I feel like I've conquered a small country. When I talk about it, I sound like Tom Hanks crowing over the first fire he builds in the movie Castaway: Look! I made title! When for whatever reason I get stuck, well, this is why God created the internet, writer friends and hot fudge sundaes.
I'd say 99.9% of the time I decide on a title before I write a single word of the story. The other .01% of the time I make up a decent working title I can live with while I write the story (and think about, make lists of and otherwise obsess over better titles every day until it's finished.) Which I'm sure makes me seem quite bizarre, because from the articles I've read on the subject it seems a lot of writers wait until they finish writing the story before they try to title it. I'd have a nervous breakdown if someone made me do that.
Also, something I should mention because there is always some confusion on this issue: titles cannot be copyrighted, so you never own any title you come up unless you trademark it (read about the details and the law at the government's copyright site here.)
For series writers like me, titles can become a big problem, especially now that most publishers want series books to carry brand-friendly titles. These are interrelated or matchy-matchy type titles that all sound basically the same. For those of us who prefer the creative and original, this is also known as title torture. I've seen one author whose titles are so matchy-matchy they have become literally indistinguishable from each other, something you never want to have happen to your books (and trust me, neither do your poor readers.)
It's always good to have options when you title a story so that you're not fixated on one name, as editors and publishers can and will demand you retitle something to be -- and I'll quote here -- "more marketable." When you think of a title, you might start a list of other titles you can live with if your first gets stomped (this will also keep your editor from suggesting his/her own ideas, which is when you run the biggest risk of getting stuck with an awful title.) Keep adding to your alternative list as you get new ideas as well; I've had editors who have gone through up to thirty ideas I've presented before finally settling on one they liked.
If you're a genre writer, some publishers may press you to have a genre-appropriate sounding title, too. Taking Jezebel was my original title for the first book in my Kyndred series (and I had put together a series proposal with five more just like it) but it didn't sound "paranormal enough" for the publisher, so I had to come up with other options. I went with coining compound word titles that described the Kyndred's abilities (Shadowlight, Dreamveil, Frostfire, Nightshine) which allowed me to retain the original/creative qualities I preferred while giving the publisher what they wanted.
A dazzling title (or series of titles) can be a great selling point, and during the submission stage often will snag the interest of an agent or an editor. You've got to have the quality of work to back it up, but a riveting title broadcasts your creative talent almost like a hot novel premise. On the other hand, nothing says dull and boring than an unimaginative title, or one you've "borrowed" from another writer's work.
Series titles in particular have the most firepower to evolve into a unique brand on the market, which helps create a niche for your work. If you have a forgettable or difficult-to-spell name, or you write in multiple genres under a variety of pseudonyms (I have both problems) a series title can brand your work in the minds of readers.
I always try to have fun with creating titles as it is such a stressful task. Fortunately the internet is a great place to work on them because of all the instant-access resources you can use. Here are some methods and places I recommend:
Finding the keywords: OneLook Reverse Dictionary allows you to input a multi-word concept and returns a list of words it finds related to the concept. This is especially helpful if you have an idea or concept but are running short on keywords.
Poem fragments: I put keywords related to my novel concept or theme into the verse search engine over at Bartleby.com and read what poems contain my keywords. Often a fragment of poetry makes a great title.
Practical fun: Online story title generators (like this one, this one and this one) are mainly for fun, but sometimes they can give your imagination a nudge as well.
Text, reimagined: The Bonsai Story Generator takes whatever text you cut and paste into it and rearranges the words and phrases from it into different pseudo-poetic line constructs. Most of the time the results are a little strange but also very interesting and (for me, anyway) often inspirational.
Wordle It: I came up with a way to use Wordle (my favorite online toy) to generate among other things title ideas from word clouds; read about it on PBW here.
Related Links:
John Floyd's article Choosing the Right Name for Your Story offers some neat ideas on how to construct your title.
I don't think anyone can tell you if you have an instant bestseller based on your title alone, but Lulu.com has a cute online toy that tries to here.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Wordling Poetry
I've discovered a cool new trick to do with Wordle, my favorite online word cloud generator, that can help with titles, coined words and other phrases you might need for a story.
On Wordle's Create Page, paste in the text box a poem that you like and/or that somehow relates to your story and click go. In the cloud screen, set up the layout to be horizontal with rounder edges, and choose a non-fancy font option like the one I have below (Scheherazade.)
Here's what e.e. cummings's poem Somewhere I have never traveled looks like once I Wordle it (click on any word cloud to see larger version):
From the resulting word cloud, I can see the words of the poem aligned differently, and begin to pick out some eye-catching phrases, such as always roses (great title for a sweet romance, especially if roses are a key symbol in the story), small beyond (maybe there's something to the left of the great beyond), and voiceclose (how close is he? Voiceclose.)
If I don't see any phrases that I like in the resulting wordle, I can reshuffle all the words by clicking on layout and choosing the re-layout with the current settings option.
Here's another Wordled Poem, this time Shakespeare's Sonnet XXIX:
From this one pops phrases like outcast love (nothing like a leper for a boyfriend, eh?) trouble hymns (the sort you sing when the world isn't being especially kind), and hopegate (there's a new synonym for heart.)
One more, this time using Lines on the Mermaid Tavern by John Keats:
Lots of cool word phrases in this one: deadsign (you mystery writers should be able to take that one to the bank), fineglory (perfect description for baby blond hair), mermaid gone (that sounds like a fantasy speed of some kind -- she was out of there so fast she was mermaid gone), underneath souls (what is underneath the soul, anyway?), smack Paradise (instant image of an addict flophouse), winebold (he wasn't beercrazy, he was winebold.)
I didn't use poems that were especially lengthy or overly wordy to generate these clouds; the Shakespearean sonnet is only 14 lines. If you're not a fan of poetry, of course you can also use prose, letters, word lists or anything else you prefer (any imagery-rich text will probably give you a neat wordle to work with.)
On Wordle's Create Page, paste in the text box a poem that you like and/or that somehow relates to your story and click go. In the cloud screen, set up the layout to be horizontal with rounder edges, and choose a non-fancy font option like the one I have below (Scheherazade.)
Here's what e.e. cummings's poem Somewhere I have never traveled looks like once I Wordle it (click on any word cloud to see larger version):
From the resulting word cloud, I can see the words of the poem aligned differently, and begin to pick out some eye-catching phrases, such as always roses (great title for a sweet romance, especially if roses are a key symbol in the story), small beyond (maybe there's something to the left of the great beyond), and voiceclose (how close is he? Voiceclose.)
If I don't see any phrases that I like in the resulting wordle, I can reshuffle all the words by clicking on layout and choosing the re-layout with the current settings option.
Here's another Wordled Poem, this time Shakespeare's Sonnet XXIX:
From this one pops phrases like outcast love (nothing like a leper for a boyfriend, eh?) trouble hymns (the sort you sing when the world isn't being especially kind), and hopegate (there's a new synonym for heart.)
One more, this time using Lines on the Mermaid Tavern by John Keats:
Lots of cool word phrases in this one: deadsign (you mystery writers should be able to take that one to the bank), fineglory (perfect description for baby blond hair), mermaid gone (that sounds like a fantasy speed of some kind -- she was out of there so fast she was mermaid gone), underneath souls (what is underneath the soul, anyway?), smack Paradise (instant image of an addict flophouse), winebold (he wasn't beercrazy, he was winebold.)
I didn't use poems that were especially lengthy or overly wordy to generate these clouds; the Shakespearean sonnet is only 14 lines. If you're not a fan of poetry, of course you can also use prose, letters, word lists or anything else you prefer (any imagery-rich text will probably give you a neat wordle to work with.)
Monday, June 22, 2009
Entitled Ten
Ten Things to Help You with Titles
Enter a descriptive keyword from your story into the verse search engine at Bartleby.com, which will find lines of poems that contain the word.
Use Wordtracker's online Keyword Suggestion Tool to view the top 100 ways your novel keywords are being used online.
Search quotations and proverbs for your novel keyword over at FaganFinder.com.
Get five random title ideas over at Maygra's Random Title Generator.
Play with the online generators at Serendipity and Seventh Sanctum.
Enter a keyword from your novel into the search engine at Symbols.com and see what it symbolizes around the world.
Take a keyword and find a synonym and an antonym for it, and play with combinations of the two (ala Little Big Man, Beauty and the Beast, etc.)
If you're looking for inspiration, check out Sarah Stodola's article The Top Ten Novel Titles of All Time.
Use a novel keyword in the online search engine over at The Visual Thesaurus.
Play the online Word Association game.
Enter a descriptive keyword from your story into the verse search engine at Bartleby.com, which will find lines of poems that contain the word.
Use Wordtracker's online Keyword Suggestion Tool to view the top 100 ways your novel keywords are being used online.
Search quotations and proverbs for your novel keyword over at FaganFinder.com.
Get five random title ideas over at Maygra's Random Title Generator.
Play with the online generators at Serendipity and Seventh Sanctum.
Enter a keyword from your novel into the search engine at Symbols.com and see what it symbolizes around the world.
Take a keyword and find a synonym and an antonym for it, and play with combinations of the two (ala Little Big Man, Beauty and the Beast, etc.)
If you're looking for inspiration, check out Sarah Stodola's article The Top Ten Novel Titles of All Time.
Use a novel keyword in the online search engine over at The Visual Thesaurus.
Play the online Word Association game.
Monday, February 09, 2009
Title Ten
Ten Things to Help With Titles
Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.
One of my titling tricks: go to Bartleby.com's verse home page and enter a key or concept word from your story into the search box (leave the field box set to search all verse.) The site will give you a list of all poems that contain your key/concept word; read some and see how the poet used them. For example, I entered the word midnight and got Walt Whitman's In Midnight Sleep, Fitz-Greene Halleck's Marco Bozzaris, and 372 other results.
The Bonsai Story Generator will take the text you cut and paste into the box and recombine it in funny, weird and very interesting ways, so load in some of your story keywords or text and see what happens.
Sami Pyörre's Everchanging Book of Names is a shareware name generator program you can customize.
Samuel Stoddard's Fantasy Name Generator page has two interfaces to play with and produces some very decent name/title idea lists.
MODPlug Random Song Title/Band Name Generator produced a lot of silly stuff, so it would be perfect if you need a title for a farce or a satire. A few interesting combos popped up now and then, too: Dangerous Legends, Submersible Time, and Undoubtedly Creeping.
Maygra's Random Title Generator gives you six titles for every click (good ideas for romance, erotica, fantasy and SF titles here.)
Cut and paste some text from your story into the Robopoem poetry generator, choose your cadence, and (like the Bonsai Story Generator) it will recombine the words into verse that is rich with title possibilities.
Manon over at Serendipity has a fantasy novel title generator already set up for you to play with, but I like using words and phrases gleaned from the Interesting Site Generator for ideas, too.
Seventh Sanctum's page of name generators has something to inspire just about every sort of title hunter. I particularly like the realm name generator for interesting word combos.
Thinkmap's Visual Thesaurus is free to try online, and offers synonyms in an unusual visual format that may have you making some different word associatiosn for your title ideas.
Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.
One of my titling tricks: go to Bartleby.com's verse home page and enter a key or concept word from your story into the search box (leave the field box set to search all verse.) The site will give you a list of all poems that contain your key/concept word; read some and see how the poet used them. For example, I entered the word midnight and got Walt Whitman's In Midnight Sleep, Fitz-Greene Halleck's Marco Bozzaris, and 372 other results.
The Bonsai Story Generator will take the text you cut and paste into the box and recombine it in funny, weird and very interesting ways, so load in some of your story keywords or text and see what happens.
Sami Pyörre's Everchanging Book of Names is a shareware name generator program you can customize.
Samuel Stoddard's Fantasy Name Generator page has two interfaces to play with and produces some very decent name/title idea lists.
MODPlug Random Song Title/Band Name Generator produced a lot of silly stuff, so it would be perfect if you need a title for a farce or a satire. A few interesting combos popped up now and then, too: Dangerous Legends, Submersible Time, and Undoubtedly Creeping.
Maygra's Random Title Generator gives you six titles for every click (good ideas for romance, erotica, fantasy and SF titles here.)
Cut and paste some text from your story into the Robopoem poetry generator, choose your cadence, and (like the Bonsai Story Generator) it will recombine the words into verse that is rich with title possibilities.
Manon over at Serendipity has a fantasy novel title generator already set up for you to play with, but I like using words and phrases gleaned from the Interesting Site Generator for ideas, too.
Seventh Sanctum's page of name generators has something to inspire just about every sort of title hunter. I particularly like the realm name generator for interesting word combos.
Thinkmap's Visual Thesaurus is free to try online, and offers synonyms in an unusual visual format that may have you making some different word associatiosn for your title ideas.
Saturday, February 07, 2009
Title Contest
Richard & ElÃane's book needs a title, guys, and I am titled out at the moment. Since you voted for it, I think you should have some input.
Okay, I'm desperate here. Please. Help me.
The theme of the story I have roughed out is transformation. Richard is changing, but so is ElÃane, and with change comes discovery, conflict, and those universal shifts that shake the foundations of who we think we are. The old cliche of 'what doesn't destroy you only makes you stronger' never really worked for me. More like, what you think makes you stronger can destroy you in a heartbeat.
And that's all I'm going to tell you. I can't talk about it too much before it's written or I jinx it.
As for what to call it, I really don't know what I want for this book. I prefer short titles, and I adore one-worders. I like dark, obviously, but I like poetic, too. Evermore is one of my favorite titles, but so is If Angels Burn. The more original the title, the better I like.
So what do you think I should title Richard and ElÃane's book? Post a title suggestion in comments (limit one suggestion, please) by midnight EST Friday, February 13, 2009 and if I choose your title, I will give you an acknowledgement in the e-book, send you a signed copy of any of my Darkyn print novels, as well as an advance .pdf copy of Richard and Eliane's story as soon as it's finished, which will probably this summer or fall, but definitely a month or so before anyone else can read it. This title contest is open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something here at PBW in the past.
Okay, I'm desperate here. Please. Help me.
The theme of the story I have roughed out is transformation. Richard is changing, but so is ElÃane, and with change comes discovery, conflict, and those universal shifts that shake the foundations of who we think we are. The old cliche of 'what doesn't destroy you only makes you stronger' never really worked for me. More like, what you think makes you stronger can destroy you in a heartbeat.
And that's all I'm going to tell you. I can't talk about it too much before it's written or I jinx it.
As for what to call it, I really don't know what I want for this book. I prefer short titles, and I adore one-worders. I like dark, obviously, but I like poetic, too. Evermore is one of my favorite titles, but so is If Angels Burn. The more original the title, the better I like.
So what do you think I should title Richard and ElÃane's book? Post a title suggestion in comments (limit one suggestion, please) by midnight EST Friday, February 13, 2009 and if I choose your title, I will give you an acknowledgement in the e-book, send you a signed copy of any of my Darkyn print novels, as well as an advance .pdf copy of Richard and Eliane's story as soon as it's finished, which will probably this summer or fall, but definitely a month or so before anyone else can read it. This title contest is open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something here at PBW in the past.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Titles from Hell
Let's see, I've covered bookmarks from hell and widgets from hell, so now it's time to move on. If you want to sell it, here are:
Ten Things You Probably Shouldn't Title Your Novel
1. Bill Clinton's Guide to Fine Cigars: Euw. Unless you can get Hilary to write the introduction. Then, hello, NYT bestseller!
2. Every Editor I've Slept with in Publishing, and How They Are in Bed: Oh, save it for True Confession Wednesday on the private author loop.
3. Hilarious Cartoons of Mohammed: Because there are none, infidel!
4. How to Mess with the IRS: I have to explain this?
5. I'm Okay, You're a Complete Jackass: I think Ann Coulter holds the trademark on that one.
6. Seven Steps to a Better Bank Heist: If you really know this, why are you writing books?
7. The Suicidal Virgin Cowboy's Pregnant HIV-Positive Girlfriend: We already know how it's going to end.
8. Typhoid: The Fun New Way to Lose Weight and Keep it Off: A no-brainer, right? Until you remember that women are voluntarily injecting botulism in their faces to paralyze the muscles in order to look younger. But I repeat myself.
9. Unprotected Sex -- Have it with Everyone!: Not for long.
10. What Shoes Would Jesus Wear with That?: I got dibs.
All right, your turn -- post your titles from hell in comments.
Ten Things You Probably Shouldn't Title Your Novel
1. Bill Clinton's Guide to Fine Cigars: Euw. Unless you can get Hilary to write the introduction. Then, hello, NYT bestseller!
2. Every Editor I've Slept with in Publishing, and How They Are in Bed: Oh, save it for True Confession Wednesday on the private author loop.
3. Hilarious Cartoons of Mohammed: Because there are none, infidel!
4. How to Mess with the IRS: I have to explain this?
5. I'm Okay, You're a Complete Jackass: I think Ann Coulter holds the trademark on that one.
6. Seven Steps to a Better Bank Heist: If you really know this, why are you writing books?
7. The Suicidal Virgin Cowboy's Pregnant HIV-Positive Girlfriend: We already know how it's going to end.
8. Typhoid: The Fun New Way to Lose Weight and Keep it Off: A no-brainer, right? Until you remember that women are voluntarily injecting botulism in their faces to paralyze the muscles in order to look younger. But I repeat myself.
9. Unprotected Sex -- Have it with Everyone!: Not for long.
10. What Shoes Would Jesus Wear with That?: I got dibs.
All right, your turn -- post your titles from hell in comments.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Current Dilemma
Before I turn in Robin's synopsis, Robin's story needs a title. Problem is, a lot of writers have written novels about Robin of Locksley, aka the Prince of Thieves, Outlaw of Sherwood Forest, Nemesis of Nottingham, etc. All the really cool titles are already been taken.
However, if I don't come up with a resounding title, I'll get stuck with something they think will sell more books, like Brother Hood. Since I really don't want my head to explode, maybe I should title it:
A. Rob Forever -- that's my working title. I originally saw it in a heart tattoo on a girl's shoulder at a RenFaire. I like the play on words: Rob as a noun, Rob as a verb. And the internal editor likes it, kinda sorta, except like always she thinks I can do better.
B. Enemy, Beloved -- words from a line in a great Emily Dickinson poem. I can already hear New York whining about the comma and how it doesn't sound paranormal enough, etc.
C. Prince of Outlaws -- hasn't been used for a vamp story, probably because it sounds like a western romance title.
C1. Same goes for Prince of Renegades.
C2. Would be cool to write Robin of Locksley in like a Silverado setting, though.
C3. "Take it from the rich ranchers, give it to the poor settlers, and bite a few saloon gals along the way. Yee-haw."
C4. And then we could like totally stage a Wild West Vampire Show at RT!
C5. All right, that was mean.
D. Thieves Magic -- has that whole apostrophe issue. Is it possessive? Is it like that thing you put a quarter in at cheap hotels and it shakes the bed? One S? Two S's? What?
E. Robin -- it seems presumptuous to use the one-word one-name title. I feel like Patricia Cornwell should write it instead of me, with a subtitle line of Case Closed.
F. Everlasting -- sounds too much like Evermore and then I think of that totally annoying Drew Barrymore film with the Picasso ball costume and they tear her wings off and hey, who wrote that screenplay? I still want to kick the guy.
G. Dark Thief -- there's an obituary title (i.e., over my dead body.)
H. She Came Back To The Blog Too Soon
I. Hmmmm.
J. Plague of Titles -- I wish.
K. Lady Rothchilds's Naughty Satin and Eyelet Lace Garter Belt, or How I Assume That This Long-Ass and Completely Irrelevant Title Will Make You Believe That I'm Artistic, Clever And Important -- too subtle.
L. My Author Has Title Block -- I could at least get the sympathy market with that one.
M. Stay the Night -- title of a lovely old Chicago song that sooooooo dates me.
N. Geez. This is hard. I should let them title it.
N1. I should clean out my ears with knitting needles, too.
O. Stealing Eternity -- a longer version of Rob Forever. Maybe a little shorter . . . Stolen Eternity. Steal Eternity. Steal Anything. Steal a Title, for God's Sake.
P. My Author Has Title Issues, but She's Working on Them.
Q. Stick with Rob Forever for now and stop obsessing before the facial twitch becomes permanent.
What do you guys think?
However, if I don't come up with a resounding title, I'll get stuck with something they think will sell more books, like Brother Hood. Since I really don't want my head to explode, maybe I should title it:
A. Rob Forever -- that's my working title. I originally saw it in a heart tattoo on a girl's shoulder at a RenFaire. I like the play on words: Rob as a noun, Rob as a verb. And the internal editor likes it, kinda sorta, except like always she thinks I can do better.
B. Enemy, Beloved -- words from a line in a great Emily Dickinson poem. I can already hear New York whining about the comma and how it doesn't sound paranormal enough, etc.
C. Prince of Outlaws -- hasn't been used for a vamp story, probably because it sounds like a western romance title.
C1. Same goes for Prince of Renegades.
C2. Would be cool to write Robin of Locksley in like a Silverado setting, though.
C3. "Take it from the rich ranchers, give it to the poor settlers, and bite a few saloon gals along the way. Yee-haw."
C4. And then we could like totally stage a Wild West Vampire Show at RT!
C5. All right, that was mean.
D. Thieves Magic -- has that whole apostrophe issue. Is it possessive? Is it like that thing you put a quarter in at cheap hotels and it shakes the bed? One S? Two S's? What?
E. Robin -- it seems presumptuous to use the one-word one-name title. I feel like Patricia Cornwell should write it instead of me, with a subtitle line of Case Closed.
F. Everlasting -- sounds too much like Evermore and then I think of that totally annoying Drew Barrymore film with the Picasso ball costume and they tear her wings off and hey, who wrote that screenplay? I still want to kick the guy.
G. Dark Thief -- there's an obituary title (i.e., over my dead body.)
H. She Came Back To The Blog Too Soon
I. Hmmmm.
J. Plague of Titles -- I wish.
K. Lady Rothchilds's Naughty Satin and Eyelet Lace Garter Belt, or How I Assume That This Long-Ass and Completely Irrelevant Title Will Make You Believe That I'm Artistic, Clever And Important -- too subtle.
L. My Author Has Title Block -- I could at least get the sympathy market with that one.
M. Stay the Night -- title of a lovely old Chicago song that sooooooo dates me.
N. Geez. This is hard. I should let them title it.
N1. I should clean out my ears with knitting needles, too.
O. Stealing Eternity -- a longer version of Rob Forever. Maybe a little shorter . . . Stolen Eternity. Steal Eternity. Steal Anything. Steal a Title, for God's Sake.
P. My Author Has Title Issues, but She's Working on Them.
Q. Stick with Rob Forever for now and stop obsessing before the facial twitch becomes permanent.
What do you guys think?
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Twofers
Crime and Punishment
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Of Mice and Men
Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
The Master and Margarita
The Old Man and the Sea
The Prince and the Pauper
The Sound and the Fury
War and Peace
What do all these book titles have in common? They're titles that are made up of two nouns and a conjunction. We'll call them towofers. The two nouns can represent anything, but usually they describe something about two characters, or the protagonist and the conflict, or two central aspects of the plot.
Jane Austen was fond of twofers, as were many classic authors. J.K. Rowling has used them exclusively for her series, and you'd be hard-pressed to walk through a romance section at the bookstore and not see a twofer. Category romance publishers have gone a little overboard with their dramatic twofer titles, but I can't deny that when I see something titled The Stinkin' Rich Widowed Tycoon of Titillating Ethnic Origins and The Virginal Gorgeous Easily-Blackmailed Governess, I get the idea of what the story's about immediately.
I tend not to use twofers, as I like short (preferably one-word) titles, but they come in handy when I'm at a complete loss for a title to slap on the pitch. I'm putting together a proposal for Valentin's story, for example, and so far I haven't worked up a decent title. Right now it's called Sun and the Swan Prince; Sun for the name of my female protagonist, and the Swan Prince for Valentin, the Kyn lord who nearly lost an arm in Darkyn book two. It won't be the final title, but it's a good place holder and my editor will get it (I thought about going with Swan's Sun, but it sounds too much like a TV dinner.)
Your assignment today: if you had to create a twofer title for your WIP or your favorite novel, what would it be? Tell us in comments.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Of Mice and Men
Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
The Master and Margarita
The Old Man and the Sea
The Prince and the Pauper
The Sound and the Fury
War and Peace
What do all these book titles have in common? They're titles that are made up of two nouns and a conjunction. We'll call them towofers. The two nouns can represent anything, but usually they describe something about two characters, or the protagonist and the conflict, or two central aspects of the plot.
Jane Austen was fond of twofers, as were many classic authors. J.K. Rowling has used them exclusively for her series, and you'd be hard-pressed to walk through a romance section at the bookstore and not see a twofer. Category romance publishers have gone a little overboard with their dramatic twofer titles, but I can't deny that when I see something titled The Stinkin' Rich Widowed Tycoon of Titillating Ethnic Origins and The Virginal Gorgeous Easily-Blackmailed Governess, I get the idea of what the story's about immediately.
I tend not to use twofers, as I like short (preferably one-word) titles, but they come in handy when I'm at a complete loss for a title to slap on the pitch. I'm putting together a proposal for Valentin's story, for example, and so far I haven't worked up a decent title. Right now it's called Sun and the Swan Prince; Sun for the name of my female protagonist, and the Swan Prince for Valentin, the Kyn lord who nearly lost an arm in Darkyn book two. It won't be the final title, but it's a good place holder and my editor will get it (I thought about going with Swan's Sun, but it sounds too much like a TV dinner.)
Your assignment today: if you had to create a twofer title for your WIP or your favorite novel, what would it be? Tell us in comments.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Working Titles
Personal Quirk #99,957: I can't begin a story unless I have some sort of title. No title, no writing. I don't know why. Probably the same English-teacher-induced trauma that rendered me physically incapable of placing a tabbed divider in a notebook until after I fill in the section header on that little slip of paper and shove it in the empty plastic tab.
By the way, kids, if you turn in your English class notebook with Dead Bores on the tab for the literature section, your teacher's not going to think it's funny. Trust me on this.
Decent titles take a while to cook up, so I generally use place-holder or working titles until I read a couple tons of poetry, hit the Library of Congress Online Catalog a few million times to see if any of my title ideas have been done before, and settle on the one I want. It doesn't have to be the title, just a title.
Titles ultimately have to be marketable, so a writer can't get attached to any title until it's in print. I've had pretty good luck with mine, and still about half never make it past the publisher's chopping block. This is why StarDoc book #3 is titled Endurance instead of Skin Games. The original title was my personal metaphor for novel's slavery elements, especially the endless branding Cherijo endured; the editor felt it sounded pornographic (Which illustrates how differently people can interpret the same title.)
Other titles of mine that never made it to the cover:
1. ClanSon sounded too Zane Greyish to my editor, who renamed the book Plague of Memory. I was very happy with this, as her title was better, more interesting, and more clear in meaning than mine.
2. After two years of believing that my publisher was okay with the title Darkness Has No Need (no one raised any objections to it) I was abruptly informed that it was too long a title. I'd already invested a great deal of my series budget in promoting the book by that title, so I fought hard to keep it, but lost that battle. None of the replacement titles suggested by the publisher worked with what I was doing with the series titles, but I compromised again and went with the least jarring, and the book became Dark Need. It cost me, though. Most of the promo for that book was instantly rendered useless, and I had to pay additional fees to retitle what could be saved. But I should have gotten a solid title committment from the publisher in the first place, which I didn't. It was a good (if frustrating) lesson for me. In publishing, never assume silence = consent.
3. My very unromantic title No Stone Unturned apparently committed the additional sin of not being pretty enough for a first romance, which is why that editor changed it to Paradise Island. I then had to change the name of the island setting in the book, because it wasn't called Paradise.
Final titles are a pain in the posterior, but I'm not picky about how I get a working title. I've used online title generators, chemical formulas (H2SO4), fragments of poetry (Do Not Go Gentle) and common brand names (Chips Ahoy!) If I can't think of anything off the top of my head, I'll use my favorite stock working title A Dark and Stormy Night (this also reminds me not to open the book with a damn weather report.)
You can use working titles as nudges, too. One of my current WIPs is working-titled 1918, not because it's set in that year, but to remind me of the year that initiated what will become my protagonist's primary conflict ninety years later in 2008. I also use working titles with version numbers so I can see in a glance how many times I've revised it, i.e. Butterfinger v.4.0
Do any of you writers out there use working titles, or have any special mojo that helps you create a solid title? Readers, does a book's title play any part in whether or not you purchase it? Let us know in comments.
By the way, kids, if you turn in your English class notebook with Dead Bores on the tab for the literature section, your teacher's not going to think it's funny. Trust me on this.
Decent titles take a while to cook up, so I generally use place-holder or working titles until I read a couple tons of poetry, hit the Library of Congress Online Catalog a few million times to see if any of my title ideas have been done before, and settle on the one I want. It doesn't have to be the title, just a title.
Titles ultimately have to be marketable, so a writer can't get attached to any title until it's in print. I've had pretty good luck with mine, and still about half never make it past the publisher's chopping block. This is why StarDoc book #3 is titled Endurance instead of Skin Games. The original title was my personal metaphor for novel's slavery elements, especially the endless branding Cherijo endured; the editor felt it sounded pornographic (Which illustrates how differently people can interpret the same title.)
Other titles of mine that never made it to the cover:
1. ClanSon sounded too Zane Greyish to my editor, who renamed the book Plague of Memory. I was very happy with this, as her title was better, more interesting, and more clear in meaning than mine.
2. After two years of believing that my publisher was okay with the title Darkness Has No Need (no one raised any objections to it) I was abruptly informed that it was too long a title. I'd already invested a great deal of my series budget in promoting the book by that title, so I fought hard to keep it, but lost that battle. None of the replacement titles suggested by the publisher worked with what I was doing with the series titles, but I compromised again and went with the least jarring, and the book became Dark Need. It cost me, though. Most of the promo for that book was instantly rendered useless, and I had to pay additional fees to retitle what could be saved. But I should have gotten a solid title committment from the publisher in the first place, which I didn't. It was a good (if frustrating) lesson for me. In publishing, never assume silence = consent.
3. My very unromantic title No Stone Unturned apparently committed the additional sin of not being pretty enough for a first romance, which is why that editor changed it to Paradise Island. I then had to change the name of the island setting in the book, because it wasn't called Paradise.
Final titles are a pain in the posterior, but I'm not picky about how I get a working title. I've used online title generators, chemical formulas (H2SO4), fragments of poetry (Do Not Go Gentle) and common brand names (Chips Ahoy!) If I can't think of anything off the top of my head, I'll use my favorite stock working title A Dark and Stormy Night (this also reminds me not to open the book with a damn weather report.)
You can use working titles as nudges, too. One of my current WIPs is working-titled 1918, not because it's set in that year, but to remind me of the year that initiated what will become my protagonist's primary conflict ninety years later in 2008. I also use working titles with version numbers so I can see in a glance how many times I've revised it, i.e. Butterfinger v.4.0
Do any of you writers out there use working titles, or have any special mojo that helps you create a solid title? Readers, does a book's title play any part in whether or not you purchase it? Let us know in comments.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Friday 20
I have seen some user-unfriendly promo around the book biz, but the process of learning the title J.K. Rowling picked for her next (and last?) Harry Potter book is so complicated that it has to be explained step-by-step:
"...go to the author's official web site*, click on the eraser and you will be taken to a room — you'll see a window, a door and a mirror.
In the mirror, you'll see a hallway. Click on the farthest doorknob and look for the Christmas tree. Then click on the center of the door next to the mirror and a wreath appears. Then click on the top of the mirror and you'll see a garland.
Look for a cobweb next to the door. Click on it, and it will disappear. Now, look at the chimes in the window. Click on the second chime to the right, and hold it down. The chime will turn into the key, which opens the door. Click on the wrapped gift behind the door, then click on it again and figure out the title yourself by playing a game of hangman." -- (instructions swiped from Yahoo.com)
I only got it to work as far as clicking on the second chime to the right, but I freely admit that I'm hopeless at these gamer things. If you are, too, get a kid to do it; they'll probably have the title in under a minute.
Here at Casa PBW, we've wrapped up 99.9% of the prep for Christmas. The kids and I are baking the last of the cookies for our Christmas Eve party today, but that's about it. Santa, bring it on.
Other than what the heck was J.K. thinking, any questions out there for me this week?
*Added: Enter the UK version of the web site in order to get this game to work -- and thanks to Alphabeter for the tip.
"...go to the author's official web site*, click on the eraser and you will be taken to a room — you'll see a window, a door and a mirror.
In the mirror, you'll see a hallway. Click on the farthest doorknob and look for the Christmas tree. Then click on the center of the door next to the mirror and a wreath appears. Then click on the top of the mirror and you'll see a garland.
Look for a cobweb next to the door. Click on it, and it will disappear. Now, look at the chimes in the window. Click on the second chime to the right, and hold it down. The chime will turn into the key, which opens the door. Click on the wrapped gift behind the door, then click on it again and figure out the title yourself by playing a game of hangman." -- (instructions swiped from Yahoo.com)
I only got it to work as far as clicking on the second chime to the right, but I freely admit that I'm hopeless at these gamer things. If you are, too, get a kid to do it; they'll probably have the title in under a minute.
Here at Casa PBW, we've wrapped up 99.9% of the prep for Christmas. The kids and I are baking the last of the cookies for our Christmas Eve party today, but that's about it. Santa, bring it on.
Other than what the heck was J.K. thinking, any questions out there for me this week?
*Added: Enter the UK version of the web site in order to get this game to work -- and thanks to Alphabeter for the tip.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Title Search
Here's a title-and-hook-line practice game: sit in any place in your house where you're surrounded by things with words on them (garage, storage room, library, home office, etc.) Make a list of random words that you see around you (don't take titles off the spines of books.)
Here's my list of words from the garage:
Old Locks (hand-written on cardboard box)
Wonder Wind (extension cord winder; "er" from "winder" is worn off)
Running Men (shoe box)
Just for Thought (old note stuck to bulletin board)
Venezia Spell (paint chip folder)
Landmark (fan box)
Without Rain (cracked CD case with fragment of insert, Enya? maybe)
Nom 166 (Dell computer box)
Gem of Truth (one or the kids' RPG cards)
Just a Click Away (end of photo package)
To Her Desires (beginning of last line on cover copy of old novel I'm reading)
Now, take your title words and imagine a story for them -- doesn't have to be a novel, just a story idea -- and write a premise or hook line for it:
Old Locks: Grandma meets the three bears.
Wonder Wind: How fast will Timmy's new bike go?
Running Men: In this race, there is no second place.
Just for Thought: Before you leave me, let me tell you why you shouldn't.
Venezia Spell: Never cast a stone spell in a glass castle.
Landmark: What could have scorched through the corn field like that?Without Rain: Forty nights in the devil's desert.
Nom 166: 500 more days and the AntiChrist arrives.
Gem of Truth: John and Marcia must save mystic gem from murderous thief.
Just a Click Away: Falling in cyberlove.
To Her Desires: Everything must be, or else.
You can also pick up title words and phrases from the Yellow Pages or telephone directory, things you hear people say, billboards, street signs or greeting cards. Look around you right now: what words do you see that you can make into a title and hook line? Post yours in comments.
Here's my list of words from the garage:
Old Locks (hand-written on cardboard box)
Wonder Wind (extension cord winder; "er" from "winder" is worn off)
Running Men (shoe box)
Just for Thought (old note stuck to bulletin board)
Venezia Spell (paint chip folder)
Landmark (fan box)
Without Rain (cracked CD case with fragment of insert, Enya? maybe)
Nom 166 (Dell computer box)
Gem of Truth (one or the kids' RPG cards)
Just a Click Away (end of photo package)
To Her Desires (beginning of last line on cover copy of old novel I'm reading)
Now, take your title words and imagine a story for them -- doesn't have to be a novel, just a story idea -- and write a premise or hook line for it:
Old Locks: Grandma meets the three bears.
Wonder Wind: How fast will Timmy's new bike go?
Running Men: In this race, there is no second place.
Just for Thought: Before you leave me, let me tell you why you shouldn't.
Venezia Spell: Never cast a stone spell in a glass castle.
Landmark: What could have scorched through the corn field like that?Without Rain: Forty nights in the devil's desert.
Nom 166: 500 more days and the AntiChrist arrives.
Gem of Truth: John and Marcia must save mystic gem from murderous thief.
Just a Click Away: Falling in cyberlove.
To Her Desires: Everything must be, or else.
You can also pick up title words and phrases from the Yellow Pages or telephone directory, things you hear people say, billboards, street signs or greeting cards. Look around you right now: what words do you see that you can make into a title and hook line? Post yours in comments.
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