Where do you find your titles for your books?

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  • #204171
    zette
    Moderator
      126 Pirate Gold Coins

      Do you have a hard time coming up with titles?

      #253456
      Ashe Elton Parker
      Moderator
        38 Pirate Gold Coins

        Usually not, but it can depend on the book for me. With most, I get the title rather easily, usually by the time I’m done with the first few chapters of the book. Then there are those whose titles I get either from the book itself, or from a previous book (The Prophet of Venjhelin II: Uncertain Times comes from a comment made by someone in book 1). And then there’s my “trouble child”, “Brotherhood A”. It started out as Stirrings, but that sounded too romancey for what the book is (it’s not a romance), so it’s gone through several titles until it is now Spirit of Brotherhood, which while I’m not completely happy with, I think is much better than its origianl title.

        I’ll often sit and brainstorm title ideas for new works, and if I think I have a series, I’ll try to identify the main plot of each book and create a title based on that conception. On occasion, I’ll ask others for help with titles, especially if I’m using a theme of some sort for the titles (I used a theme of music for the titles of Discordant Harmonies and Jen Amriss helped brainstorm those). More frequently, though, I’ll develop the titles all on my own.

        .

        Ashe Elton Parker
        "Just love me, fear me, do as I say, and I will be your slave." ~ David Bowie as Jareth in Labyrinth
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        Member since 1998.
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        #253457
        bonnie824
        Participant
          0 Pirate Gold Coins

          Somewhere during the planning and outlining period they come to me. They do often change though as I start writing.

          #253458
          Magic Seeker
          Moderator
            0 Pirate Gold Coins

            The titles for my Mindbender’s Rise series all came easily: variations on the theme of magic. The series name took a while, though, and if I didn’t have four books out, I’d be tempted to change it.

            But I’ve changed the title on my stand-alone novel toooooo many times. It went from Monsoon Rain (which I still love, but it sounds like a weather report) to Blue Anchor to Feda’s Anchor to Necromancer’s Anchor, with variations in between. At least Necromancer’s Anchor fits in with Fantasy; the others were too vague.

            Good titles are hard! :ohmy:

            Happy writing,
            Deb Salisbury
            The Mantua-Maker, Quality Historical Sewing Patterns and Books
            www.mantua-maker.com

            The Art of the Hoop: 1860 - 1869, Dress, Sewing, and Clothing Care Advice
            https://www.mantua-maker.com/a---1860s-fashion.html

            Dead Wizard's Loot: Wizard Whitewing #1
            http://www.djsalisburybooks.com/Dead-Wizard-s-Loot.html

            #253459
            macaroni_thief
            Participant
              0 Pirate Gold Coins

              I’m glad I’m not the only one who agonizes about this!

              For short stories, I make the titles up at the last possible moment before I start sending it out. For novels I change the title no less than three or four times. My last project started out as Of Automatons, Monsters, and Men, and then it became The Fragile Spiral (*cough* you can tell I’m a NIN fan *cough*), and finally settled on Blood and Brass. Which I think describes all the themes in it better and is shorter and punchy…and more obviously steampunk.

              The only few things I shy away from are: adding made up world-names to the title like The Clash of Varrrrr’rrra or something like that. Titles like that don’t necessarily attract me as a reader because it doesn’t tell me much. I also shy from putting the character’s name in the title, because aside from Harry Potter and Horatio Hornblower, that too doesn’t really intrigue me as a reader. Purely a personal preference.

              #253509
              crimson_angel
              Participant
                0 Pirate Gold Coins

                I don’t really have trouble coming up with titles. A lot of them come to me before I start writing the book. With my Fey Touched series, all the titles end in “touched” so that makes it pretty easy.

                Although with my Desiri trilogy, I am having issues with the title of book 3. I had all three figured out, but then I realized that the title for book 3 should be the title for book 2, and book 2’s original title wasn’t going to work for book 3. So I have a working title, but I don’t like it too much. (And if you were able to follow that, awesome!)

                #254367
                Magic Seeker
                Moderator
                  0 Pirate Gold Coins

                  I had a similar problem, so I know exactly what you mean. :silly:

                  Happy writing,
                  Deb Salisbury
                  The Mantua-Maker, Quality Historical Sewing Patterns and Books
                  www.mantua-maker.com

                  The Art of the Hoop: 1860 - 1869, Dress, Sewing, and Clothing Care Advice
                  https://www.mantua-maker.com/a---1860s-fashion.html

                  Dead Wizard's Loot: Wizard Whitewing #1
                  http://www.djsalisburybooks.com/Dead-Wizard-s-Loot.html

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