Titles?

[edonil he/him]

Alright, so, this is, after naming cities and countries, my least favorite part of writing. Normally, I don't ever worry about it until something is done, but with Reading Excuses submissions, 'Untitled' feels weird. So, I'm curious, how does everyone else come up with their titles for things? Do you have themes that you follow, things that you come up with...? Anything? I'm just looking for any advice I can get.

[andyk he/him]

I don't really have a consistent approach.

 

If I can, I'll often use a phrase from the text that seems appropriate. For example, I recently wrote a flash piece where the phrase 'stay with me' came up a few times. As a phrase, it seemed to highlight the theme of the story, so I used it as the title.

 

Other times I'll try to come up with something that evokes the setting or main character, for example Mud and Brass for a story about a mudlark in a steampunk setting.

 

Sometimes I'll even start with the title. I'll have some nifty, evocative phrase scrawled in one of my notebooks, and I'll try to work out what it is that's evoking, then write from there. That solves the whole naming thing from the start.

 

I'm usually trying to think of something that seems evocative and intriguing, so that potential readers will want to know more about the story. I don't always succeed even to my own satisfaction - coming up with a suitable title can be a complete pain.

[Refero he/him]

Sometimes if a song a is stuck in my head I try and see if I can use some of its lyrics as a title. I remember listening to "The Memory Remains" so I adopted that into the story. I also keep things running in my head and if something clicks with me I use that as well.

[variety.of.passions she/her]

It depends on what your story is about. What words describe/sum up the essence of it in a creative, attention-grabbing way?

 

I've been working on a book series and the title of each book is a special title that my protag owns for that part of her life. It's hard to explain, I suppose. (Sorry if I confused you.)

 

I also have several short stories that I've explored naming. One title is the name of the government in that story. Another is a line one of the characters says. I sort of cheated and named one for the protag and the name of the planet she lives on. My fourth story has a title that I'm not very proud of--the name of a group of people. Lastly, I have a title that essentially sums up what the protag is doing in the story.

 

I hope that helps!