Titles
They are hard, y'all.
I love simple, with a splash of double entendre. Knowing what I love, however, does not make it easier to conjure. A working title always jumps out at me from the get-go, but once the story is finished it doesn't necessarily still match well. Then again, there are always those times when a working title that sounded kitschy or cliche ends up being a great fit for the end product.
My next release has had about four different names. The one I liked best was also the title, when googled, of about 900,000 other romance novels. (I may be exaggerating slightly.) Not good for SEO, and a total bummer because it fit so, so well into my preferred simple-with-double-meaning category.
Anyone have any fun methods they use to come up with a title?
I love simple, with a splash of double entendre. Knowing what I love, however, does not make it easier to conjure. A working title always jumps out at me from the get-go, but once the story is finished it doesn't necessarily still match well. Then again, there are always those times when a working title that sounded kitschy or cliche ends up being a great fit for the end product.
My next release has had about four different names. The one I liked best was also the title, when googled, of about 900,000 other romance novels. (I may be exaggerating slightly.) Not good for SEO, and a total bummer because it fit so, so well into my preferred simple-with-double-meaning category.
Anyone have any fun methods they use to come up with a title?
Comments
It took a while to come up with Larksong, but I like it a lot because it directly relates to the Canadian setting and WWI, and doesn't seem to be used by anyone else (now I just need to get the novel published...).
As for the others, I'm in the same boat. I don't even remember where I got The Charm of Time from. I think it was supposed to imply that time is a healer, but it has nothing to do with the erotic or suspense aspects of the story. And the working title for the WWII spy romance -- Mystery at Bertram's Hotel -- is just a play on an Agatha Christie title. I don't think Peter and Penelope have a title. I might have put something into the NaNo page -- oh yes, ha ha, I called it Escape from the Sultan's Dungeon or something equally ridiculous.
For short stories, I try to have a mysterious sounding title that picks up on an element or image in the story.
Longwinded and maybe not much help? I love playing with syllables, so I generally have fun coming up with titles, but that doesn't mean it's easy! I'd rather think of titles than write a darn author's bio...