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Good Morning, Musers and Muse Readers!
If I sound a tad hyper, it's cause I am. Pulling all this in
anticipation of a Family Game Night, hope your Saturday night was filled with
giggles.
Today we're musing about something that every book needs...a
title.
Mine...Midnight Find...came after the story was written. Why
this title? The main character finds what she's searching for at midnight.
Pretty simple. And for me, I work better with a title coming after the story.
Some writers I know need the title first.
Let's see what my Muser Family has to offer:
How did you find your title? How important is the title?
What's the silliest title you've ever started with...did you keep it? Join in Muse Readers and leave your comment,
love to know your impressions.
Aloha everyone! Interesting question as always Chris! Thanks
:-)
I love the title of a book in my personal writing. I'm not
sure it means THAT much to the reader though. Sometimes a title will catch my
eye and make me want to look inside the book. Two Pink Flamingos ride the Pink
Caddie to Graceland!
I'd probably look inside this book, just because the title
caught my eye.
But for me, the title is most personal to me. Once I've read
a book, the title might tie in with the book and I think...aha...there it is.
Jonathon Kellerman always works the title of his book into the work somewhere.
I like that.
I do think sometimes titles with place names catch my eye
too.
Under the Tuscan Sun
A Year in Provence
A Farewell to France
The titles important to ME personally. It says what the
whole book is about to ME. The reader might not see it that way. :-)
My titles generally just 'pop' in. Sometimes I change a
title a few times, but in the end, it's exactly right for what I want. I always
want the essense of the story to be told in the title.
DARK WAR - is about Charlie's inner dark war with himself,
which he battles and wins. And we had to have Dark in the title. LOL. It was
for the Wild Darkness Calls anthology.
HENRY AND ISOLDE - is the deep old classic love story of
Henry and Isolde. Told many times over in many different ways. This is my new
take on it, but it's an old soulful deeply romantic story of two lovers.
THE CHI CIRCLE - is named for the three lovers who form a
committed Troika relationship with each other. Charlie, Henry and Izzy. CHI.
Then it's tied in further in the story, by the finding of a past life and the
overlapping circle of life that continues - the balance of energies in the
Universe. The Chi Circle.
THE FLAME STILL BURNS - My three lovers connection never
dies, across so many lifetimes. They go back to the beginning of time when the
twin souls or twin flames were first here. It's connected to that eternal flame
we all carry in our hearts.
RUSSIAN SOUL SONGS - My three lovers past life in Russia
together, the call to each other, that is so strong...it's like a soul song
they must obey. They come from a Romani and nobility life in Russia, but it
doesn't stop their souls singing to each other.
The meaning is VERY personal for me, but I doubt the reader
gets the deeper meaning. Maybe they do. I don't know.
I don't think I've ever come up with a silly title. Damn.
:-)
Thanks and aloha. Meg :-)_
Titles don’t catch my attention as much as a cover
does. CROSSED OUT is the only one of my
novels that kept the original title. I
wouldn’t bulge on that one! My
protagonist, Stephanie, makes talismans of the dead to help them cross over to
their version of heaven. So you can see
why it was important to keep that title!
The others, including EARRINGS OF IXTUMEA, were changed
numerous times. Interesting tidbit: the
original title to EARRINGS was THE ADVENTURES OF LUPE. Yeah, not too catchy. And my critique group helped me come up with
‘Ixtumea’. Originally it was Idumea. I wanted a more ‘Mesoamerican’ feel.
I chose Sunday's Child for my traditional Regency novel
because it is perfect for the heroine.
Tangled Love suits my novel set in the reign of Queen Anne
Stuart 1702-1714.
False Pretences is pertinent to the Theme and Plot of my
other traditional Regency novel.
Far Beyond Rubies is
the perfect biblical quotation to describe my heroine in my second novel set in
Queen Anne Stuart's reign.
Finding the right
title for the Captain and the Countess was the most tricky one. I was suggested
by my copy editor's husband and gratefully accepted.
My current novel
Monday's Child, the second of a series, in which some of the characters from
Sunday's Child, reappear is apt.
In future, with the
exception of the Child series, I shall check to see if my chosen title is
listed on Amazon and, if it is choose another original one.
Usually, titles just pop into my head either while I'm
writing a story or when I've finished. Occasionally, I have trouble deciding,
and then I think of what encapsulates the story for me, whether it is one of
the characters or a particular theme. I try to think of something appropriate
involving that, using a method, such as a play on words. I try not to give too
much away in a title and to make it intriguing.
In 'Daffodil and the Thin Place', I used the protagonist's
name and the setting, which is something I wouldn't normally do. A title such
as 'Mary in the Garden' or 'Peter in the House' isn't very exciting but I hoped
that the girl's unusual name and the use of 'Thin Place' would interest
potential readers.
The strangest title I've ever chosen was a bit of a gamble
because not only does it include a deliberate spelling error but that particular
word has a strikethrough to show it's incorrect and is followed by the correct
spelling as if someone has crossed it out and corrected it. Thankfully, a
publisher wasn't put off by the title of 'The Four Riders of the Apopalycse
Apocalypse' and he included it in an anthology of speculative fiction.
Personally I think the title is very important. It has to
grab the reader's attention. It's also an indication of the genre and is just
as important as the cover art. Some of my titles are longer but maybe I should
shorten them into something more easily remembered.
Seriously, I think we as authors should view them as very
short summaries of the book but without giving away the story.
Titles are important.
They grab the potential reader's interest and should say something about
the book. I work to find something that
feels right. Sometimes, this happens
quickly, Sometimes, I have to play with ideas for a while. I've never had a
silly one.
My least favorite title is CALL TO ARMS, the ninth novel in
the Star Commandos series. I had wanted
"Vengeance", but the publisher was releasing another book with that
title int he same time frame and so summarily assigned "Call to Arms"
without consulting me. I would have
renamed it "Homeworld War" this time around but refrained because I
did not want to alter the series or upset its existing fans.
Sometimes the title is obvious to me from the get-go, and
sometimes I struggle with it. For the three sci fi novels published by Muse,
"Relocated", the first, was titled from the get-go. For "Broken
Bonds" and "Geek Games," I used "New Aleyne Novel" and
"Martin's Book" as working titles. When the time came, I managed to
come up with titles I liked without too much difficulty.
For the fourth one, the one I just submitted, I started with
"Rob's Book," after the main character. Unfortunately no title jumped
out at me despite my best efforts, and I ended up submitting with the title,
"Rob's Rebellion."
I love titles, and I find that choosing the right one is
very important. When I'm looking for books at a bookstore or online, I usually
just see the title first, even before the cover, so the title has to catch my
interest enough for me to check the book out further.
As for making my own titles, I'm terrible at it, and I have
to try to squeeze out a title from my imagination to get a good one. I usually
have a crummy "on the go" title as I'm writing, and then I make a
proper title after a lot of thought after I've written a book or short story. I
like the idea of titles having some special meaning to them that you could only
know after you've read the book, though so far, I haven't made many titles like
that.
How do you find your title? The title usually comes to me
first. In fact, most of my stories have begun with a title that sat around for
months until the story fleshed out.
How important is the title? Very important to me. It has to
hint at what the book contains, but give nothing away.
What's the silliest title you've ever started with...did you
keep it? Egg-Beater Helicopter. Yes, I kept it. The story was for middle age children,
a short, but it never sold. I guess it was too silly a concept, but it was
funny.
Ken: We’re writing about
book names? The dumbest and the
best? I’ve come up with some doozies,
haven’t I.
Anne: Yeah. A Prelude to Anger. Most people didn’t even know what a prelude
was.
Ken: I know I
didn’t.
Anne: And what about
Personal Injury. A reader would think we
were writing about ambulance chasers, not about a woman detective who gets her
heart broken when she solves the case.
Ken: You’re breaking
my heart. I loved that title. It had a double entendre.
Anne: Get over it,
Ken.
Ken: Okay, what
about Urban Gothic. Even you have to
admit it had a certain ring to it. Four
syllables. Long short. Long short.
Right?
Anne: Sure. In theory.
Too bad the story wasn’t a gothic.
Ken: Picky, picky,
picky. So what is your favorite?
Anne: My all time
favorite is Thick Coming Fancies.
Ken: Anne, are you
kidding? The book is still in our
closet.
Anne: Yeah. But it was our first book. And it’s a great
title.
Ken: Yeah ... Wait, I think you thought of that one.
Anne: What’s your
point?
Dear reader, thank you again for joining us and we’d love to hear from
you. Keep smiling and have a fun week. Never stop believing. See you next
Sunday…nothing better than being cozy in bed with some Musings.
