Coming up with Titles

One of my favorite ways is to look through poems. I have a harder time thinking up titles for original stuff in my English classes. I wrote one about Mars for last week, and I took a line from an Emily Dickinson poem, "Some revelation is at hand." (At least, I think it was Emily Dickinson.) Anyway, I changed it just a little, and came up with "Some Revolution is at Hand," instead, which worked perfectly.

~Rogue

 

I have a devil of a time coming up with titles. I tend to like one word titles - something that stands out but doesn't get in the way of the fic. It doesn't always work out that way, though. Sometimes, I grow to really hate the title but I feel that my readers know the fic once the title is established so I'm stuck.

As for titles being copywrited, I don't know. I see a lot of fics with same or similar names. I don't think people name their fics to match others - it just happens....

 

Titles and OC names have always been a pitfall for me. Far too often I find I reuse the latter and my beta ends up having to suggest a new one for me and on the former, I go through several before the finished story's ready for the eyes of others.

For the most part, I go with either titles of songs or lyrics of songs from what I've got going on my playlist when I start the story, then the changes roll on from there. Case in point: A Sith Padawan's Tale was originally 'Bawitdaba', then went to 'Born Slippy', 'Love Kills', and 'By The Way' until it ended up with it's final title. Definitely a bizzotic way to go about things, but then, that's me. LOL.

When it comes to reading fics, the title might initially catch my eye, but it's the summary that pulls me in to read it.

 

My question still remains:

Are people offended when someone takes a title or has one somewhat like it?

-Krystal


I wouldn't be. IF the title truly works for that story, why would I object to it? I wouldn't feel so inclined as to be threatened by someone else's work. If they title their work with a same or like-wise title as my own, it doesn't matter to me. It doesn't validate or invalidate my own work. I think my stuff can stand alone for itself, like-wise is said true for my peers as well.

 

I think that I cna soetimes be cursed with coming up with titles.
SOmetiems, they just come to me, sometiems they come to me even before I've written the story, just the little plot bunny and all. And there's soem taht just fit the story and it be almost impossiblet o call it something else, for example Sacrifice.
Personally, I love songifcs because you never have to think hard for a title; you can just use the song name.
Other than that, normally I just sit there and look through song titles or I bug my friends for ideas.

:Targeter:

 

Bumpity bump.

 

My titles are stinking! It's as if I've thrown loads of phrases into the air and picked the worst one.

In an effort to better myself, I tend now to take lines from songs or passages from books.

 

I like to pick a central image from the story, something that speaks to theme, and shorten it to title length. Doesn't work every time, but often.

 

So, my original thread was a request for help in naming a trilogy. Specifically, I was looking for suggestions. The first two stories are found on the Classic Stories board; the third is still in the works. They are "Problem Child," "Long Road Home," and "Haunted (working title - which hasn't been posted yet)." Any help would be appreciated.

Just Jill

 

I have a really hard time coming up with titles.........can someone suggest one for a story where Han Solo bonds with his nephew Ben while secretly teaching him how to play Sabaac?

 

I think titles are a very personal part of the writing process. It takes a while to come up with a good title.
If you're having OC title woes, we discussed it (kinda) at OC Anon. a couple pages back.

However, when all else fails savenge from song lyrics (not titles, but the lyrics) or poetry.

 

oqidaun wrote "I think titles are a very personal part of the writing process."

Indeed, oqidaun. I don't often have trouble with titles, often times I think of the title first, then the whole story comes from it. Or while I'm writing a word or phrase will usually pop into my head and I think, "That's perfect!"

Just_Jill, I happen to think titles come with the writing. You might want to listen to your inner voice, it might be trying to tell you the title. You may have already heard it and ignored it. Maybe it's time to make up to your inner voice.

 

Titles are the hardest part of Fanfic. Sure, writer's block bites. But titles are the worst.

I usually grab something from the story, a quote or description. Sometimes I'll translate it into another language, which is always fun. Unless the person reading knows the language, you can tell them that 'this charactor dies!' or whatever in the title, and they won't know until it happens in the story.

Another thing is stealing lyrics from songs. For example, a fic I have on here called My Sacrifice was based off of a song by the same name, so I just used that for the title.

 

I ask my self this question:

What would Jean Luc Picard title this fic?

Works every time.

 

Oh man. I am sooooooooo bad at titles it is unreal. I come up with one that will fit my story, then change my plot.

 

Title is usually the last thing I come up with. Except for Blue Side, which is kind of an inside joke between myself and a member of another messageboard, involving an improvisational Jedi music group. It fit my OC's personality, so I used it. And now I'm trying to work colour stuff in. That's a couple of posts off, though.

My titles are usually either lines yoinked straight from the text, or references to a song. Like in the last Ridiculously Specific challenge, I had a line making reference to the opera, and running with the opera theme, I used the title of an aria from a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta. I'm sure nobody got it, but that's okay. I try not to be so obscure, genreally speaking.

I really do hate coming up with titles, though. They're a pain.

 

Excellence said, I abhor one-word titles.

I dunno. Sometimes you think of the one word that describes the whole story.

Off the top of my head, I think I have only used a one-word title once.

DODGEMS.

Turned out to be a rescue operation inside that asteroid field near Hoth.
Does what it says on the tin in my opinion!

 

So far I didn't have to think up good titles here. I name my short stories (ok,ok, but I'll upload number two soon, even if nobody read one...) after places and icidents which help the reader to place them and see, if I got things right. At the moment I'm working on "Sidetrip", just guess, when/where that will be.
For loner works I always found it worked nice to start with a working title. eg "Sword and Staff". If it sticks around it's good enough, if it's getting on your nerves try something else.. Sooner or later titles just "happen" to me if I'm close enough to the story.
(Am I talking nonsense? Anybody understood my rant???)

 

Eventually all titles end up being used or re-used. Titles are a hard thing to come up with, especially with Star Wars fic. I usually just think to myself "What kind of title would appeal to me if I saw this on a book shelf or a movie poster?"

 

Hrm, I'd probably key in on the word home. That's assuming that Problem Child may relate to a childhood home in some way and that Haunted either means you are haunted by the past or you want to run home.

Speaking more generally as far as what I like in titles - I love puns. Taking a title to a well-known movie, song, tv-show, or phrase/saying and replacing one or two words with something from your fic can be fun. That way you are unique, but have something familar enough to catch the eye. It especially works if the words you work in are very Star Warsy (ie, Coruscant, droids). I've also used somewhat obscure phrases from the movies that I was thinking of while writing my fic. Of course the best titles both catch your eye AND have more than one meaning.

 

Many thanks! That's the best advice I've gotten since they resurrected this thread. Excellent idea.

Just Jill

 

I have a fic I need to title before I start finding my cowriter for it......the original version of it was simply titled "The Parent Trap: Sw Style". I want something similiar to that, yet eyecatching and that works well..........

Any ideas?

Titles are always difficult for me

 

For something like the Parent Trap one I would try to come up with something that referenced the original source. Such as my current fic's title. (not trying to plug - just giving an example) Since it originally was just going to be Qui-Gon doing Mission Impossible the title became "An Improbable Mission". The story has since expanded a bit perhaps and that is yet another reason why I should finish them before I start posting. If I had it to do over, I would probably call it "The Cuffs of Urna Sredith" and hope that that would be sufficiently intriguing for someone to click on it.

But that particular one, "The Parent Trap" is actually quite tricky. For one thing, there isn't really anything you can play on to change except by using synonyms. For another, the movie didn't really involve a trap exactly. So that one is tricky indeed. Maybe "The Parent Snare"? Or "The Parent Pitfall" using synonyms for Trap. Maybe you can use something that draws on which set of parents you are trying to trap to get somewhere?

But often I just have a phrase pop into my mind and I use that. If not, a source I have found very useful for naming more serious fics as well as for producing bunnies is Brewer?s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. I'll just leaf through it and hit a dozen intriguing things each time. Also, quote collections. Shakespeare has some very nice turns of phrase.

KD

 

Writing titles is like writing good headlines: hard. They need to be accurate, descriptive and seductive. Visual. I usually fail miserably. A good title will seduce you into looking at the post/opening the book and perusing the pages. A Jedi won't pull me in. A Jedi's Trip Home won't pull me in. A Jedi Runs Away. Maybe. Who? Why? From what?

Some I like of mine:

A Piece of His Heart. Came directly from the last sentence. The ol' pull a phrase from the story. Story came first.

A Padawan's Misadventures or And That's When I Got Thrown Out of the Jedi Order. Again. Too long in many respects, and yet, sucks you in, I hope. My mind threw out that phrase, and the story followed. Title first.

Two Shifts at the Ladies Only Strip Club in Mos Eisely. KD ended a post with this sentence and I saw the possibilities. Do you find this intriguing? Hopefully, it will make you look, and boy did it suggest a story to me. Title first. Darn plot bunnies.

Who Will Save Me, if Not You? Hmm, thought it worked. Apparently not.

Then there's the titles that have a purpose, and are not especially seductive.

The Rule of Two: the Old Sith's Home (2nd part identifies it as a plot bunny to those in that thread, and should identify it as humor). Hopefully arouses your curiousity.

Sometimes I have the title, or part of one, and don't yet know the story, such as: the Idiots Guide to (several possibilities here, shrugs, no story has yet percolated into my mind).

Sometimes random phrases or pieces of song suggest themselves. You Can't Go Home Again just popped into my mind. Possibly overused, no story there. Or is there? What about twisting it so it's humorous, when you might expect angsty?

Val

 

"The shroud of the dark side has fallen. Begun this Clone War has." ~ Yoda, Attack of the Clones.