Novel titles?

Most of the time, a title pops into my head when I am developing a story and that title fits so well that I rarely change it later. (Not that the titles are always "great" but they tend to stick.)

But this year... I still don't have a title.

I think what might be throwing me off is that this novel will be part of a larger series I've been working on for the last three NaNos. The original was titled "Healer's Quest" (Part 1 and 2), and then a prequel called "The Tale of Martindale". This year's untitled story fits chronologically between the two. Since Martindale is still the MC, I might just label it TToM 2 for now and come up with a real title later.

It's okay not to have a title when you start. Maybe the perfect title is waiting to be discovered as you are writing your story. :)

~Jacquelyn

site | journal | da

For now, I'm naming my novel after its two main characters. Not very original, alas. Maybe a phrase that either Charles or Pat says in the novel will be interesting enough to make it into the title. We'll see.

I always have a fun time with titles, actually, but I find they come to me two ways. Sometimes, I'll find a title in my head that will hand me the seed of a story; other times, the stories give me their titles through the writing of them. I don't mind too much which order they come to me. I wouldn't worry about having a title on day one; it may take you until beyond NaNo to find the perfect one!

(This year I'm lucky; I have three titles for the novel I'm working on, and I like all of them...)

"In the grim darkness of the far future, I still haven't finished my novel."

I usally have a working title - I'm not always the crazy about but until a good or reasonable title pops-up it gives me something to use when refering to the novel.

Earlier this fall I had the great pleasure of meeting Clive Cussler and several of his co-authors. If you like action-adventure and you have never read a Dirk Pitt novel - trust me you'll not be disappointed, but I digress. The reason I brought this up was Jack Du Brul (co-author of Dr. Cussler's Oregon Files series) was asked "How do you come up with the right title for each book?" Mr. Du Brul responed, "That's a great question, let me know when you find the answer." He went on to say that the title is usally the last thing settled on and often picked by the publisher, though the author has imput; what they want is a title that will draw you in, tell you what the story is about but not give too much away.

So give yourself a working title and while you work on your story maybe one of your characters will suggest a better one for you - mine usally do.

Neither writer's cramp, nor power outages, nor writer's block, nor empty coffee pot will keep us from our appointed word count.

I'm just building off the idea I had a while back. Tales from the North. Unfortunately I've written most of the first one, so either I'll rewrite that one, because its in need of a MAJOR rewriting, or I'll write a prequel. I don't know.

I usually have have a working title that is what the story is generally about then change it later.

I have no title, not even a working title -- yet.

However, this year I'm using the table of contents feature on my word processing program (Word 2007) to be able to move nicely around my novel. Ought to help a great deal. '

:-)
Hannah / Apple Valley

I always try to pick something clever and usually give up on that. Then I move on to a phrase almost so loosely related to anything in the story that it feel secretive enough for me but good enough I could pretend that it wasn't meant to be vague. I guess I do a little tango with my title. >.<

Titles are the bane of my existence - I can never come up with one. So I tend to use the main character's name as the working title.

Heh, yeah, titles are one of the things I'm worst at, actually. This year's NaNo is under a working title (the name of the setting) that never actually changed into a permanent title. *shrugs* If it gets done, I'll worry about a title later.

I'm constantly playing with the title and then letting serendipity help along the way. I find holding the essence of the book or the existing title in my mind as I go through the day can help new associations come about just as I interact with people.

I'm a believer in "working titles". Largely from the fact that I'm not a clever person, more of a chronicler of society by trade. (Is "chronicler" even a word?!)

Chapter titles even scare me.

I like chapter titles a lot, but I don't use them first. Story titles, though, I find to be more important for me -- it's like giving the whole story a frame. The story title feels as much like a compass as a label sometimes.

"In the grim darkness of the far future, I still haven't finished my novel."

The suggestion that a title often operates as much as a compass as a label is an interesting and helpful one. Usually I manage to come up with a title early in the brainstorming process that works for me and focuses my mind on what the story's really about. One of my NaNo attempts switched from fantasy to hard science fiction halfway through, but the title - "Ascent" - still applied pretty firmly. Both stories were about an ascension of humanity on the grand scale.

Occasionally, though, I just can't seem to come up with something catchy, and I end up dragging around a clunker of a title just for the sake of having something to refer to it by. That annoys me.

Interesting, because I make chapter titles and subtitles, which are more like a compass (or settings) that help me remember where it is I'm (supposed to be) heading.

Being able to come right back and see my chapter subtitles helps me get right back into the story line when I sit back down. They're more the old-fashioned sort of subtitles that one finds in the sorts of fiction that was written 100+ years ago: ridiculously wordy. When I get to revising and rewriting I won't need them for the same reasons I have them now, but I may just keep them. They're a useful affectation at the moment.

:-)
Hannah / Apple Valley

I think sometimes, though, you need to get a distance into the novel to find its direction; and as its direction often contains the essence of the story, you can't encapsulate it well until you have that. I find my titles change as the story progresses, and as the ideas I want to frame change. So as the novel evolves, so does its title. But at any given time, I find having that title - the one that manages to capture the core essence of what I'm writing - is an important guide-line; it helps me remember the core idea that I'm trying to write, and that helps me to avoid getting lost off in some strange tangent within the writing.

Most of the time, anyway.

"In the grim darkness of the far future, I still haven't finished my novel."

I do like some chapter titles; I liked the ones in the Harry Potter books particularly, as they were colourful and captured the chapter's essence well, but usually without giving it away. I had intended to put titles on my chapters later, but thinking about what you've said, I wonder if I shouldn't go through and add a few sooner rather than later; I love anything that adds colour and vibrancy to a story. I'd rather it was vibrant, fun and as holy as swiss-cheese than it was tight, perfectly-engineered and mechanically cold.

"In the grim darkness of the far future, I still haven't finished my novel."

normally titles are a problem for me but this time it was easy.

i hate titling.. it makes me want to tear my hair out. I'm almost never happy with it and I settled on whatever i could think of.

so The Gift it is because thats what it's based on.. a gift gone wrong