Friday, November 27, 2009

Titles That Fit



Titles. They're essential to your book(duh). But what happens when you don't have one.

Sigh. We're in that kind of situation right now. When I first started out writing Sixth Circle, it was a very different story from what it is now. The MC was bland, and so were the other characters. The setting was horrible. The plot--even more horrifying. But that's not the point. The point is, the title "Sixth Circle" actually fit into that story.

And then, we made a drastic move to rewrite the whole thing. Third -person narrative became first person narrative. Our MC Mary suddenly has a past. And there's a lot more going on, but with less words (Sixth CircleBook used to be 130,000 words, and now it's 95,000 words). But the thing is, the words "Sixth Circle" is only mentioned once. Once, out of all 95,000 words. And it doesn't hold a very big meaning like the previous draft.

We're basically stuck on the premise of changing the title, but we have no idea what to change it to. We decided on Glacialis, which is Latin for "frozen" because it has been mentioned in a very big part of the story, but while sleeping, part of me was just dying. Apparently, my sister and I have grown too attached to the title we have. Have any of you had this problem? I mean, I know that a title doesn't make the book (or does it?), but I'm seriously stressing this right now. I'm sure if "Twilight" was called something like "Vampires Love Too" people wouldn't pay much attention to it as much.

So, the final question, how do you pick out your titles, and if you can't, what do you do? Or should we just use the original title?

Should I use title generators? LOL.

6 comments:

Raven M said...

I can't function if I don't have a title. Whenever I write, I have to have it at the top of the page.

Coming up with titles is hard, though. I think about what my book is essentially about and then I try to sum it up in one or two words. Then that's usually my title, until I think of something better.

But wow! 95,000 words! That's awesome.

And I like the new title.^_^

Emilia Plater said...

"Vampires Love Too" - LOL

I've been rebelling against my title, After Cameron, since I thought of it... but I can't think of anything else. So now... it's stuck. :)

If you're really attached to Sixth Circle, maybe mention that element more?

DrunkenLilacs said...

Raven - I see what you mean. It's always hard for me to start a story without a decent title. It just drives me crazy. And thank you--we're actually considering on using the new title!

Emilia - Haha, yeah, I feel that way with Sixth Circle. Though, from what I heard about After Cameron, it seems to perfectly fit (it's catchy, too ;P) I wish I could add more elements of it, but with 95,000 words, it might be too much :/ Maybe I'll let the new name sink in first. We'll go from there :D

Lily Meade said...

I named my WiP "Reviving The Ghost Towns" because it just sounded so incredibly cool. Everyone would go "ooh, what's that about?" when I told them. But now in the process of writing it, I realized that the title actually fits the story!

I think the name came to me earlier as a sort of foreshadowing into a plot I hadn't even devised yet. So maybe "Sixth Circle" will find a place in the rewrite of your novel, or if not--remember, twilight was only mentioned in twilight once.

Karla Calalang said...

I like the title Glacialis too.

It used to be really difficult for me to think of titles. Now, it's not as much. Maybe it's because I am a romantic and romance titles come easy for me (I used to be a sci-fi/fantasy writer.

For me, I just look at one theme or aspect of the novel and go from there. I'll usually have something then change it later or keep it forever. Love Square was almost instant (although it used to be The Love Square until I liked how a beta dropped "The" all the time when referring to it). If you've noticed in my siggy on AW, a bunch have the words "love" or something to do with love lol which is of course major in my genre.

Coming up with titles is so much fun for me. It's the first thing a reader sees on the book besides the picture cover and your name so it's really important.

Also.. I am waiting to beta read!!

DrunkenLilacs said...

Thanks Lily! - I completely get you!

Karla - A sci-fi writer? Wow! And thanks. I see how you cooperate your genre in your titles; they're really cute. And I agree about coming up with titles and how it's fun.

And yes, will be looking for betas on Tuesday!

 
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