Titles

[willow_25]

This is more of a question for the other writers reading this, but everyone should feel free to put their two cents in.  When you're writing something, how do you pick a title for it?  

'Hole In My Pocket' and 'Fade Away Again' were really lucky breaks for me, in terms of finding songs I liked that fit the Spuffy relationship, and also the fics I was working on at the time.  I used another song for the title of the third story in the series, but I don't like the title as much.  I wanted to try to stick with song-related titles for the whole series, but if anyone has other good ideas for picking titles, let me know.

Comments

[vikingprincess]

Sometimes inspiration strikes, sometimes it doesn't. Hunter/Hunted? Sucky title. Great story. Temptation? Best. Title. Ever. lyrics included! :P

purely random how they turn out. Chapter titles are usually more directly related to the story than the overall title for me.

[idunna.livejournal.com]

I write the whole piece, look at it, say "shit, I need a title," and throw sometime random and horrible on it. Of the 186 pieces on my computer (in varying states of completion, mind you), only 3 or 4 have titles that I absolutely love.

[idunna.livejournal.com]

*something, not sometime.
I swear I'm a writer, I swear

[kallie-kat.livejournal.com]

Sometimes they just come to me, and sometimes I really have to work at them. Once I actually went to a website and scrolled through famous quotes, looking for something that I thought would work.

Sometimes I try to think about what is happening in the story, and try to find something that connects to that.

Good luck!

on titles

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

I stick a generic and dull title to my work while it's in progress, then go looking through the story in search of an idea for the final title. Then I fight, sweat, search more, curse, ask people, search through various books of quotations and such, give up in disgust, and finally throw in a title that I'm not happy with.

I hope I've been helpful. :-/

Yeah, I seriously suck at titles. I think my favorite was "Robin Lays an Egg", which I felt perfectly reflected the plot and humorous slant of the story. However, I stole it, and most of the chapter titles, from a fun song my friends used to sing as kids.

My other favorite title, in theory, was "Mary Sue Got Harried". I thought that was also perfect for the story, but I didn't stop to think that many people might refuse to read it *because* the words "Mary Sue" were in the title.