For me, titling is one of my favorite parts of a piece. Its a very intuitive process, and what works for me may not work for you, but there are certain things that may help everyone. And remember, writing down prospective titles in the back of your creative writing notebook is a great thing to do. Remember to make your title match your piece. You don't want false advertising. Let your title hint at the issues in your piece, but don't give everything away. There are no real rules for titling, so do what works for you. But just as a starting point, here are some "formulas" that may give you some ideas:
-'The Noun' or One Word titles: The Mask, The Notebook, The Road, The Stand, Macbeth, Les Miserables, Twilight, Frasier, Lost
-Pairing: (if you pair quirky things this can be pretty fun) Guns 'n Roses, Cats and Dogs, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
-Person and Phrase: Dan in Real Life, Anne of Green Gables, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends
-Known Phrase: I can't really think of specific examples for this one, except I have one short story called 'The Title of My Life'. Also the title of the novel I'm working on is a phrase from a Shakespeare play...which I will reveal at a later date :-)
-Word + Qualifier: Star Wars, Happy Feet, Star Trek, Silent Spring
-Verb(noun) + Phrase: Running out of Time, Interview with a Vampire, Touching Spirit Bear, Pushing Daisies
Anyway, those are just some basic ideas that may help, and here's just a random list of titles from the back of my notebooks that you can steal/use to get your own ideas:
-I Love You, Take a Right
-Your Whole Death Ahead of You
-In Between Raindrops
-Dissonant Peace
-Pickled Down
-Dead of 87
-This Narrative Woman
Hope this helps, and hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Sarah Allen
I love titles. I too enjoy just making up titles and creating stories to go with them. My current NaNo novel is called A DESERT PLACE -- the title came to me and the story came to me as I went along. The title of a work is the first thing you usually see and it has a lot to do with whether or not you want to keep going.
ReplyDeleteHow about these titles based on phrases?:
OF MICE AND MEN
ALL THE KING'S MEN
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
Lee
http://tossingitout.blogspot.com/
Love this, Sarah! You've done your homework, I can see. What a fresh way to look at titles!
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for stopping by my blog today!
Thanks you guys! I really appreciate your feedback. Good luck on all your writing projects!
ReplyDeleteI like Your Whole Death Ahead of You. I might shorten it to Death Ahead. I like working on titles, too. It's usually difficult to uncover that perfect one.
ReplyDeleteHelen
Straight From Hel
Sarah, thanks for the visit to my blog. Yes, I love titles too, sometimes I wonder whether writers think of the titles first or do the titles come later.
ReplyDeleteCan I link you?
Interesting take on titles here. I'd never thought to categorize them, but it seems a great way to inspire ideas.
ReplyDeleteThanks again guys! Yeah, there are obviously no real 'rules' or 'formulas', but sometimes having a few strategies can inspire you. And Kak Teh, I would love a link! You guys are awesome!
ReplyDelete