The Review Club Forum Buddha Ate My Deity

What's in a title?

So this is a new thread I'm hoping to start. The game plan is to generate interesting, and possibly stories based upon book or story titles. For example, every book/story I've ever written has been based upon a title first, and the story falls along. What I'd like is for you guys to throw out titles. They can be examples of what you are using with explanations of how you can up with it, and why. Or what I'd really love is odd titles that tickle your fancy.

Here's a few examples:

The current novel I'm working on is titled Bent or Mother's Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Gay Cowboys. You might be scratching your head at that, but the story revolves around a scam to make a prequel to Broke Back Mountain.

Other stories titles I have used are:

Tricks are for Kids
Nartistic Nursery Rhyme
Honey is that a Dead Hooker Under the Bed, or Are You Just Glad to See Me?
Junkpardy!

Tell me how you get your titles, what they mean to you, and any titles that can be used for writing prompts, like Buddha Ate My Deity.

Thanks,

Julie

Titles, one of the harder things for me to come up with. I usually just throw something up so the page isn't blank.

My latest story, Baton Cramoisi , simply means crimson stick. There are two stories on how Baton Rouge was named. One is an explorer stuck a stick in the ground and it hit red clay and they called it Baton Rouge for red stick. Another is a French explorer, Sieur d'Iberville, got out the Mississippi river and came across red ceder sticks sticking out the ground with fish heads and animal heads marking different Indian hunting grounds and named it Baton Rouge ( red stick) for those bloody red ceder sticks. I was thinking about this when I was doing some research as to where I wanted my vampire story go down. Then I said:

"hey dumb mother f&*%@r Baton Rouge. Yea they named it that cause they had to stake some vampires! Oh but rouge sucks. You like crimson. You really like that Crimson and Gray title the ShY***r ( I promised I wouldn't call him shyster anymore) Cameron wouldn't let you have. Hrmm... I wonder what crimson is in French."

I consulted an online English to French dictionary and BAM my title Baton Cramoisi was born. I'm thinking about having someone in the story tell the tale of how Baton Rouge was first named Baton Cramoisi and then later was changed to Baton Rouge to cover up its bloody vampire killing history. Give a mother F'n vampie a little history. Can I get a hell yea? ( I don't know it sounded interesting at the time. Still may work that in and may not, who knows.)

I've kinda ruined my titles plot with this info. The bloody stake's out the bag folks. But the story is still intact in my head. Well sorta.

Anyways, there ya have it. And if Ann Rice steals my Baton Rouge Idea 'll blame Julie for starting this wonderful topic of discussion. ( BTW Julie, that title about the Gay cowboys and the explanation rocks. Psst write my book for me...)

Anyways, that's that.

This is a great topic :) Thanks Julie.

Geez titles. Sometimes the title just comes. Sometimes it an inside joke that relates to the story.

For instance, Crimson and Gray comes from the school colors of Washington State University. It's a fairly regional reference, however what I'm trying to do (and I put trying in the biggest quotation marks of all) is show a difference between Dan's gray distancing and how the rest of the parties use the event to further they're own causes. But generally, it just felt right for the story.

Now that's the anomaly. Generally a title comes out of the story at me. Not necessarily right away. The original short story for Crimson and Gray was called War Stories. But generally they're somethings that seems to fit the story.

Probably my favorites that I've come up with are:
From the Edge of the World
That's What Friends Do
The Games Boys Play
Kirby Dreams

But generally I rarely start with the title. Although occasional a title comes to me, I never find the story to fit it. Well except for The Letter to Nowhere.

Although you're welcome to have some of my discarded ones:

War Stories
The Photograph
Casualties

Anyways that's enough from me. :)

Cameron

Quote:



Wow, I learn so much from you. I love the Baton Rouge story, both the real and the imagined. That is a wonderful title and even more so a great vampire tale. You rock.

Usually I think and think and think about titles when I'm drafting and get one about halfway through. So, if you could see my hard drive, you'd see files with titles like Magic Novel, Random Shorts without Titles, and That Angel Novel I Can't Get Right. (Oh yes, I name things like that, so I can remember what I was doing/thinking.)

However, my most famous title first, story later experience is Heaven Ain't Close, which, for the record, I can't take credit for. It comes from a song line: "Heaven ain't close to a place like this." First person that can name the song and artist gets a cookie (and Julie and Gabe and anybody else i've told, you're disqualified from answering). So I guess music plus title plus this one really great image of a back tattoo....

What was the question?

-cc

Quote:


Ha! That you and I have in common. I usually start with the title or probable title before the story begins, which I usually like to be interesting but vague. Most of my work begins out that way, which is the guidepost for theme. Although usually the story winds up going wherever it wants.

Bean and Nothingness, the play on Being and Nothingness (Sartre's book on existentialism), was a title without a story when I started that one. The Sound of the Dying Universe arose from an article I read about the B flat sound of a dying star. Lilac Festival is a festival that's been going on a few blocks from my place for years.

Of course, The Nursery started titled as The Black Widow, so titles can change. I wish I were more inventive with titles, like you Julie, but I seem to wind up with simple titles. Perhaps I should try those plays on names a bit more.

Brokeback Mountain was shot in my backyard (not literally) but in Kananaskis Country, Longview and Canmore -- all within a 1/2 hour of here. I have a pic in my profile of the Kananaskis Lakes from the top of Mount Sparrowhawk (10,000 footer). That's the lake in the movie. Most of that movie was shot within a few yards of the highway down there. ~L~

Quote:


I wanted to tell you what a great title Bean and Nothingness was. I loved the story, but what really made it for me was the title. It was so fitting.

Titles are the hardest thing for me to come up with and usually the last thing that I figure out. True Light didn't have a title for over a year. It was saved on my hard drive as story 1. The idea for the title came from listening to the song True Colors. I didn't think Colors fit, but since 'Light' is an important aspect of the book, I thought it was fitting. Bring Me to Life was inspired by the song. I heard the song and it was fitting for the turning point scene in how I originally wrote the story, which eventually got changed. The song still fits but not as well now, but I kept the title anyway. Although, for a while I changed the title to Ordinary World. The third book in the series, I named the Rose and the Rock, which is the core meanings of the names Roxy and Peter. The title was inspired by a picture a friend of a friend took that I saw on a website. The picture is of this rock with a rose atop it in a stream with water running around it. I thought it was a good image to show the presures the characters go through in that book.

I imagine that a title can be difficult for a lot of people. In fact it has seemed really hard for me for a really long time until I realized that each piece created a title. I usually throw a title at something so I have something to save it under. As i write the more a concept develops within the story. A perfect example is my story The Man of Steel. It began as "my dark time" but as I was writting it I saw that the focus wasn't on me but my relationship with Papa, my grandfather, who in my entire life was always as strong as steel for me.

So I gues I have a question about titles, and I hope for everyones feedback. When you create a title, what should you consider. Do you throw on a title that is the best fit for your story, or do you choose the most comercial title in hopes that it will catch an agent or publishers eye. A good example of this is my current work, I really dont like the WFO, (the world family organization) and I doubt it will remaine that way. To think of it, how would you market a book based on a futuristic scifi view of the world named the WFO? So when it is finished and ready for the agents and publishers do I address the name to make it marketable or do I stick with what I want it to be called?

Just some thoughts on this topic, I'm not sure I need any help with this problem but I would like to hear everyones thoughts.

Gabe.

Gabe:

I like the title for WFO. My consideration for titles is that they need to grab attention. Not always cheesy like mine, but give enough of an idea about the story that a reader wants to pick it up. To me, a title is the most important string of words you have to entice a reader.

So, after much thinking, my answer isn't very good still. ::tongue::

I think that a title has to be accessible, and certainly some titles have better rings or more marketable connotations than others. That said, I think the title has to be representative of the story. So some balance of marketability and representative presentation. See? Not a very good answer.

For me, once I find a title, it attaches and becomes the title of the story, the way I think of it in my mind, the way I want it to be portrayed, and I usually won't change it (not unless some publisher wants to pay for it to be changed, of course). However, up until that point, I try out a lot of ideas, gauging reader response (what I imagine it to be, at least), as I consider the different possibilities.

Lame, I know. Totally not helpful.

-cc