Today's blog is short and there's no assignment. Not because I don't like the assignments - I love seeing what everyone comes up with. But my topic just didn't lend itself well to an assignment. Unless of course you all want to throw out ideas for me! :)
Usually when an idea for a story or a character is conjured up, within a few days I have the title. Sometimes I have a title before I have characters. I have to have a title that says something to me about the book or I have a hard time getting into the book. I can't just name it the hero and heroine's names or "the boat book". It has to have meaning to the story. I guess I just have to be truly invested in the story. So much so, that I have given it a name. Like a baby or a new pet. There isn't true bonding until it has a name. Just like you don't name animals you plan to eat. Though, we have been known to call a calf hamburger or steak and a hog pork chop or sausage.:)
And here I sit - I have my characters thought out and my hook written. I know some of the things I have to put in this book and deal with, but I can't come up with a title that (as a dear friend would say) sings to my heart. I'm working on the second book in the Halsey brother series. (The sequel books to Marshal in Petticoats).
With this being a sequel, is it necessary to keep the title in the same vein as the first book? Or, can I make it different and just have a banner on the book saying the second book of the Halsey brother series?
How do you get your titles? Before or after the story is written? Can you write a whole book and never give it a title? Does it really matter in the scheme of things? For me "Yes". It does matter, but am I the only weird writer who has to have a title to make the thing real?
7 comments:
Paty, I don't think you're weird because you need a title before you can start a book. I'm the same way! Titles come easily to me and they just resonate with the story I'm about to tell.
For example, with this novella project coming up for WRP, I immediately thought of the title for mine as soon as I started working out the characters' conflicts in my mind. Admittedly, though, I'm not sure I'm going to keep it.
And shame on you for naming a pig Sausage! And calling a calf Hamburger. Really! [g]
Karen
Paty--I don't think you're weird, either. Well, at least not for having to have a title before you write! LOL. Anyway, titles don't come easy to me. I can write a whole book with whatever title I stick up there on day one. It makes no difference though I usually come up with a working title sooner or later, knowing full well that it isn't good and will have to be changed.
That said, once in a blue moon I'll come up with a title I love and write the whole book with that title in mind. THE BABY SEASON comes to mind, and actually formed the basis for much of the humor in the book as everyone and everything had babies.
A good friend once just changed the order of the words and the title fell into place. DANGER IN PARADISE became PARADISE BETRAYED. Another friend took an aspect of the book and played on it for me. A book involving a community theatre thus became AUDITION FOR DEATH.
I don't think related books need related titles. Some writers do, of course. Book one is RUBY'S BED, book two SAPPHIRE GLOW etc... but lots of others, including my own, don't. Then I think it's good for the publisher to use a hook on the covers relating the books. DEAD RINGERS in my case, perhaps the last name of the brothers in your case.
Neat post! I wish I were better at coming up with titles. I envy Karen's talent for doing this and I think MARSHALL IN PETTICOATS is adorable, so obviously, you, too, have the knack.
Alice
who agrees with Karen about the Bacon, Sausage, Hamburger thing.
Titles are so hard. I usually come up with one before I start writing, sometimes change it throughout. It helps keep me motivated if I have a title.
By the way, I think the animal names are funny :-)
I don't think you're weird either. ;) At least not too weird.
I usually have a title when I start, but it's been known to change - generally before I'm done with the first three chapters. I'm not overly attached to my titles because I know they could change. I like the titles I came up with for the two proposals I'm working on now - Kiss Me Deadly and Dead To Me - but they're books 2 and 3 in a connected series and book one - the one my agent is shopping - is titled Make Me Believe. Has the whole "me" thing going on, but not the "dead" connection. So if it ever sells, it'll probably change (even though the title is totally fitting for both the main characters).
I think because you're writing for an epub, and they generally use the titles the authors create, you should pick something that speaks to you. I don't think you need it to be in the same vein as Marshal In Petticoats so long as you write "second book in the Halsey brother series" beneath the title. Does that make sense? In that respect, maybe for future printings of MIP, you could have "first book in the Halsey brothers series" added beneath the title. Just a thought. ;)
Good luck with the title search!
I need to have a title I'm happy with too. I have to have some sort of title to type in the header. It may not be the one I ultimately wind up with, but at least there is something up there, making it seem like a real book.
As for your title to your sequel, generally sequels do sound similiar:
One for the Money, Two for the Dough. A is for Alibi, B is for Burglar. Dark in the Night, Death in the Night, etc...
Let's see: Marshal in Petticoats, maybe Men in Tights? No, wait, that one's taken. Ha!
The right name will come to you.
I suck at titles for both fiction and nonfiction. Sometimes I hit the title lottery--like with my YA--other times I languish sans title while I write the whole damn thing. If you need a title to start or to fully get into the work, Paty, then go with that--and if your gut says that the connected title is just not the way you want to go, then go with what speaks to you. "A Halsey Brother Book" is a fine subtitle.
The working title for my WIP is "My Baby Daddy." It's been the title for a year now--while it marinated, through the outline, through the first 40,000 words . . .and . . . that's just not this book. I have no idea what to retitle it though, and anything else is going to sound odd to me. (If anyone wants to take a stab at it: Romantic Comedy. Genevieve (Gen, nickname Generic) tries to protect her mother's reputation by finding the perfect husband and providing grandkids ASAP. Love interest is the guy she used to babysit for (6 years younger). Book is more about heroine's journey to independence than journey to family, and is looking more like ST than Cat. at the moment).
Because, at this point, the title is part of what is going to catch an editor's/agent's attention, I'm obsessing over titles more than I might otherwise--with articles I have absolutely no problem turning over the title to the editor and I have fond hopes of getting a book editor with a knack for selling titles.
Thanks everyone! It's good to know I'm not too weird! LOL
I have a list of titles going. When a new one pops in my head, I jot it down and cross off one that doesn't do anything for me. I'll eventually get it figured out and you all will be the first to know!
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