Story Titles

[browngirl]

I can't believe I never asked this before.

So, how do you title your stories?

amanuensis1 wrote a fascinating entry here about the process. For myself, I usually come up with the title when I do the story idea, are occasionally the title *is* the story idea When I don't, I usually go for titles that play on a theme for the story, but those rarely satisfy me as well as the more organic titles I arrive at with the idea.

Some examples:

"The Chief's Day" is an example of a story where the title is the story idea. I was thinking about an "ordinary day" challenge from ringprov, and came up with that.

"Dream Blossoms" is an example of a title that came with the plotbunny. I was riffing off of hobbit naming customs; if the reader realizes that, that fact plus the pairing will tell them what the story is about.

"While We Raise Our Hearts in Love" is a title I had to work to find, and it's longer and clunkier than the other titles above, isn't it?

Comments

[baranduin.livejournal.com]

Like with Lantern Gift. I fully had the strong feeling I needed to name it that, and there wasn't a lantern in sight yet

That's very cool. I think that's my favorite kind of title -- one that appears mysteriously and feels very right though you're not sure why. And in this particular story the lantern gift was such an important thread throughout the whole thing.

I think the best titles (at least best to me from my POV as a writer) are the ones that appear like a bit of imagery :-)

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

Yes, I love the titles that come with imagery...especially imagery that could be interpreted on several different levels in the story! ;-)