Ten Favorite Titles Meme
Aug. 1st, 2005 03:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
browngirlI've seen this meme around a bit, and summertime work is as boring as ever. So here are ten favorite titles of mine, in roughly chronological order.
Most of my titles are fairly prosaic, concerning a facet of the story. "Of Brothers and Cousins", "Adrenaline High", etc. Most of these follow that pattern, but in all of these I tried for more (whether or not I succeeded is, of course, another matter).
" Dream Blossoms" was, up till then, perhaps the most daring thing I'd tried to do, and I'm pretty sure that a LJ community and a mailing list started hating me after I posted it to them, but I'm still glad I wrote it. If I tell you the title and the pairing (Frodo/Sam), and you know hobbit naming conventions, you should be able to guess the gimmick/plot. *giggle*
"A Fair and Lordly Lad": This title refers to both main characters in a way that links them, their identities and their perceptions of each other's identities, in a way that makes me happy. It also just sounds pretty.
"Fitted to Love": As someone writing stories set in LOTR, I like using titles from the text of LOTR. This particular phrase comes from a scene which is about hobbit' relationships both with Big Folk and with their own home, with what they know and what they don't know. Also, the title refers to [the difficulty inherent in] one of the two sex scenes in the story in a way that pleases my inner 12-year-old. *snerk*
"A Bed of Light" emerges from the love of light imagery that Tolkien gave me, which I talk about a great deal. Both literally *and* metaphorically, I placed my hobbits on a bed of light.
"Whisper to a Scream": I just like this phrase. I like its dynamic sweep
"Singing Home". I like this title because I wanted to evoke celebration, and also a sense of returning, and because the story is, among other things, about music and includes a whole song.
"To the Ending of the World". I love Shakespeare, whom I discovered on my own before being assigned his works (and my favorites remain those I read on my own). I love Henry V, though I shouldn't, really. And I love the St. Crispin's Day speech, and so I wanted to use a phrase from it to evoke that high-hearted going-smiling-into-death feeling that I get from the Pelennor Fields sequence. And this explanation is as long as the story.
"
"Not In Our Stars". More Shakespeare, dreadfully obvious with the comet imagery in the story. But I used "Not in our stars" rather than "In our stars", because the line is "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings." I love post-crisis Jason, and a heavy fate was written in his stars (so to speak), but I can't hold him blameless and I certainly don't hold Bruce blameless for what befell.
"Shades of Red" I still don't actually know why I picked this title. It's about that silly wig, but it's about a lot more than that. Whenever I think about it I think about shades and tones of relationships, especially shades in between commonly-accepted states.
"To Conciliate a Tiger" Is it silly to put a story that recent in here? I didn't have a title for this story when I recieved the bunny, which is unusual for me. I looked up quotations about negotiation, that being a major theme, and when I found this one I squealed, because it encapsulates the story for me. Dick is trying to appease tigers both internal and external (conscience, Slade; in the past, Batman) by handing himself over to them, and by the cover of 113 he looks pretty consumed. Besides....I didn't want to overdo the big muscled predator => big muscled predatory guy metaphor, but I did want to evoke it.
Most of my titles are fairly prosaic, concerning a facet of the story. "Of Brothers and Cousins", "Adrenaline High", etc. Most of these follow that pattern, but in all of these I tried for more (whether or not I succeeded is, of course, another matter).
" Dream Blossoms" was, up till then, perhaps the most daring thing I'd tried to do, and I'm pretty sure that a LJ community and a mailing list started hating me after I posted it to them, but I'm still glad I wrote it. If I tell you the title and the pairing (Frodo/Sam), and you know hobbit naming conventions, you should be able to guess the gimmick/plot. *giggle*
"A Fair and Lordly Lad": This title refers to both main characters in a way that links them, their identities and their perceptions of each other's identities, in a way that makes me happy. It also just sounds pretty.
"Fitted to Love": As someone writing stories set in LOTR, I like using titles from the text of LOTR. This particular phrase comes from a scene which is about hobbit' relationships both with Big Folk and with their own home, with what they know and what they don't know. Also, the title refers to [the difficulty inherent in] one of the two sex scenes in the story in a way that pleases my inner 12-year-old. *snerk*
"A Bed of Light" emerges from the love of light imagery that Tolkien gave me, which I talk about a great deal. Both literally *and* metaphorically, I placed my hobbits on a bed of light.
"Whisper to a Scream": I just like this phrase. I like its dynamic sweep
"Singing Home". I like this title because I wanted to evoke celebration, and also a sense of returning, and because the story is, among other things, about music and includes a whole song.
"To the Ending of the World". I love Shakespeare, whom I discovered on my own before being assigned his works (and my favorites remain those I read on my own). I love Henry V, though I shouldn't, really. And I love the St. Crispin's Day speech, and so I wanted to use a phrase from it to evoke that high-hearted going-smiling-into-death feeling that I get from the Pelennor Fields sequence. And this explanation is as long as the story.
"
"Not In Our Stars". More Shakespeare, dreadfully obvious with the comet imagery in the story. But I used "Not in our stars" rather than "In our stars", because the line is "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings." I love post-crisis Jason, and a heavy fate was written in his stars (so to speak), but I can't hold him blameless and I certainly don't hold Bruce blameless for what befell.
"Shades of Red" I still don't actually know why I picked this title. It's about that silly wig, but it's about a lot more than that. Whenever I think about it I think about shades and tones of relationships, especially shades in between commonly-accepted states.
"To Conciliate a Tiger" Is it silly to put a story that recent in here? I didn't have a title for this story when I recieved the bunny, which is unusual for me. I looked up quotations about negotiation, that being a major theme, and when I found this one I squealed, because it encapsulates the story for me. Dick is trying to appease tigers both internal and external (conscience, Slade; in the past, Batman) by handing himself over to them, and by the cover of 113 he looks pretty consumed. Besides....I didn't want to overdo the big muscled predator => big muscled predatory guy metaphor, but I did want to evoke it.
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no subject
Date: 2005-08-01 12:25 pm (UTC)Going to have to yoink this one, my dear.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-02 07:56 am (UTC)And, thank you. It didn't turn out badly, if I say so yself. :)
*huggles you*