iâm in love with the titles of your wips, they all sound dramatic and intriguing without being too vague or too specific. they all sound like books iâd pick up while at the bookstore. do you have any tips for finding a good title for your wip?
... can be damn near impossible at times. I'm going to be honest, most of my titles, even the ones I share on here, are heavily working titles and up for change at any time. Most of them, I end up getting attached and liking it. Some of them, though, change again. And again. And again.
Some have had the same title for as long as I've had the WIP â Unchosen, for example, was first written as a short story under that title (which later became the first chapter of draft 1, and introduced the main trio, though I didn't know much about the plot or other characters at the time).
So what do I look for in a title that sticks?
I'm not one for long or overly complicated titles. When I do have them, they tend to be simple: expressions of ideas or poetic images (With All the Sky on Fire), a reference to something else (In Step with the Wicked), or a short hook (Yuri in the Forest of Dreams).
In a similar vein, I don't use a lot of complicated words in my titles. I want it to be something that people can remember off the top of their heads, and loading up a title with too many words, or words that don't make sense to the average reader, is not going to help with that.
So you've also got my short titles: Unforeseen (Unchosen, #1). Bearskin. Salt & Silver. Grinners, Liar's Pawn, Matricide, Loyal â all short and succinct ideas that work to convey, more or less, the idea, mood, or aesthetic of the piece.
But you don't just want simple. Simple is boring, especially when it has little to do with the story. So you also want to make sure your title has â
In Step with the Wicked used to exist under a different title, which you can still find if you search the tags on my blog: A Rip in the Sky. While it's still simple, ARITS has a very specific image to it, and it relied on a very specific element of the plot. When that element no longer existed, the title was no longer relevant to the story, so I needed to find a new one.
The Autumn Door relied on said door being a part of the plot â when it wasn't, that WIP became A Darker Dawn instead.
The Lily Prince is a main character. Impossible Fires is about an arsonist who shouldn't be able to do what she's doing. Matricide is a pun on the mathematical matrix, which is part of my magic system in that world, and it also has to do with the main character's search for his missing mother.
You want to pull something from your work, or something that describes your work, to serve as the title. Otherwise, you'll end up with a title that's catchy or sounds pretty, but your readers will lose interest when they find out that it has nothing to do with the story or characters itself.
Most readers have genres they enjoy more than others, and they're more willing to stick with that genre, especially with authors who are new to them. What's important in this case is being familiar with the conceits and patterns of your genre, and sticking to them as best you can.
A sci-fi reader will probably not pick up a book with a fantasy title at first glance. A fantasy reader may not pick up a book with a romance title. A romance reader wouldn't be as interested in a book with a horror title, and so on.
If you aren't sure what a "fantasy title" looks like, go to your local library or bookstore and pick up five high fantasy books, five urban fantasy books, or whatever strikes your fancy. Sit down in one of those plush, comfy armchairs and study them: What is the structure of the title? What relevance does it hold to the plot or characters? How does it sound when you say it out loud?
The same goes for age markets, so foray outside of your usual section and pick up some kids' books or adult books to study them, too. A middle grade title sounds completely different from a young adult or adult title. There can be crossover, but considering most of us on writeblr are either new to publishing or hoping to be new to publishing, we're better off sticking with tried and true.
Rules are made to be broken â when you have a reliable audience and a really good reason for it.
This is, not going to lie, probably the biggest decider for me when it comes to picking a title. The rest of this is important, too, but it tends to happen in the background â it's something that I've picked up and I'm still refining with every project I title. Your aesthetic, though, is something you have to define for yourself.
Keeping the first 3 points in mind, ask yourself: What is the coolest title I could give this piece?
In Step with the Wicked sounds badass, and it's meant to. It's a low fantasy about four teenagers in a town in rural Kansas who are fighting back the hordes of Hell. The title is pulled from a translation of Psalm 1, and the story is also a commentary on the poisonous aspects of American Evangelical Protestantism, which is something I was raised with and want to explore in fiction.
ISWTW's sequel novellas â A Son of Gehenna, Blood of the Martyr, and The Queen of Rats â are all titled based on their respective main characters, while keeping with the religious references.
Salt & Silver relies on alchemical reagents to get its point across. It's actually based on the three primes of Paracelsus: Sulfur, salt, and mercury (quicksilver). It took me a while to come up with a good title for this one, because I was having a hard time, but the subtitle (the quiet death of EmiliĂĄn Ămbaroz and resurrection of the Rattlesnake) helps me get the point across, at least for now.
Seven of Sorrows pulls from tarot or playing card syntax (five of hearts, two of coins, etc) while also carrying a reference to Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows.
Following rules doesn't mean your title has to be short, or that it has to be overly simple on the verge of boring, or that it has to be completely relevant to your plot if you want to use an aesthetic image instead â it just means that there's a certain framework that's already been established in your genre and age market.
If you're looking to title your work commercially, whether you're self-publishing or querying traditionally, take this advice: The first step to a good title is an awful one.
I've always tended towards short titles, but you'd have things like Sciamachy (am I going to make every reader pull up a dictionary?) or Dissonance (which had nothing to do with the plot or characters) or Buying Time (see Dissonance) or Feather (based around a character but far too vague and not genre-savvy in the least).
What's important is that, when I titled these works, I enjoyed the titles and what I was writing! I wasn't concerned with whether or not the titles fit, because I was younger, and I hadn't yet studied anything in the genres in which I was writing.
Learn the rules, then bend them.
Most importantly: have fun with it!
