On titles, and a POLL
You totally don't have to read the navel-gazing; just skip to the poll!
So picking titles sure does suck, doesn't it? Most of the time I get to the end of a fic and haven't once thought about a title, and have to come up with something. Sometimes the results are purely workmanlike: 'Five First Kisses' and 'Second Chances,' both of which are perfectly fine but I think those fics are fairly emotionally complex (for their length) and really deserve better. Sometimes the results really, really suck: 'Problem Solving'... really? I called it that?
So far there are two titles I genuinely like. 'Fighting Instincts' can mean three different things in that fic, all of which are significant. 'Just a Hole in Arizona' points out the way both boys have seized on the Grand Canyon as a symbol despite its original lack of significance, and the way the fic isn't actually about the Grand Canyon at all- just the ways the boys' use of the Canyon, and the ways they think about it, parallel their uses of and thoughts about and motivations for incest. I'm actually pretty proud of that.
That said, I also have a whole stash of titles that I really desperately want to use, quotes that for me hit rich emotional notes that just need a character to inhabit them. Until a week ago, I was completely unable to get from the title to the fic. Then I wrote "Truest Type of Love," which is a title I've always wanted to use for Dean Winchester. The quote is "Sacrificing your happiness for the happiness of the one you love is, by far, the truest type of love," and I think it's perfect for a fic where Dean commits incest -- and fucks himself up utterly and irreversibly in the process -- to try to make Sam happy. Sweet at first glance, and then horrifying.
Then I was on a roll, so I pulled another quote that I've been just desperate to use in a fic, from the song "Southern Cross." The song hits a heady emotional note for me: alone, in exile, utterly isolated someplace so far from home even the stars are wrong. It didn't work in SPN because stars don't carry a solid emotional punch for those boys, but of course they do for Jack O'Neill. Stargate is the perfect fandom for that song, and I think the bleakness of the quote makes the careful connection between Jack and Daniel all the more precious.
Anyway, there are still a lot more quotes I want to use, though for a lot of them, I still don't know the action beats that would get the characters to that emotional note. (cue a random selection of recent bunnies, just for me to keep track of)
-"Every sacred thing you thought you sold"- The story of Daniel Jackson betraying the SGC (because of some sort of manipulation by Ammonet- I don't know the plot that would convince me of this yet), and how it feels for him to be forgiven by Jack.
-Something from Train Tracks, either "An open empty boxcar stares at you" or "Your passport has been kissed the holy fool"- I suspect this is the story of John Sheppard, worn out and resigned and exhausted, making the leap of faith to go to Atlantis.
-"Some have to live with the scars"- Dean Winchester, when Sam can shake off their childhood and the incest and head to Standford to put together a perfectly normal, happy life for himself, and Dean is left behind utterly destroyed by it.
-"Through me is the way to the woeful city"- This is evil!Sam, obviously. I will be reading the Inferno in November. We'll see then.
-Something from Viva la Vida, probably "Pillars of salt, pillars of sand"- clearly the story of Sam trying to regain his humanity after he goes a little too close to the edge.
Anyway, I find myself curious about other people, so this is the part where I bat my eyelashes and beg you all prettily to take my polls. Please?
Poll The one for writers
Poll The one for readers
And anything you want to tell me in comments, of course!
So picking titles sure does suck, doesn't it? Most of the time I get to the end of a fic and haven't once thought about a title, and have to come up with something. Sometimes the results are purely workmanlike: 'Five First Kisses' and 'Second Chances,' both of which are perfectly fine but I think those fics are fairly emotionally complex (for their length) and really deserve better. Sometimes the results really, really suck: 'Problem Solving'... really? I called it that?
So far there are two titles I genuinely like. 'Fighting Instincts' can mean three different things in that fic, all of which are significant. 'Just a Hole in Arizona' points out the way both boys have seized on the Grand Canyon as a symbol despite its original lack of significance, and the way the fic isn't actually about the Grand Canyon at all- just the ways the boys' use of the Canyon, and the ways they think about it, parallel their uses of and thoughts about and motivations for incest. I'm actually pretty proud of that.
That said, I also have a whole stash of titles that I really desperately want to use, quotes that for me hit rich emotional notes that just need a character to inhabit them. Until a week ago, I was completely unable to get from the title to the fic. Then I wrote "Truest Type of Love," which is a title I've always wanted to use for Dean Winchester. The quote is "Sacrificing your happiness for the happiness of the one you love is, by far, the truest type of love," and I think it's perfect for a fic where Dean commits incest -- and fucks himself up utterly and irreversibly in the process -- to try to make Sam happy. Sweet at first glance, and then horrifying.
Then I was on a roll, so I pulled another quote that I've been just desperate to use in a fic, from the song "Southern Cross." The song hits a heady emotional note for me: alone, in exile, utterly isolated someplace so far from home even the stars are wrong. It didn't work in SPN because stars don't carry a solid emotional punch for those boys, but of course they do for Jack O'Neill. Stargate is the perfect fandom for that song, and I think the bleakness of the quote makes the careful connection between Jack and Daniel all the more precious.
Anyway, there are still a lot more quotes I want to use, though for a lot of them, I still don't know the action beats that would get the characters to that emotional note. (cue a random selection of recent bunnies, just for me to keep track of)
-"Every sacred thing you thought you sold"- The story of Daniel Jackson betraying the SGC (because of some sort of manipulation by Ammonet- I don't know the plot that would convince me of this yet), and how it feels for him to be forgiven by Jack.
-Something from Train Tracks, either "An open empty boxcar stares at you" or "Your passport has been kissed the holy fool"- I suspect this is the story of John Sheppard, worn out and resigned and exhausted, making the leap of faith to go to Atlantis.
-"Some have to live with the scars"- Dean Winchester, when Sam can shake off their childhood and the incest and head to Standford to put together a perfectly normal, happy life for himself, and Dean is left behind utterly destroyed by it.
-"Through me is the way to the woeful city"- This is evil!Sam, obviously. I will be reading the Inferno in November. We'll see then.
-Something from Viva la Vida, probably "Pillars of salt, pillars of sand"- clearly the story of Sam trying to regain his humanity after he goes a little too close to the edge.
Anyway, I find myself curious about other people, so this is the part where I bat my eyelashes and beg you all prettily to take my polls. Please?
Poll The one for writers
Poll The one for readers
And anything you want to tell me in comments, of course!