i know it's everybody's sin

[musesfool]

So I've been thinking about titles. SPN fandom has some truly godawful titles floating around. Sometimes I skim the newsletter, and I'm like, "WTF? No, seriously, WTF?" But I am certain - 100% even - that somewhere out there, someone else is reading the newsletter and going, "Awesome!" at those titles, and looking at mine and going, "Seriously? No

Comments

[glossing]

I agree with all of this; I've been thinking *a lot* about titles lately, probably because I'm working on a single long project and I keep re-titling it. Also, in my corner of comicsdom, there's one pretty set method for titling. It works for others, but I've been finding it difficult to work with lately.

There are also any number of titles I would tell people to just... not use because they're *so* overused
While I know that such lists tend to cause angst, I want to make a list. You mentioned "Hallelujah" and I'd add anything from Cummings's poem that begins "somewhere i have never travelled". (I'm guilty of this! I titled a long dS fic "Gladly Beyond". *g*)

I think a title needs to work in concert with the story, to comment on it or tell you what it's about in some way.
Yes, oh, my, yes. As a reader *and* writer, I also need a title that's memorable. Not necessarily memoriz-able, as your "...into the desert, as thirsty as you are" title makes clear, but memorable. Recognizable later, I mean. Lately I've been choosing fairly plainspoken, *bare* titles, just to change things up; "The Triple-Cross" was originally titled "We are for whole volumes", a reworking of a quotation from Love's Labours Lost that I decided was a little wordy.

Who knows, though. In a couple months, I might start going for the long ones again.

[musesfool]

Yeah, I'm weird in that usually, I just have the title to start and it always stays, but there are times when I can't decide, and I just keep changing it, and it makes me crazy. The worst is when I've had one picked out from the beginning and it no longer fits at the end, and I have to find a new one. Grar!

I'd add anything from Cummings's poem that begins "somewhere i have never travelled". (I'm guilty of this! I titled a long dS fic "Gladly Beyond". *

Bwah! I actually had a line in there about that, with that exact reference. And also about "A Handful of Dust" and "Through a Glass Darkly" and there was another one I've just blanked on. Though I've used my fair share of groaners and obvious titles, too.

I also need a title that's memorable. Not necessarily memoriz-able, as your "...into the desert, as thirsty as you are" title makes clear, but memorable. Recognizable later, I mean.

*nod nod*

I want to be able to look at it and go, "Yeah, I read that, and I remember it."

Lately I've been choosing fairly plainspoken, *bare* titles, just to change things up

I'm just so *bad* at that. I admire people who can do it without using quotes or lyrics, but I just end up with stupid generic one word titles that make me crazy later.