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
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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.
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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.
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