then she gets you on her wavelength

[musesfool]

Talk to me about your story titles. Do you favor short and explanatory? Long and obscure? Something in between? It depends on the story?

Where do your titles come from? The story itself - a line or a recurring image or motif? Poetry? Lyrics? (yes, yes, I know there are people who find this approach uncreative and/or jarring. I say if it worked

Comments

[ignipes]

Do you start out with a title or does it show up somewhere along the way as you're writing, or do you do the frantic title scramble just before you post?

It's pretty much only ever the first or the third, rarely the second option. I either start out with a title in mind - often before I even have a story in mind - or I can't think of anything that works at all until it's finished. Once I think of one, however, I usually spend only about five seconds thinking about it. I definitely don't check to see if it's been used before. And once I decide, I find it very difficult to change my mind about it, even if I know on some level it doesn't quite work.

The only kind of research I do is to make sure if I'm using a quotation or lyrics I'm actually getting it right, and not accidentally referencing something I would rather not be referencing, because my memory is not trustworthy.

I don't exactly have a list of titles intended for future use, but I do have notes about future titles along the lines of "story called this, about this and this and this, to be written someday." Even when I hear a phrase I like and think would make a great title, a potential story attaches itself to it almost immediately; titles never float about unattached, that's just how my brain works.

And no, I don't ever want to call things "Untitled," because I *like* thinking of titles, and I consider titles to be an important part of the story - that is, if I've chosen a title correctly, the story would have a slightly different meaning with a slightly different titles - even if sometimes it is very difficult. *g*

[musesfool]

. I either start out with a title in mind - often before I even have a story in mind - or I can't think of anything that works at all until it's finished. [...] I definitely don't check to see if it's been used before. And once I decide, I find it very difficult to change my mind about it, even if I know on some level it doesn't quite work.

That's pretty much how I work, though sometimes I have to change the title at the last minute and it makes me crazy. Occasionally a better title presents itself, but I can't even remember the last time that happened.

Even when I hear a phrase I like and think would make a great title, a potential story attaches itself to it almost immediately; titles never float about unattached, that's just how my brain works.

Interesting. I actually do have a list and while some of them have notes next to them in terms of "This should be about these characters" or "the story should feel like this," I often can't come up with actual stories to go along with them.