(no subject)
There was a discussion on someone else's journal about fic titles, and how she always waits 'til the last minute to name her fics, and I was thinking about how *different* that is for me.
I usually can't start a story unless I have at least a working title for it. It might change during the writing process, but I usually can't *write* until I have something at the top.
What about you all? Do you have the title first? The fic first?
How do you title your stories? A theme in the story, from song lyrics, a poem?
When I first started writing, I would just name the stories very, very obvious things. (Um, an embarrassing example: 'Why I Kissed Her' - about, you know, why Harry kissed Ginny. SIGH) Now, I usually try to be a bit more clever. I don't know if I succeed, but.
'Home Steady,' for example, was supposed to be, like, 'homestead', combined with the word 'steady' to indicate Jared and Jensen falling into living together, and how easy and right it felt to them. Sometimes - for 'such a beautiful blank (but smooth it)' - I come up with the title well before I have any idea for the fic, and I base the fic around the title.
Do you prefer long titles or do you like 'em short and sweet?
As a reader, does the title ever turn you off from or on to a fic? I know for me, if the title is really, really sappy, and doesn't seem to be ironically so, I probably won't read the fic, because if the title is overly saccharine-like, chances are the fic will make me want to kill myself.
Poll Titles
I usually can't start a story unless I have at least a working title for it. It might change during the writing process, but I usually can't *write* until I have something at the top.
What about you all? Do you have the title first? The fic first?
How do you title your stories? A theme in the story, from song lyrics, a poem?
When I first started writing, I would just name the stories very, very obvious things. (Um, an embarrassing example: 'Why I Kissed Her' - about, you know, why Harry kissed Ginny. SIGH) Now, I usually try to be a bit more clever. I don't know if I succeed, but.
'Home Steady,' for example, was supposed to be, like, 'homestead', combined with the word 'steady' to indicate Jared and Jensen falling into living together, and how easy and right it felt to them. Sometimes - for 'such a beautiful blank (but smooth it)' - I come up with the title well before I have any idea for the fic, and I base the fic around the title.
Do you prefer long titles or do you like 'em short and sweet?
As a reader, does the title ever turn you off from or on to a fic? I know for me, if the title is really, really sappy, and doesn't seem to be ironically so, I probably won't read the fic, because if the title is overly saccharine-like, chances are the fic will make me want to kill myself.
Poll Titles