Meanwhile, I Just Title My Blog Posts With Whatever First Comes To Mind.
Titles are something I've always struggled with when writing fanfiction. I thought I'd take a look back at the fics I've posted this year and note down exactly why I chose the titles I did.
What I'm hoping is that, if I force myself to think consciously about why I choose story titles, the process might become a little easier in future. And, hey, even if it doesn't help, it might be an interesting exercise.
In reverse chronological order, my fic titles for this year:
Two Become One (Better Half, Thiu/Thiu). Taken from the Spice Girls song '2 Become 1', naturally! I was amused by the circularity here: Thiu, originally one person, was split into two people, but then those two people became a couple. One becomes two become one.
It's possible this title implies a larger focus on sex than the fic actually has. I apologise to anyone I've disappointed.
I also considered One Becomes Two, which I thought sounded even sillier than just straightforwardly using the Spice Girls title, and skipped a beat, from one of my favourite lines in the game: 'I can't believe my heart skipped a beat over this shit.' I tried to find a title that related to sharing a bed in some way, as that's a big focus of the fic, but nothing came to mind!
Wild Lands (Divilethion). From the excellent Koethe song 'Wild Lands'! Some of Koethe's music is inspired by the Life Is Strange series; I've always associated 'Wild Lands' with Life Is Strange 2 (although I don't know whether that was actually the inspiration for it), so it felt fitting for a story about brothers on the run. The song's lyrics - blood on our hands, 'we aren't innocent' - also seemed to fit Lynn.
This is actually the second fic I've titled after 'Wild Lands'; the first, from 2021, was blood upon our hands (Life Is Strange: True Colors).
Possibilities (Final Fantasy XV, Prompto/Ignis). One of my most common titling techniques, I regret to report, is 'I give up; I'm just going to use a word that's vaguely related to the story.' Prompto's haunted by the possibility that he could sleep with Ignis, even if Ignis doesn't actually love him back. Therefore: Possibilities. Nothing interesting, but it functions.
Crossroads and Crosshairs (Life Is Strange 2/The Coffin of Andy and Leyley). I like this one, actually! Sean crosses paths with Andrew and Ashley: crossroads. And then they hold him at gunpoint: crosshairs. I initially considered Crossing Paths and Crosshairs, but then I concluded that Crossroads and Crosshairs sounded better.
The only unfortunate aspect of this title: I already have a fic that's just called Crossroads (Danganronpa 2, Hinata/Komaeda). Whoops!
I suppose there's one other unfortunate aspect: Sean is threatened with a pistol, so there aren't technically crosshairs involved. They're metaphorical crosshairs. It's fine.
The Person You've Become (The Coffin of Andy and Leyley, Andrew/Ashley, NB incest). A theme I'm interested in when it comes to Andrew is the fact that he could have been someone else. Ashley embraces the person she is, but Andrew is haunted by the idea that, if it weren't for Ashley's influence, maybe he could have had a different life. The keywords for my Andrew icon on Dreamwidth are 'this is who you are now', and thinking along the same lines led me to name this fic The Person You've Become.
No Way Out (The Coffin of Andy and Leyley). There's no way out of their apartment; there's no way out of their relationship. They can't even envision who they'd be without each other.
Power Exchange (Metaphor: ReFantazio, everyone/everyone). There's a lot of sex in this fic for the purpose of literally transferring power, so it's very convenient that 'power exchange' is an established phrase in the realm of kink!
A Helping Hand (Omori). This title was intended to evoke the fact that the hallucinatory hands could be beneficial, rather than hostile, and also to reference Kel helping to settle Sunny down. It doesn't quite work for me, though; it's maybe a bit too cute for the tone of the fic.
New Experiences (Death Note, Light/Ryuk). This one's about as straightforward as a title gets. Light bangs a death god; it is very much a new experience, on both sides.
Shape of the Heart (Metaphor: ReFantazio, protagonist/Strohl). This title comes from 'Empire' by Of Monsters and Men, which I was listening to a lot at the time. In the fic, the protagonist is trying to make sense of his own feelings; he's trying to discern the shape of his heart.
Close Contact (Metaphor: ReFantazio, protagonist/Strohl). The protagonist and Strohl are sharing a bath together: straightforward physical close contact. The fic also looks at how Strohl has reassessed his thoughts since coming into close contact with the elda race.
After Hours (Ace Attorney, Apollo/Athena). Apollo and Athena fall asleep on each other at the office... after hours. Very much an 'I couldn't think of anything else' title.
Always Believe (Ace Attorney/Death Note). 'Always believe in your client' is a concept that recurs in the Ace Attorney series, so I thought it would be fun to evoke it in the title of this fic, in which Phoenix Wright's client absolutely did all those murders.
Cold Comfort (Death Note, Light/L). It's cold, and they're snuggling up to each other, which would usually be considered a comfort. But it's not very comforting, because they both want to destroy each other; therefore it's cold comfort. There's a fine line between 'nuanced title' and 'stupid pun'.
Above It All (Danganronpa, Togami/Kirigiri). Titled for Togami's conviction, soon to be tested, that he will remain entirely in command and physically unaffected during sex with Kirigiri. As with Always Believe, there's a touch of irony here.
Captured (Danganronpa 2, Hinata/Koizumi). I've already spoken in the end-of-year fic meme about why I don't think this title works. Koizumi's a photographer, so I wanted to use a photography term. I thought 'Captured' might fit with the way Hinata and Koizumi are cornered into sharing a bed, and might also evoke the idea of capturing a heart. But it sounds like it should be the title of a darker fic; it doesn't quite click for a cute little piece about awkward bedsharing.
Reciprocation (In Stars and Time, Isabeau/Siffrin). This is another title with an element of irony; Siffrin doesn't reciprocate. Or, rather, Siffrin reciprocates Isabeau's confession but doesn't reciprocate his feelings, with unfortunate consequences all round.
Closing the Circle (If We Were Villains, Oliver/everyone). This fic is about Oliver, in love with James, trying to exorcise his feelings by sleeping with everyone in their friend group except James. When he eventually approaches James, having already slept with everyone else, he's making the final link; he's closing the circle.
Life After Looping (In Stars and Time). A fic about trying to cope in the aftermath of a time loop. The title is straightforward, but it doesn't feel as lazy as a lot of my more straightforward titles, so I don't mind it; it works.
One Lucky Resident (Scrubs, Cox/Elliot). I had no idea what to call this, so I just used a phrase from the fic itself. Dr Cox, when he approaches Elliot, lies that he chooses 'one lucky resident' to sleep with per year.
Making Space (Final Fantasy XIII). Again, this is a pretty straightforward title. Sazh is worried that there's no longer space for him in Vanille's life, but they can still make that space.
Regrets (Final Fantasy XVI, Joshua/Clive, NB incest). A lot of my one-word titles are copouts, but I think this one works. This fic is about the conflict between the regrets Clive fears (the regret of sleeping with Joshua) and the regrets Joshua fears (the regret of not sleeping with Clive), and Clive's eventual decision to accept regret for the sake of his brother.
Divisions (Final Fantasy VII, Barret/Tifa/Aerith/Cloud). The idea here is that the characters are breaking down the divisions between their individual relationships to end up in one big relationship, but, to be honest, it's not a great title. I can never remember what this fic is called.
Wake Up (Final Fantasy VIII, Squall/Zell). This fic is about Zell waiting for Squall to wake up from his coma, and it's also about Zell waking up to his own feelings. As this is a loose rewrite of my early fic I Need You, I considered titling it something like I Need You (2024 Remix), but in the end I decided to go with something that allowed this fic to stand alone, rather than implying that it's necessary to read the original.
Understanding (Erased). This fic is about being repeatedly killed in a time loop until you understand your killer well enough to be able to break out. Very much one of my one-word copout titles, but at least it's thematically fitting.
Through the Looking Glass (Severance). This is an Alice reference, of course: the idea of crossing into another world (where, in this case, 'another world' just means 'not being at work for once'). There's also the concept of reflection, which makes sense for a fic in which two different versions of the same character meet each other.
The Fourth Temper (Severance, Mark/Helly, NB dubcon). Mark partakes in a workplace sex ritual with people dressed as the Four Tempers. Three of the Tempers are safely anonymous. The fourth Temper: whoops, it's your colleague, and things are now extremely awkward.
Across the Threshold (Severance, Mark/Helly). Helly's work self and Mark's non-work self are able to speak across the threshold of the office door. Regrettably, I have used the title format 'Across the X' five million times and can never be allowed to touch it again. (My other fics include Across the Distance, Across the Line, Across the Ocean, Across the Spectrum and Across the Road.)
I've kept an eye out for patterns during this title analysis exercise, and what I've deduced is that I like ironic titles and titles with dual meanings or dual relevance. And, er, absolute copout titles where I just grab the first half-relevant word I can think of.
What I'm hoping is that, if I force myself to think consciously about why I choose story titles, the process might become a little easier in future. And, hey, even if it doesn't help, it might be an interesting exercise.
In reverse chronological order, my fic titles for this year:
Two Become One (Better Half, Thiu/Thiu). Taken from the Spice Girls song '2 Become 1', naturally! I was amused by the circularity here: Thiu, originally one person, was split into two people, but then those two people became a couple. One becomes two become one.
It's possible this title implies a larger focus on sex than the fic actually has. I apologise to anyone I've disappointed.
I also considered One Becomes Two, which I thought sounded even sillier than just straightforwardly using the Spice Girls title, and skipped a beat, from one of my favourite lines in the game: 'I can't believe my heart skipped a beat over this shit.' I tried to find a title that related to sharing a bed in some way, as that's a big focus of the fic, but nothing came to mind!
Wild Lands (Divilethion). From the excellent Koethe song 'Wild Lands'! Some of Koethe's music is inspired by the Life Is Strange series; I've always associated 'Wild Lands' with Life Is Strange 2 (although I don't know whether that was actually the inspiration for it), so it felt fitting for a story about brothers on the run. The song's lyrics - blood on our hands, 'we aren't innocent' - also seemed to fit Lynn.
This is actually the second fic I've titled after 'Wild Lands'; the first, from 2021, was blood upon our hands (Life Is Strange: True Colors).
Possibilities (Final Fantasy XV, Prompto/Ignis). One of my most common titling techniques, I regret to report, is 'I give up; I'm just going to use a word that's vaguely related to the story.' Prompto's haunted by the possibility that he could sleep with Ignis, even if Ignis doesn't actually love him back. Therefore: Possibilities. Nothing interesting, but it functions.
Crossroads and Crosshairs (Life Is Strange 2/The Coffin of Andy and Leyley). I like this one, actually! Sean crosses paths with Andrew and Ashley: crossroads. And then they hold him at gunpoint: crosshairs. I initially considered Crossing Paths and Crosshairs, but then I concluded that Crossroads and Crosshairs sounded better.
The only unfortunate aspect of this title: I already have a fic that's just called Crossroads (Danganronpa 2, Hinata/Komaeda). Whoops!
I suppose there's one other unfortunate aspect: Sean is threatened with a pistol, so there aren't technically crosshairs involved. They're metaphorical crosshairs. It's fine.
The Person You've Become (The Coffin of Andy and Leyley, Andrew/Ashley, NB incest). A theme I'm interested in when it comes to Andrew is the fact that he could have been someone else. Ashley embraces the person she is, but Andrew is haunted by the idea that, if it weren't for Ashley's influence, maybe he could have had a different life. The keywords for my Andrew icon on Dreamwidth are 'this is who you are now', and thinking along the same lines led me to name this fic The Person You've Become.
No Way Out (The Coffin of Andy and Leyley). There's no way out of their apartment; there's no way out of their relationship. They can't even envision who they'd be without each other.
Power Exchange (Metaphor: ReFantazio, everyone/everyone). There's a lot of sex in this fic for the purpose of literally transferring power, so it's very convenient that 'power exchange' is an established phrase in the realm of kink!
A Helping Hand (Omori). This title was intended to evoke the fact that the hallucinatory hands could be beneficial, rather than hostile, and also to reference Kel helping to settle Sunny down. It doesn't quite work for me, though; it's maybe a bit too cute for the tone of the fic.
New Experiences (Death Note, Light/Ryuk). This one's about as straightforward as a title gets. Light bangs a death god; it is very much a new experience, on both sides.
Shape of the Heart (Metaphor: ReFantazio, protagonist/Strohl). This title comes from 'Empire' by Of Monsters and Men, which I was listening to a lot at the time. In the fic, the protagonist is trying to make sense of his own feelings; he's trying to discern the shape of his heart.
Close Contact (Metaphor: ReFantazio, protagonist/Strohl). The protagonist and Strohl are sharing a bath together: straightforward physical close contact. The fic also looks at how Strohl has reassessed his thoughts since coming into close contact with the elda race.
After Hours (Ace Attorney, Apollo/Athena). Apollo and Athena fall asleep on each other at the office... after hours. Very much an 'I couldn't think of anything else' title.
Always Believe (Ace Attorney/Death Note). 'Always believe in your client' is a concept that recurs in the Ace Attorney series, so I thought it would be fun to evoke it in the title of this fic, in which Phoenix Wright's client absolutely did all those murders.
Cold Comfort (Death Note, Light/L). It's cold, and they're snuggling up to each other, which would usually be considered a comfort. But it's not very comforting, because they both want to destroy each other; therefore it's cold comfort. There's a fine line between 'nuanced title' and 'stupid pun'.
Above It All (Danganronpa, Togami/Kirigiri). Titled for Togami's conviction, soon to be tested, that he will remain entirely in command and physically unaffected during sex with Kirigiri. As with Always Believe, there's a touch of irony here.
Captured (Danganronpa 2, Hinata/Koizumi). I've already spoken in the end-of-year fic meme about why I don't think this title works. Koizumi's a photographer, so I wanted to use a photography term. I thought 'Captured' might fit with the way Hinata and Koizumi are cornered into sharing a bed, and might also evoke the idea of capturing a heart. But it sounds like it should be the title of a darker fic; it doesn't quite click for a cute little piece about awkward bedsharing.
Reciprocation (In Stars and Time, Isabeau/Siffrin). This is another title with an element of irony; Siffrin doesn't reciprocate. Or, rather, Siffrin reciprocates Isabeau's confession but doesn't reciprocate his feelings, with unfortunate consequences all round.
Closing the Circle (If We Were Villains, Oliver/everyone). This fic is about Oliver, in love with James, trying to exorcise his feelings by sleeping with everyone in their friend group except James. When he eventually approaches James, having already slept with everyone else, he's making the final link; he's closing the circle.
Life After Looping (In Stars and Time). A fic about trying to cope in the aftermath of a time loop. The title is straightforward, but it doesn't feel as lazy as a lot of my more straightforward titles, so I don't mind it; it works.
One Lucky Resident (Scrubs, Cox/Elliot). I had no idea what to call this, so I just used a phrase from the fic itself. Dr Cox, when he approaches Elliot, lies that he chooses 'one lucky resident' to sleep with per year.
Making Space (Final Fantasy XIII). Again, this is a pretty straightforward title. Sazh is worried that there's no longer space for him in Vanille's life, but they can still make that space.
Regrets (Final Fantasy XVI, Joshua/Clive, NB incest). A lot of my one-word titles are copouts, but I think this one works. This fic is about the conflict between the regrets Clive fears (the regret of sleeping with Joshua) and the regrets Joshua fears (the regret of not sleeping with Clive), and Clive's eventual decision to accept regret for the sake of his brother.
Divisions (Final Fantasy VII, Barret/Tifa/Aerith/Cloud). The idea here is that the characters are breaking down the divisions between their individual relationships to end up in one big relationship, but, to be honest, it's not a great title. I can never remember what this fic is called.
Wake Up (Final Fantasy VIII, Squall/Zell). This fic is about Zell waiting for Squall to wake up from his coma, and it's also about Zell waking up to his own feelings. As this is a loose rewrite of my early fic I Need You, I considered titling it something like I Need You (2024 Remix), but in the end I decided to go with something that allowed this fic to stand alone, rather than implying that it's necessary to read the original.
Understanding (Erased). This fic is about being repeatedly killed in a time loop until you understand your killer well enough to be able to break out. Very much one of my one-word copout titles, but at least it's thematically fitting.
Through the Looking Glass (Severance). This is an Alice reference, of course: the idea of crossing into another world (where, in this case, 'another world' just means 'not being at work for once'). There's also the concept of reflection, which makes sense for a fic in which two different versions of the same character meet each other.
The Fourth Temper (Severance, Mark/Helly, NB dubcon). Mark partakes in a workplace sex ritual with people dressed as the Four Tempers. Three of the Tempers are safely anonymous. The fourth Temper: whoops, it's your colleague, and things are now extremely awkward.
Across the Threshold (Severance, Mark/Helly). Helly's work self and Mark's non-work self are able to speak across the threshold of the office door. Regrettably, I have used the title format 'Across the X' five million times and can never be allowed to touch it again. (My other fics include Across the Distance, Across the Line, Across the Ocean, Across the Spectrum and Across the Road.)
I've kept an eye out for patterns during this title analysis exercise, and what I've deduced is that I like ironic titles and titles with dual meanings or dual relevance. And, er, absolute copout titles where I just grab the first half-relevant word I can think of.