OH LOOK A DISTRACTION meme

[xenokattz]

From likeadeuce & penknife
Ask me a question about one of my stories or my approach to writing in general. It can be absolutely anything in any fic and I will tell you the honest-to-god answer. Don’t hold back. Anything. Whatever you ask, I will try my best to answer.This has a bit of crossover from another meme I think but each story's different. My stories are

Comments

[xenokattz]

URGH. Titles. Titles are HARD for me. I think of a title as a way to draw people in and, at the same time, present the core of the story plus a dash of atmosphere. Is that a lot? I think it's a lot. I'm not the most succinct person-- thank goodness I'm not a journalism major-- so this is Very Difficult.

Of the 100-ish fics I've written, 14 titles came easily. By "easy," I mean I knew the title before I wrote the fic or within 500 words written. Of those 14, 5 of them are "5 things" or "20 facts" so they were really no-brainers. ;) The rest, I research MADLY. I google song lyrics, go through English Lit books or any other books I want to reference specifically for thematic reasons, look for quotes from canon material, look for ANY thematic quotes, research, research, research. I research for titles as much as I do for the actual plot. *L*

Then I make a short list & let that percolate. Look at the list again when the story's finished & do a culling. If I don't have a title after my betas return the fic, I ask THEM for an opinion (I really misuse my betas, poor things!). Then I FINALLY pick one & let that percolate while I edit. If I still like it after the editing process, then it becomes the title. If I don't like it, & change it & angst. If I don't like it but have no alternatives, I just use it then angst. ;)

That said, I have 2 favourite parts: the research & finding The Perfect Title. "Just Because Everything is Different, Doesn't Mean Anything has Changed" is one of my faves. That's the actual prompt but I didn't mean for it to be the title. I did my usual research thing but the quote ended up perfect for both the story & the title. I also like "Because Thorns Have Roses" because Rogue's story has always had a Beauty & the Beast/Sleeping Beauty aspect to it. Both fairytales involve roses either as tokens or prisons. I thought I was quite clever for flipping the proverb (or is that song lyric?) around.

I've also noticed that my multichapter stories tend to have one-word titles while my one-shots tend to have 5+ words in the title. I don't know why.

[likeadeuce]

Oh, interesting! Thanks.

Man, I just looked back at my couple years or so of fic titles and just about everything falls in the category of 'song lyric' 'cliche' or 'twist on a cliche.' (I've got Beatles, Billy Joel, Springsteen and actually two Lou Reed songs. And then stuff like "Displays of Affection", "Common Cause," "Bad Cop" and "Superhuman Resources".) I don't know what any of this means! But I understand the general title anxiety. It's what your story is going to be CALLED dammit.