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

[recrudescence]

Ahaha, I was just ranting about overuse of Florence + the Machine lyrics as titles.

Honestly, titles are almost always afterthoughts for me. If I can't think of anything, I dictionary-dive and pick the first cool-sounding-but-vaguely-relevant word. So...I guess I like titles that are concise but distinct. And I have on occasion swiped titles from songs or poetry, but I try to make sure I'm not the zillionth person using them.

[musesfool]

I was just ranting about overuse of Florence + the Machine lyrics as titles.

Aw, I can totally understand why people use them. They're very fannishly inclined. I recently had a story with the working title "A Kick in the Teeth Is Good For Some" but I changed it at the end. I still might use it at some point, though.

I dictionary-dive and pick the first cool-sounding-but-vaguely-relevant word.

I used a lot of one word titles when I started and I hated them because they were uninspired and common. Now on the rare occasions I do so, it's either something more obscure or it's a West Wing episode title. *g*

[recrudescence]

Heh, I think I've just seen one too many fics called Kiss With A Fist or Rabbit-Hearted.

Hunting for new words is definitely my fallback. And also how I got this username! Sometimes a title ends up coming from the definition of a word--I remember coming across a term for a certain kind of splinted armor and thinking "Wellwellwell, Splinted Armor is the perfect thing to call this tender tale of father/son incest!" and so I did. Then again, I also have fics with names like Sex, Drugs, and Hello Kitty, so...

[melayneseahawk]

Do you ever wish you could just call your stories "Untitled #27" and be done with the whole process?

Dude, yes.

[musesfool]

I think a lot of people feel that way.

[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

[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.

[titti]

Do you ever wish you could just call your stories "Untitled #27" and be done with the whole process?

Pretty much. I don't even read other people's titles, I go straight to pairing and summary.

[musesfool]

Heh.

[vorpalblades]

Titles are usually my last minute scramble, and I will maybe-not-proudly admit that they're usually song lyrics.

The one and only time I had a title from the get-go was for this year's Big Bang. The title actually inspired the whole story.

[tsuki_no_bara]

>>The one and only time I had a title from the get-go was for this year's Big Bang. The title actually inspired the whole story.<<

that happened to me for next year's bigbang! i came up with that title the same time i came up with a title for this year's bigbang. which i hadn't finished at that point. *ahem* usually the title is the last thing i do, so to have a title AND an idea - never mind a title that gave me the idea - was pretty amazing. i already feel accomplished and i haven't even started writing it yet. :D

[musesfool]

There's no shame in using quotes - even song lyrics - as titles! I do it most of the time.