The Esoteric Art of Titles

I know a couple of writers that are fine when they start writing. They might have a couple of issues as their work progresses, but nothing worse than short bouts of plot paralysis. It's when the story is over that they end up in trouble. A piece can sit for weeks or months at this stage. They ask, "What do I call this thing?" as though I'm just gonna pull that out of a hat.

While that might be just the tiniest bit hyperbolic, it happens to a lot of writers. They're too close to the story and have a hard time describing it, let alone giving it a name. Either that or by the time it's finished, they're so done with it that they just can't be bothered. Sometimes they just slap their working title on the cover and boot it out the door like parents with a rebellious eighteen-year-old. That's how you get movies entitled Snakes on a Plane. While that was the perfect title for such a madcap movie, it might not be a great idea for your legal thriller.

My preferred method of dealing with this problem is to come up with a simple working title to identify the story to myself, and as I write I jot down title ideas. That is, unless I think of the title first. This has happened on rare occasions, and the story just kind of follows. Don't rely on the Muses to give you that gift very often, guys. It's not going to happen.

Don't despair! There are plenty of possible approaches to finding the perfect title without having to go with your working title. The goal is to grab the attention of a person in the bookstore or scrolling through the thousands of titles available online. You want something unique, creative, and hopefully engaging. Unique, because we want people to find the title quickly without mistaking it for another book. You need something creative to generate interest or at least make it memorable. And last, you want something that engages with the right audience. Simple, right?

"Oh, is that all?" You ask in that snarky and sarcastic tone before you start to get aggravated with how flippant I'm being...

Calm down. Take a deep breath and keep scrolling. There is hope beyond the sarcasm. Your masterpiece will find a name.

First, why not look at what the market is doing? Browse your local bookstore and online to see what other authors in your genre are doing, both subject matter and title-wise. This should give you an idea what your preferred audience likes and/ or what you want to stand out from.

Years ago, I wanted to write a vampire novel and went to do market research. This was at the height of Twilight fever, and I decided that if the market was into that sort of vampire, I might need to focus my efforts elsewhere. It saved me a great deal of headaches and cringing. I digress, but you really can do the same thing with titles.

Some of the most creative titles I've seen in the past few years are plays on words, mashups of song titles, and sometimes even plays on classic book titles, but there are literally hundreds of them and they all come to it differently. Let's have a look at some authors who are definitely at the top of their title game.

Example 1; The Song Title Mashup: Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride

So call me partial, but this title had me laughing out loud and reaching for the free sample on Amazon. First off, there's the parallel to Sir Elton John's song entitled Tiny Dancer. This reminds me of when my dad used to substitute his own lyrics when singing random snatches of popular songs. Don't ask; it really is embarrassing. My parental cringing aside, Lish McBride definitely has something with this title. It captures all three of our requirements. Unique? Check. I'm fairly certain that those words had never been put in quite that sequence on the internet before. Creative? You betcha. Engaging? I did go for the sample without reading the summary blurb, right?!

Example 2; A Common Phrase: Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor

Besides being an insane and amazing read, the title of Just One Damned Thing After Another plays on a popular saying. It's a phrase we can all relate to, and it caught my eye immediately. There might have been a book with that title before, but I doubt that there has. The creative aspect of the title is probably the use of mild profanity. It's often a dicey prospect to include expletives in your book title, because it could attract the wrong kind of reader. In this instance, it's perfect. I first saw this title on Audible, and after the five minute audio sample, I slapped my monthly credit down and purchased it.

This is where the engaging part comes in. Tricky though it might be, you want a title that engages your audience--the readers who will be excited about your book--that makes them think it's something they'll want to read. If your genre is Young Adult fantasy with a splash of horror and humor thrown in, then Hold Me Closer, Necromancer is evocative and almost magnetic, managing to convey all of those things at once. For the world weary cube rat that dreams of something more exciting, Just One Damned Thing After Another is perfect.

Example 3; The Mysterious Phrase: The Bullet-Catcher's Daughter by Rod Duncan

Titles can work the opposite way, too. If there is a mystery you want to convey, having a title that makes a potential reader think or wonder might be the way to go.

A perfect example of that is The Bullet-Catcher's Daughter by Rod Duncan. While scanning titles in my local bookstore, I spied this one. Immediately, I wanted to know what a bullet-catcher was, and what his daughter had to do with anything. Bullets are associated with violence and danger, and to catch one is unthinkable unless you happen to be a fictional kung-fu master. What might life be like if your dad or mom happened to do that for a living? What hijinks or adventures might ensue? While the words are not unique or particularly clever in and of themselves, they combine to form something that has an air of mystery befitting the alternate history that Duncan creates.

Example 4, Holy Alliteration, Batman!: The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

<fangirling> I bow down to Scott Lynch. He's an amazing writer, managing to inject something fresh and new into the often stale and extremely derivative fantasy genre.</fangirling> That extends to his titles, like The Lies of Locke Lamora. It grabbed me right away. The alliteration just sort of rolls off the tongue when you say it, and that's before you really think about their meaning at all. It conjures images of con-men and thieves, dark alleys and dangerous games. Strangely enough, that is precisely what the book delivers. The heroes are liars and thieves, both smooth and cunning as they run around their semi-fantasy world, and I loved it. See how that works?

Example 5, the single word: Fated by Benedict Jacka

While browsing Audible once again, I found this modern fantasy title by Benedict Jacka and was rather intrigued. The power behind this title, even though it's short, lies in the word chosen. Fate is a powerful force, and it's mysterious, too. The trick with these one-word titles is to find that word which exemplifies your story, but still leaves the reader wanting to know more. After having read the above-mentioned book, I could have come up with another couple of words to describe it, but the titles I dredged up from my own brain weren't a patch on this guy's. If pressed, I'd say "Screwed" might be a good one, if you wanted to go the humor route, but that would have probably grabbed the wrong audience.

So now we have a little bit of an idea of what we can do to start down the path toward creating a great title. Your title should be:

Unique - for search purposes and originality

Creative - for being memorable

Engaging - for getting the right audience

If you take the time to do the grunt work with search engines, make notes of title ideas as they drift through your mind, and know your audience, that title will come to you. Just remember to breathe. And most importantly...

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