Killer Titles
How to Brainstorm a Good One

What you read is not what I wrote. I provide the text, you provide the meaning. —Mike Kimera

I've been working on a idea for a story, but I'm having no luck coming up with a title. Sometimes the idea for the title comes first, and then I figure out what story goes with it, but this time I'm stumped.

How do you find killer titles for your stories? Any techniques you'd recommend?

I know one when I see one. A great title is unusual and makes you curious, tied to the story content, but not obvious—memorable—often, though not always, short.

There are some that stick in my mind months after reading the tales that they go with: 
"Ten Minutes in the Eighties" (Alison Tyler), "Everything but the Scent of Lilies" (M. Christian), "State" (M.Christian), "The Steel American" (S.P.Somtow), "Neptune and Surf" (Marilyn Jaye Lewis).

Other examples of titles that grab you? What are your favorite titles from your own stories? And how did you find them?  —Lisabet Sarai

Interested in this topic?
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From Kathleen Bradean
Great question! Not only was Everything But the Scent of Lilies a great title, it is one of my favorite M. Christian stories.

Titles are either simple or incredibly difficult. I have a few incredible titles with no story yet (The Goddess of Traffic), and a lot of stories with crappy titles.

My two favorite titles from my stories are:
She Comes Stars - which is a sentence in the story. (It makes sense in context)
Challenger Deep - which is the setting, but has the benefit of word play in that it sounds like Challenge Her Deep, and it the story is about the character facing herself.

If I could steal a title from a book, it would be The Velocity of Honey.

Titles seems to fall into categories:

What the story is about - The Taking of Pelham 457 (or whatever the exact title was), Murder in the Rue St. Ann, The Red Death, Interview with the Vampire, In Cold Blood.

Describing or naming a character - Broken Angels, The Leather Daddy and the Femme, Because of Winn-Dixie

Metaphorical - The Tree of Night, The Crucible

Evocative - Raw Silk

I'm not sure this is much help, but maybe it will get your mental juices flowing.

From Pat
Titles, like names, should be chosen very deliberately, in my opinion. I love a good title just as a thing unto itself... like the hard candy shell of a tootsie pop.

My favourite title on one of my own stories was "A Certain Quality of Line," (published in Liam Taliesin's journal, "Moist"). The story was a masturbatory tale about a woman getting up in the middle of the night to draw a very erotic picture. I forget where the original inspiration for the story itself came from, but the title was inspired by an art teacher I had in high school who taught us that you can often recognize the skill of an artist by the quality of the lines in her drawings.

One of my favourite book titles (I never did read the book) was "The Cure for Death by Lightning". Intriguing!

I find there are trends in titles. These days, titles are often rather opaque - you can't get a clue about what the story is about from the title. Looking at the New York Times Best Seller list, it's almost impossible to tell what most of the books are about. The exceptions seem to be the self-help books - those titles are very obvious.

I usually title my stories and poems based on a line or event in the story (Raven's Dance, Crashing), a description of a character (Weekend Warrior, You Loved Yellow), a description of where the story takes place (Carl's Dark Room, Chamber of the Harlot Queen, A Wee Sunny Garret (published by Adrienne in "Desires).

My favourite story that I wrote was "Adagio Mesto." The title had nothing to do with the characters, the plot or the setting. It was simply the musical term for the mood of the story - slow and sad.

Most of my titles are fairly transparent. Maybe I should try harder!

From Remittance Girl
I hate coming up with titles. Either they're obvious and scream at me, or I'm never really satisfied with that I settle on.

I have no mouth, and I must scream, The whimper of whipped dogs, The song the zombie sang, The man on the mushroom, The night of delicate terrors, Shattered like a glass goblin, Repent harlequin said the Ticktock man, The man who was heavily into revenge.

Reading any of these titles surely piques the reader's curiosity to read more!

From Maura Martin
One of my favorites in my own work is Crossing Borders from an anthology at Amatory-Ink, but I must confess that I didn't come up with the title and at first I didn't see the relevance to the first time lesbian encounter the story deliniated. It was only after publication and I had my contributors copy that while reading it the brilliance struck me.  It was selected by my friends and publisher while we were discussing it in the ERAchat forum.  So maybe letting your friends in on the subject of your work might allow them to help with a title.

From TreSart L. Sioux
I have had a rough time when it comes to titles of a novel, but rare for short stories. It's tough when you hit the final stages. I was pissed when Ren wanted and did change the last title of my 3rd book. The one that we both accepted was never used. Instead, I found a new title that I think is awful. However, sells are up, so I guess they know what they're doing.

From W. S. Cross
I often look for titles from songs or poetry. The title for my novel came from a conversation I had with the woman whose journal is the basis of the story. She said how the events that were described therein had shown her and her husband that life's challenges often extend "beyond you and me." Seemed like a good handle to me.

From Scriblr
Titles...I am very protective of titles.  The title for my first novel (which I am doing a rewrite) came from a line in a W.B.Yeats poem "Under Ben Bulben."  Though I have to admit that it went through at least three titles until I found this one.  I actually have about four titles that have no stories...as of yet.  I came on them while reading things, and then wrote them down hoping that a story would come along someday to fit them. I also have a beginning of a novel (only about a chapter) that has a title that originated from a French quotation that I found in the back of a dictionary. (Dictionaries are useful for more than just finding the definitions of words).  So...titles are everywhere.

From Sandaidh
Of my own works, some of my favorite titles are Elemental Flames, Lost and Found, The Fire Feeder and each individual "chapter" of Emach's Story.  The last, Emach's Story, has both favorites and least favorite.  I like the individual "chapter" titles - Conception, Transformation, Redemption and Revelation - but I really don't care for the novella title, Emach's Story, at all.  Yet I haven't found something to replace it.  Each chapter, in a sense, titled itself.  And tieing the whole thing together, one will find the titles of the other three parts in whichever part one reads.  Clear as mud.  In reading Conception, one will find, somewhere in the story, the words transformation, redemption and revelation.  Read Redemption, and somewhere in there will be the words conception, transformation and revelation.  

From William Scape
The title of the story should be creative and be attention grabbing. The title can make or break the story along with the story itself. I feel if my story title gets their attention, they're more likely to want to read the entire piece.

From Laila Whiteshah
I normally have a working title. It is sometimes no more than the main character's name, just so I can file it, but the first draft title hardly ever ends up what I tap out at the final draft. Most of the time, I find my title within the body of the work. Sometimes it is something that touches a poetic cord in me that a character said or prose from the narrative that sum up the prevailing theme of the story or article; editors seem to like this.

Just keep it short, because editors need a really good excuse before they will accept a title that is more few sparse words.

From A.F. Waddell
I like to use short (one word if possible), to-the-point story titles. My titles are often related to the theme of the story—or they may be ironical, or satirical of a given theme. The titles need not specifically imply sex—or may do so in a humorous or biting way. Oooh, to get the reader's attention ...!

A title will sometimes come before a story. I jot down ideas and phrases as they occur (otherwise I WILL forget them!) I use post-it-notes and scraps of paper (though I DO have a notebook, really!)

Titles can be a large part of the fun.

From Stephen Dedman
I keep a list of promising titles, many of them lines from songs or poems or strange-sounding technical terms. I find them a good starting point, though I don't always keep the working title when I submit the story I've lost track of how many stories I originally called 'A Walk-On Part in the War' before I sold a story with that title, and I'm still recycling 'On a Dark Desert Highway, Cool Wind in My Hair'.

I also keep a Dictionary of Quotations beside the desk, then pick titles by choosing a word at the heart of the story (night, red, moon, etc.), and looking at quotes that use that word. Sometimes I go back to the source of the quote and use another line. Again, I don't always stick with the working title; I make the final decision when I have a draft that's ready to submit.

From Ischade
I have a list of great titles with no story, and a pile of stories without titles. I'm thinking about asking them all to a party where the titles all drop themselves into a hat and the stories have to pick one out and wear it home . . .

I once had this boss who could never tell you what he wanted. He waited for me to give suggestions and then shot them all down in quick succession. At first I was angry that my ideas were still quivering on the floor half living while he demanded more to kill. Then I realized that while he had no idea what he liked he had very strong opinions about what he hated.

Much as I despised the man I have to admit I have his approach to titles. I usually have no idea what to name things (alas, the poor cat, seven years and he is still Cat. I call it his working title. The lucky dog came pre-named) so I slap something on until the right title comes along.

Then again, there is always the supermarket tabloid headline approach. Get a bag full of nouns, one full of verbs, one for adverbs, and another full of prepositions. Then lock yourself in a room with too little air and pick one word out of each bag. Voila, a title!

Lisabet
This plagues me sometimes, too. I don't know where the good titles come from. But I find, in reading other folk's stories on ERWA, that I am very sensitive to their titles, good and bad. A fairly common comment on my part is to suggest a different title.

I do believe that the title is critically important. If it does not grab the reader, he or she might just skip your story or novel.

So, if a title does not come out of the gorgeous blue, I try the following questions to myself:

1. What is the core idea or theme of this story? What am I really trying to accomplish?
2. Is there any play on words or double entendre that I can take advantage of?
3. What kind of emotion am I trying to evoke? What words are associated with that emotion?

Any of these three questions can begin to suggest a title.

I also use a strategy of free-association. I generate a list of words that are somehow related to the story, and then play with various combinations of them.

Frequently I start with a working title, which I am not that happy with, and change it later when I get inspired. Sometimes actually writing the story will reveal the title.

Oh, I also have a notebook with a list of titles that don't have stories associated with them. I'll think of a phrase that I just know would make a good story title - but I don't have the story yet. Sometimes I can match a story without a title to this list of titles without stories!

Unfortunately, sometimes the title never reveals itself! Then maybe getting somebody else to read and suggest will help.

Black Gull
I can tell you what I don't do—I try not to do "cute" or overused. One of the things that drives me crazy right now, is the re-using of titles by the latest crop of writers, filmmakers and title users. I think that readers follow writers; story tellers. And the greatest title in the world will do nothing when hung around the neck of an uninteresting story.

From bizzzichick
Usually, when the tale is done and has a soul and a breath, I try to determine what that soul is really all about. I try very hard to choose a title that fits the mood created in the piece, and I love it when I can do a little play on words.

Also, a couple of the best titles I've ever used have come from someone else who read my story and saw something different from what I did, and suggested a title I probably would never have come up with.

So if I'm stuck, I'll let someone creative read my piece then ask them what they would have called it.

Beth
I usually write the piece, then come up with my title. Most of the time a phrase or word in the story will sum up my story perfectly, so on the re-read, I usually pick a title that suits it.

Diane
An exercise for song writers is to think of the title first and then write the song. I tried this as an exercise and it's made me more comfortable thinking up titles. Some of my better short stories, IMHO, have come this way.

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