David Patneaude's Blog: Different Worlds - Posts Tagged "the-writing-process"
Titles In Motion
When you're working on a new novel you almost have to call it something, even if the name is simply a placeholder. "That New Thing I'm Working On" is just a little too clumsy and vague in your head or when you mention the project to someone, and it doesn't look all that good in your computer files. So somewhere in the rough draft stage (if not before), I come up with something to call the story. But it's definitely not guaranteed to survive until submission time, and after that it's still in jeopardy. I'm working on a YA mystery now that's still in the draft stage and is already on its third working title. It's kind of like King of the Hill: Someone rules until someone stronger comes along to push him off. Sometimes you like a title and you mention it to a writer friend or critique group member and the reaction is "What???!!!" and you have to adjust your thinking.
A number of my titles that made it all the way to the point of submission ended up on the cutting room floor, the victims of editors and marketing people and better ideas. That King of the Hill thing, again. I submitted my first novel as THICKER THAN WATER. It was published as SOMEONE WAS WATCHING. THE WILD BLUE became FRAMED IN FIRE. THE GHOST OF PHANTOM LIMB PARK morphed into HAUNTING AT HOME PLATE. TWENTY-THREE DEGREES AND FALLING became COLDER THAN ICE. Did the new titles make a difference? Better sales? Worse? We'll never know, but it's fun to speculate. Some of my titles--THE LAST MAN'S REWARD, THIN WOOD WALLS, EPITAPH ROAD--did survive the editorial process, and they've been among my most successful, so every once in a while I must come up with a good idea. Still, I can't help but wonder if different titles would have proven more (or less) successful.
Some titles hit you as inspired and untouchable: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, THE PRINCE OF TIDES, CATCH 22, EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES, SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE, FAHRENHEIT 451. THE POISONWOOD BIBLE, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, THE OUTSIDERS, THE BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA, HOLES. But you know some of those weren't the author's first choice. Would they have been the same books with different titles?
A number of my titles that made it all the way to the point of submission ended up on the cutting room floor, the victims of editors and marketing people and better ideas. That King of the Hill thing, again. I submitted my first novel as THICKER THAN WATER. It was published as SOMEONE WAS WATCHING. THE WILD BLUE became FRAMED IN FIRE. THE GHOST OF PHANTOM LIMB PARK morphed into HAUNTING AT HOME PLATE. TWENTY-THREE DEGREES AND FALLING became COLDER THAN ICE. Did the new titles make a difference? Better sales? Worse? We'll never know, but it's fun to speculate. Some of my titles--THE LAST MAN'S REWARD, THIN WOOD WALLS, EPITAPH ROAD--did survive the editorial process, and they've been among my most successful, so every once in a while I must come up with a good idea. Still, I can't help but wonder if different titles would have proven more (or less) successful.
Some titles hit you as inspired and untouchable: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, THE PRINCE OF TIDES, CATCH 22, EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES, SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE, FAHRENHEIT 451. THE POISONWOOD BIBLE, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, THE OUTSIDERS, THE BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA, HOLES. But you know some of those weren't the author's first choice. Would they have been the same books with different titles?
