The Mighty Pen Writing Club discussion

Titles are very important, but they are often one of the hardest aspects of a novel to get correct.
At first glance, along with the cover, a title is what catches attention. For example: isnt the title The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century pretty darn fascinating?
Is your title miraculous? Will it catch our attention and draw us in?
Post some of your titles here and see what others think!
*no stealing*

lol I don't think thats "pretty darn fascinating"...

I do...it looks awesome :)

hmmm Sometimes its worse when you over do it...

Gremlin Girl wrote: "hmmm Sometimes its worse when you over do it..."

Elaborate? :)

yes, exacly.
My titles are normally simple :P

Ooh, I like your titles, Booklover!

Titles are so hard for me... *sigh* Most of my novels don't have an official title yet..

A title doesn't moves me. A lot of books have the same title. I'm interested in a good story. I love catchers.

I can come up with titles. It depends on what theme I am writing about, what my title will be.

My titles aren't anything.

- Trespassing
- Courage
- Destiny
- His Bodyguard

I tend to have unique hero and heroine's names.

For example: My hero's name in Trespassing is Helicopter, but he goes by Cop for short.

In Courage, my heorine's name is Chocolate.

My titles are usually one-worded and vague. Like the title would actually be used in the story maybe once, if ever.

i dont like thinking of titles in the beginning i like to wait til im done and am actually sure and can pull it from anything in the story

Yeah I like doing that too.

I like interesting titles....they tend to draw me to the book first.

I have the worst time coming up with titles!
Glad to know it's not just me.
Sometimes, though, you can't really know a good title until your draft is finished, because the title could come from a passage or quote that you've written.
I abbreviate all my WIPs by category -

HF
U/M F
PHF
HF-W

and sometimes I have "working titles" that are just tentative. In fact, two of my "working titles" are actually the same as other published books: LUCKY and SHADOWMANCER - which I did *not* do on purpose :S

I have "working titles" too, Amelia! It takes a long time for me to decide on an official title.

I do have, however, currently 2 official titles.
But they're for the 2 stories I haven't been working on as much... :P

What are they called?

Hey, whatever works for you. I tried it that way a couple of times but the title changed so many times that I gave up.

my book title is not too interesting. even the subject's not interesting :) I get troubles making titles. I usually make them last. It's so hard to decide the proper one!!

Some catchy book titles:
- A Great and Terrible Beauty
- The Man Who Loved Books too Much
- Where the Wild Things Are

I've read a Great and Terrible Beauty. true, the title captured me above all.
My books' titles huh?
-The Heart Seeker (my MC, who's killer I suppose so far, calls herself the Heart Seeker as she tears open her victims' chest to see if they have a heart to replace hers - because she's growing "cold")
- The Angel Lock and tears (short stories)
-Bitter Chocolate
-Rose torn (or "rose thorn"... dunno...)

The funny thing is, I usually have a really hard time with titles, but for some reason all 3 titles for my dystopian trilogy (which I havent even STARTED yet) just came to me like *that*
Weird!

Gremlin Girl wrote: "What are they called?"

Here are my two titles:

"The Cube"
and
"Indigo Eyes"

I usually go with pretty simplistic titles.

Thank you! :)

Well i have no idea. Obviously, a title is hard to think of if you dont know the whole plot.

Booklover23 wrote: "Well i have no idea. Obviously, a title is hard to think of if you dont know the whole plot."

That's true for some writers.

I want to add that maybe it's hard for some writers to come up with titles, if they don't know what theme they want to write about too.

Maybe this can help writers.

Come up with titles and then later try to match them to stories you want to write.

Jo wrote: "Amber wrote: "It's a post apocalyptic novel set 2 years after a disease comes along and wipes out most of the population."

What's the disease called? Is it a real disease or a made up one? Was it engineered by the government or did it occur naturally? You could use the name of the disease for a title, especially if it's not a "real" disease. It could be cool.

Or, a nickname for the disease.
If there is no slang, nickname-you could make one up that is referd to a few times.

that's certainly a catchy title

Or you could just go with "The Illusion." But I like yours. :)

I would pick up THE ILLUSION OF SAFTEY over just THE ILLUSION any day.
Its a great title!

I can't decide between these two below. The story is about a family learning to move on, and there are references and symbolism that connects to dandelions. They're really important throughout the story.

Titles:
"Make A Wish"
or
"How to Blow"

Make A Wish is pretty explanatory. It's dandelions. The main character's parents have both been murdered by the same killer on the same day. Her and her siblings need to move on. The Make A Wish phrase is really simple, compared the the second one.

The second one is How to Blow. Basically, it's symbolism. It's really saying "how to move on". By the end, the children learn how to blow the petals away on the dandelion. In other words, they learn how to blow away their past so they can look forward to the future.

Confusing, I know. Or at least, it can be. What do you think? Make A Wish is really simple, but How to Blow is too poetic to not think about.

Umm, the first one is really good.
To be honest, the first thing I thought of when I saw the second title was drugs (like the movie BLOW, for example, or just because the word is a synonym for cocaine).
That may just be me, though, but I did notice that right away.

Yeah, I like Make A Wish best too.

Yeah, i agree with Amelia.
Sorry!

"How to Blow" sounds like a self-help book. ;) "First, you fill your cheeks with air...then release, being sure to keep your heart rate steady and elevated, though not leaving Zone 1...and relax." Hahaha! Sorry.

But the other day, Jess and I were trying to come up with a title for the book she's writing with her friend. It was not going anywhere. Then, inspiration (bad inspiration! It didn't help!) struck, and I was like, "If it was just your part of the story, you could call it "Enchantress". Then we were bummed because it sounded cool, but we couldn't use it because it wasn't just her part. :/ Any ideas, anyone? I'm not as good at writing (Not by a long shot) as Jess, but here's a synopsis:

Shay (written by Jess's friend) and Cassi (written by Jess) are best friends living on Chincoteague Island, Virginia. Cassi's dad decides to send Cassi to a boarding school in France named "L'ermitage", while Shay stays at home. So Cassi and Shay decide to email each other, and keep them up-to-date on what's happening in their lives. Soon Cassi makes a best friend, Alex, and Shay's foreign exchange student/new employee at her family's B&B in charge of the ponies arrives, and teases her mercilessly. But as Alex and Michael (the exchange student) befriend Cassi and Shay, magic comes out to play.

Urrg, that really sucked, but that's basically what it's about. Here's Jess's synopsis of her part (Reagan, Jess's friend, hasn't written one, to my knowledge): (This is from her blog, by the way):

As August rolls around Cassandra decides to enjoy the very last of summer vacation as much as possible. For her this means shopping with her mom and riding her ponies with her best friend, Shay. Unfortunately, her dad has other ideas. Now Cassandra’s on her way to Paris, where she’ll go to a boarding school. At least she has Pierre, the very cute boy who lives in the same house as her, and his roommate, Alex. But Alex wants to teach her more than just math. With Alex by her side, life at L’Ermitage becomes…magical.


Urrg, why couldn't I get the writing talent??? There are unfair things in life... ;) (I'm whining for fun, please don't take me seriously... :)

Falsehoods, Erin. You could write if you tried. And I still can't figure out a title.

how about the title "Exhale" ... too cleche?

sorry, but i dont like HOW TO BLOW after thinking about it. Good intentions, but honestly: It makes me think of drugs (as Amelia said) and.... (dont judge me, i have go to school at a very sick minded place) ...and a form of sexual intercourse.

So im sorry, i liked the other title better. BUt even that was a little...plain? NO offense.
Hey, im just trying to help out.

thank goodness im not the only sick minded person.
*phew*

Amber, trust me though: i sure didnt know what it meant when i was your age :)

Darn, i feel so old, even though im barely a year older then her.

I found it out mid-way through year 8. When i was about 6 months away from turning 14 :S

I wish i didnt know now as well!

But alas (did i just say that!?!?!) there is one phrase im positive you dont know, that i do :S
And i really, really wish i hadnt.
I was told at school
But, i guess thats better then what my friend Alicia did.
She heard us talking about it. We wouldn't tell her what it was.
So she googled it. Images.
Eeew. Just ew :(

I wanna know what that is too :S

I hate being so sick minded

i think i may have the faintest of clues.
Disgusting. Ew. Disease. Those are enough key words.
Wow, us South Aussies are sick minded, are we not?
.....It doesnt happen to have anything involved with 'blue' does it?

So did I.
Ewwwwwwwww :|

Anyway, im sure other people are sick minded too.
But at least us South Aussies CAN COOK!
MASTERCHEF!!!!! The two grand Finalists are Adeladians :) :) :) :) :)
Take That Victoria!!!

Adelaide/Victoria rivalry is gold :)
I think SA is heaps better :)

HELP!!
I just finished my new novel, but there's just one problem: I haven't decided the title yet! Help me!

The story is about two cousins: Rhea and Natta. They both hate each other, because Natta thinks Rhea is childish because she imagines creatures. But they're not actually her imagination.
Then, one day, they were both put into a boarding school. There, they met an old lady named Elsie. She was the owner of the school, but it was taken over by Strom. He didn't kill Elsie because she was saved by a Fairy. The girls' quest is to find the fairy, locked inside a student's body.

What do you think will be a great title for the book? help me please! Thanks a lot!!

Hmmm...Ive said this before, its always hard to choose a title with out reading the story it self (Mind you, that sounds very good :D )
From what you've given us, i think i would vote for:
LOCKED (like locked inside the students body) or
STORM

Great idea! Thanks, guys! :)

great titles, Jess!
The title for book one of my dystopian trilogy is called
THEIR CROOKED LITTLE FINGERS
;P
so far it's my favorite working title.

I love it, Amelia!