Hi.

The title has always been my Achilles heel.

Any tips you can share with me on choosing titles?

I use all sorts of techniques for titles.

For example:

• Choose the title first and then write the story around it
• Pull a phrase from a quote inside
• Use the last line as the title
• Play off an analogy from within
• Summarize the whole story in my head and try to condense that down to something that I can use a metaphor for
• Picture the main characters as the actors I would want them to play in the movie version.... and then come up with a title based off what kind of movie I think they would play in
• Make someone else come up with the title

If you struggle with titles, then here's what I suggest: for one, forget about titles and write your awesome story. Just write the thing. Then when it's done and ready for your first readers, as them to suggest a few titles. It can really help to get an outside perspective on what your reader felt was the story's focus. And the great part about this is even if your readers are also terrible at titles, well, you have a story written! And you can always pick out a particular line of prose from your piece and call it done!

Yep, titles are something to look at last!

Sometimes they just come to you, other times you have to go searching. You could put it to an internet vote or contest though, that could help (and be good publicity too).

I agree with the others - a title often suggests itself during the writing or at the end, so concentrate on the writing first and foremost. A lot of authors choose lines from poems or proverbs as titles for books or chapter headings, so that might be another idea.

Try thinking in terms of what you would use as a headline for your story as well, and then craft that into a title. At the moment, you seem to be attaching too much importance to the title, which is creating a barrier of your own making. Let it slide until the work's done.

My story is still without a title, but I called it "Story" on my computer ha ha.

My poems have temp titles too, like "one about clouds" and "untitled 4000000000" ha ha.

My short stories are crappily titled "Meia and the ___" because I use the same character over and over ha ha.

Bunny (09:34pm Thu, Oct 11, 2012)

My story is still without a title, but I called it "Story" on my computer ha ha.

My poems have temp titles too, like "one about clouds" and "untitled 4000000000" ha ha.

Haha! I have a bunch of documents like that, too.

When I stumbled across some files from years ago with names like that, I realized how horrible my system was. The most I did to change it, though, was to occasionally add the date or year....so it'd be like "Story Winter 2012" or "Clouds (October)."

Yeah usually I change them when I have a real title ha ha.

I have so many documents called Story on my computer too. And I always need to remind myself to re-name the document when it's done. Especially if I'm sending my story to be published! I don't want to send a document called 'Story'. oh man, life as a writer is so hard, ain't it?

FlanneryCam (03:08am Sun, Oct 14, 2012)

I have so many documents called Story on my computer too. And I always need to remind myself to re-name the document when it's done. Especially if I'm sending my story to be published! I don't want to send a document called 'Story'. oh man, life as a writer is so hard, ain't it?

Wouldn't the computer set it as Story with numbers beside the name because there can only be one document named "Story". You can preferably choose titles that relate your story which is better. Also, using folders could help too and organize the stories into different groups.

Here's what I do.

I always start with a title. It doesn't necessarily have to be the final title that goes to print, so to say. However I need to have a title to mark down the content. So I just put a title that says simply what the content is about. Like, for example, "Article about sexual discrimination against men".

Then I write the article. When I have finished, I come back to the title again. This time I polish it up to make something unusual and yet to the point. Like, in the example I started with, I may end up with a title like "Taking Advantage Of The Weakened Sex".

A temporary title is definitely the way to go. It's a title that describes what it is so you can find it later, and then when you publish it you change it to the official title which is much much better - and easier to think of because you have the whole piece in front of you. Sometimes the title will change, other times it wont, but either way there's always a title there for you.

I believe it's called a "working title"?

Trying to make the official and final title before writing the piece or when you've only written a portion is madness. You couldnt name a child or an animal after only seeing a foot or half of them could you?

I usually wait until the end of whatever I am writing to decide on a title. I will start off with a title that I think will work, but I always end up changing it. Whenever I am done writing, I always think of a title that better suits what I have written about. When I begin writing with a title, the titles are always too general. I am able to better title my work with more unique names afterward.

I usually just hammer out the story. By the time i'm finished, the story is usually quite a bit off from where i thought it would end. I feel naming the story before hand puts biases and pressures on you while writing to stick to the theme of the general title. If you write the whole story, then pull the name out of it, it'll probably be a lot more representative of the story.

Well it certainly is based on the content of the book.

Ask yourself, "which part of the book has the most meaning?" If you really believe "Achilles' Foot" is the best title for the book, go for it.

In my opinion, I love the title. The words itself can leave people guessing about what the contents are.

Good luck with your book and your decision to name it!

If there's a sentence in your story that carries a lot of weight while simultaneously wrapping up the story in one sentence then I'd go with that.

That's what I do with the lyrics in my songs 90% of the time.

bsthebenster (10:44pm Tue, Jul  8, 2014)

If there's a sentence in your story that carries a lot of weight while simultaneously wrapping up the story in one sentence then I'd go with that.

You pretty much explained what I've been trying to explain now since my first reply ha ha. You can use a major quote or the whole thesis/hypothesis/reason for the article too. Which is pretty much the same thing.

I struggle dearly with trying to come up with a title.  I will usually figure out the title after I write all of my content, by then something clever usually comes to me.  I hardly ever start out my writing with a title, unless something just happens to pop into my head as the inspiration for the piece to begin with.  Once I have my story or article layed out, and the content is good, I can pull something out to call the thing.

Bunny (07:47am Thu, Jul 31, 2014)

bsthebenster (10:44pm Tue, Jul  8, 2014)

If there's a sentence in your story that carries a lot of weight while simultaneously wrapping up the story in one sentence then I'd go with that.

You pretty much explained what I've been trying to explain now since my first reply ha ha. You can use a major quote or the whole thesis/hypothesis/reason for the article too. Which is pretty much the same thing.

Haha thanks. I wish I was good at naming songs to the point where I could name them something other than a certain lyric, as I find it seems a bit more mysterious or clever even. But this usually works just fine and it seems pretty standard.

My titles are so literal, a couple of my screenplay titles came to me in a dream along with the story idea. Sometimes as you write your story, the title will just come. Titles are so powerful because they're our first introduction to a movie, a book, songs and different articles. Try no to stress the title will come. You're probably not as bad at it as you think, sometimes we're our own worse critics.