Young Writers Society

Hey everyone, I need some help and feedback or both on coming up for a title for a fantasy novel I'm currently working on.

The plot of the story revolves around an forgotten empire returning to a land that has thought to have banished that said forgotten empire centuries ago. I drew inspiration from works like Suikoden, Warcraft and Game of Thrones. I need help on coming up with a title.

Right now I have two in the pipeline.

The Destiny of Legends: Return of the Scourge
Heroes of Destiny : Return of the Scourge

Any feedback and help from you all will be greatly appreciated.

This article is extraordinarily useful.

I am wondering why you are going with a movie style title in two parts? Very, very, very few books are named this way, and for me it says "trying to be an epic fantasy" which automatically makes me skeptical.

Both of those titles are extremely flat for me, conjuring up images of... basically every "epic" fantasy that ends up being a Tolkien ripoff. The Scourge sounds fairly unimaginative as a villain title, more suited for video games (where there is other things except the worldbuilding to draw you in).

I would try to move away from screen influences for titles and focus more on books, because the two realms tend not to overlap very well.

Hey Yizhongt!

'Destiny', 'legend' and 'heroes' are very common words in the fantasy genre. If you're aiming to write a genre-lit novel (something that's very formulaic to Fantasy) then go for it, but otherwise I'd recommend avoiding those words. Personally I'm not a fan of genre-lit but there is a huge audience for it, so choose depending on the style of your novel.

Generally with novel titles, the more unique and specific to the story, the better. You can do a lot of clever things with them.

'Scourge' is a word I do like. It's quite derogative, and gives me the impression that you're going to have some raw and prejudiced opinions in your novel, which makes for interesting dynamics.

As for the two part title, I assume that this is one of many novels or works in the same universe? In which case I think it works. The word 'return' might give the impression that this is the second or third book in a series, but if it fits your plot then go with it.

Unless, like Tenyo mentioned, this is just one book in a series, the two-part title is a bit much. Even as part of a series, the titles feel a bit generic to me and tell me very little of the story. A scourge can be pretty much anything nasty, and there's no indication that it's an empire within either of those titles. I'm also a bit confused about where the destiny comes into play, as there's no such mention in your little synopsis.

Based on your synopsis, I'd recommend a shorter title that revolves around the empire specifically. The first title that comes to my mind would be "The Banished Empire", though you can definitely expand/subtract from that.

In any case, play around a bit more with the main ideas of your story and see if you can find a title that's more precisely descriptive of your work.