Young Writers Society

Okay, I read somewhere that if you can't think of a title for a story after you're a third of the way through it, you're in trouble. I don't necessarily think that's true, but I want to know-

When do you guys think up titles? It seems to me I behind that curve because I can never think of anything!

Well, I always like to think up a title before I start writing - that's how I've always done it.

But I suppose it's entirely possible that you can wait 'till you're finished writing, revising, and doing that several times before *the* title pops up. Whatever suits you, I think.

It varies for me. I love experimenting with combinations of words. Generally with the plot comes the title.

Agreeing with Kyle -- whatever works.

bookworm201 wrote:When do you guys think up titles?

Whenever. Or never. I managed to think up a title for my NaNoWriMo novel pretty quickly (i.e. if it wasn't before I started writing, it was pretty soon after). In contrast, I entered a script into a script-writing contest with the title "Little Red Riding Hood," even though I hated that title for that script, as it was only loosely based on the Little Red Riding Hood story. I finally came up with a couple of reasonably acceptable titles a few months later, but it was a little too late.

Of course, some authors go through several titles before their work is published, so if you can't come up with a good title quickly, you're probably ok. I wouldn't fret too much about having a killer title by the time you're one-third of the way through, or even before you finish, as the case may be. So, yeah, like Cpt. Smurf and Sumi said, whatever works.

Well ... I don't know if I'd really worry about not having a title a third of the way through. I'd be more concerned with the actual writing.

But, that said, maybe there's truth behind it. I either think up titles before I write something, or I never do (or at least rarely do). But the thing is it doesn't stop the story being any good. It's probably just got something to do with trying to hard to think of something. I can never think of anything good when I try to, and so if I'm trying to think of a title, which would usually happen part-way into the writing of it, it doesn't work.

Titles are secondary.

Write the story, and eventually, once you understand the plot, setting and the char's motives, a title will come forth eventually. But a writer shouldn't be so fixiated on having a title first. It will cost you time, and could possibly cause a block, among other things.

That sounds pretty arbitrary to me. "One-third of the way and no title? You're screwed." There have been times where the title has come first for me, then the story, but more often it's the story, then the title. For one of my favorites, Hail Mary, I didn't name it till I was halfway finished, so that breaks the rule, I guess. Another I couldn't think up a decent title for, so it was "untitled." Then the characters wouldn't shut up and now there's an "untitled 2" and an "untitled 3." And even though that's sort of an emo title, it kind of fits, because neither character has a name.

So all that rambling to say that don't worry about it too much. It's not a hard and fast rule.

I don't think titles are actually s very integral part of the story. I think that they are just there to give you a little foreshadowing of what's to come before reading it. I always have trouble thinking of titles, and usually end up finding one once I've FINISHED the story. I usually think of a temporary title just to name the document on my computer but 97% of the time it changes once the piece is done.

... If that means anything.

~Azila~

Sometimes I think of something right away. Sometimes, like they said, I just put any title on the doccument.

You really shouldn't worry about a title. Just write.