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Old 09-23-2008, 09:48 PM
  #1
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How do you come up with titles?

For your stories that is

I don't know. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's hard. Do you base your title on your story or use a metaphor that has a connection with it?

Just thought I'd ask since I'm having trouble yet again coming up with a title for this story I'm going to work on afterwards. This isn't the first time it's happened but it gets frustrating sometimes. Sometimes the title just pops up after I get further in to the story.
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Old 09-23-2008, 10:13 PM
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I have the same problem, sometimes it will be hard and other times it's easy. Sometimes the title is based on the story or I'll use lyrics from a song or a song title as the title to a story if I think the song go with the fic a bit.


I had trouble titling me most recent fic.
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Old 09-23-2008, 10:19 PM
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I think my other issue is that since I'm planning to publish this particular story some day, I don't want to duplicate titles (although sometimes, it could be rather difficult).

Last edited by Lain; 09-23-2008 at 11:12 PM
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Old 09-23-2008, 11:09 PM
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For titles, I'm not really sure what I do They just come to me.

Sometimes I've used a well-know phrase and tweaked it for a title. Or a line from the chapter, a song I might have referenced in the story, or something like that.

One chapter had the characters watching Mary Poppins, and at the end of the chapter one character had a realization that was hard to accept. The guy she liked, and thought was into her, told her he had a girlfriend back home. But he also reaffirms how important she is to him as a friend. I called the chapter "A Spoonful of Sugar"

I guess I try to look for something catchy that represents the chapter/fic, in part of whole.
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Old 09-24-2008, 03:16 AM
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I don't have that much experience with titles, to be honest. But I would always try to find something that has a connection to your story. Maybe a phrase or something that you can change a bit
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Old 09-24-2008, 11:49 AM
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The title actually comes before the stories with me, usually I only have a problem finding a title for cross-overs
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Old 09-25-2008, 01:34 PM
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I can never find titles

I usually steal them from songs
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Old 09-25-2008, 01:42 PM
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I envy you guys who can think of a title so easily.

Sometimes it comes to me, sometimes it doesn't.
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Old 09-25-2008, 05:34 PM
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Many times it'll come to me in the middle of the story, but by then I don't want to change the current title because readers get confused

What to do, what to do...
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Old 09-25-2008, 06:01 PM
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for me, the title usually comes at the end. Usually once I have it up on LJ and am just needing a title before I post it
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Old 09-25-2008, 06:04 PM
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I think for me its different with every story.
Sometimes it comes after.
Sometime the title is the inspiration for the story
and sometimes I just have a working title and then once I get to understand the story better the title changes.
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Old 09-25-2008, 06:10 PM
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interesting, Nila

I think that is probably fairly typical for most writers that they come up with title at different times in their process.

Come to think of it, there have been times where I came up with a title when I was still in the early stages of writing the chapter or one-shot
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Old 09-25-2008, 09:29 PM
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I suck at titles. I just usually name it the ship name I am writing. How lame am I?
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Old 09-25-2008, 10:01 PM
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very lame


I try to make the title somewhat clever if I can

When I opened the thread here for my series, though,I realized that I had about 5 chapters without titles So I had to get creative on the spot
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Old 09-25-2008, 10:05 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by follow the sun (View Post)
When I opened the thread here for my series, though,I realized that I had about 5 chapters without titles So I had to get creative on the spot
Not all chapters need to have title names. Although it's interesting and helps you keep track...somewhat.
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