ext_11421 ([identity profile] brynnmck.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] ds_workshop 2007-04-24 10:39 pm (UTC)

This is what happens to me: I get all finished with a decent draft of a fic, and I send it off for beta or whatever, and then, while I'm still basking in the finished-draft glow, I go: oh SHIT. I NEED A TITLE. And then I cry.

The vast majority of my fic titles are taken from song lyrics. Most of the rest are from quotations or axioms. I only have a few ("Caesura," "Cynosure," "Laws of Gravity" spring to mind) that don't follow that pattern, and those were pretty hard-won. (For "Laws of Gravity," I spent hours on the internet reading about various scientific concepts, which you totally would not know from the utter basic grade-school simplicity of the final title. Heh.)

Generally, with titles, I think the simpler, the better. One of the things I like about song lyrics (and poetry) is that you can often choose a phrase that's coherent and appropriate to the story on its own, and then if the reader knows the song/poem, that can add some extra resonance. (Assuming, of course, the song/poem in its entirety is applicable to what you want to do. Or that your reader doesn't have an automatic dislike for the convention, like [livejournal.com profile] joandarck mentioned above.) However, I typically try to choose a song/poem that at least somewhat fits the style of the fandom. So while I would be all about a Led Zeppelin lyric for an SPN fic, not so much for a DS fic.

Basically, finding a title generally sucks, in my experience. :)

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