entitlement
Since I am contemplating reviving my moribund series of stories, the issue of titling them has crept back onto the agenda. I am well aware that a zippy title is important, especially when, as I am, you're attempting to write something entertaining, and not in the least profound. As an avid reader of charity shop fiction I am very conscious of how a name can repel just as easily as attract, by way of example; anything with a title like; 'the something something', you know; the broccoli index, the carrot imperative, the aubergine dictum etc, etc, ad infinitum, is very likely to explore the nature of tedium beyond your dullest dreams.I have to give Charles Stross an honourable exemption here, although if I had found his Laundry stories on the shelf, rather having been given a couple by my sister, I would very probably have passed them by as his addiction to the three word title is potentially discouraging. In his case, he is a) partly sending up the genre (at least in the early books) and b) the object in the name does at least feature in the story, by no means a certainty in the dubious world of writing by numbers.
Out of mild curiosity, I googled 'random book title generator', and found that there were several, not only that, but on one of them you can bagsy something if it particularly takes your fancy, nothing did, as it happens, but maybe that's because I'm not trying to write in a very specific genre.
When I was working for a very famous playwright (plays in performance all round the world even now), we were all very conscious of his writing method; he started with the title and every spring he tootled off to his island to write, and when he returned there would be a new play ready for the summer. When I wrote my first (and currently only) book, the plot came first, and the title after, the sequels, that I am thinking of returning to now, were the opposite way round, and maybe that is why I have not yet had the urge to continue beyond the few chapters and plot outlines I had created up 'til now. So, perhaps I'll revisit my characters, freed from contraints and give it another go. Watch this space...
posted by Lampy @ 1/22/2019 02:23:00 pm
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