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ElanaJ
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« Reply #15 on: October 30, 2009, 09:23:31 AM » |
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Very cool! I always have to brainstorm my titles forever. Good to know the work is worth it.
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pilot27407
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« Reply #16 on: November 01, 2009, 10:34:55 PM » |
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Interesting subject. The first thing that comes to mind is a long list of great works with not so catching titles: Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, Oliver Twist, Le Capitaine Paul, Gulliver`s Travels, Anna Karenina, Michael Strogoff, Harry Potter, Kim, She, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Sophie's World, Dune, The Brothers Karamazov, Knee Deep in June, Catch-22, Moby Dick…. You’ll have to agree that it’s an endless list.
I do accept that a ‘catching’ title can and will help a book along, but in the end it’s all about the writing… yet, I’m not so sure that today these literary masterpieces wouldn’t end in the slush-pile for lack of voice, show, plot, etc.
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Axordil
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« Reply #17 on: November 02, 2009, 08:18:43 AM » |
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Catch-22 has an interesting story to go with its title... The title is a reference to a fictional bureaucratic stipulation which embodies multiple forms of illogical and immoral reasoning. That the catch is named exposes the high level of absurdity in the novel, where bureaucratic nonsense has risen to a level at which even the catches are codified with numbers.
A magazine excerpt from the novel was originally published as Catch-18, but Heller's agent, Candida Donadio, requested that it change the title of the novel so it would not be confused with another recently published World War II novel, Leon Uris's Mila 18. The number 18 has special meaning in Judaism (it means life in Gematria) and was relevant to early drafts of the novel which had a somewhat greater Jewish emphasis.[13]
The title Catch-11 was suggested, with the duplicated 1 paralleling the repetition found in a number of character exchanges in the novel, but because of the release of the 1960 movie Ocean's Eleven this was also rejected. Catch-17 was also rejected, so as not to be confused with the World War II film Stalag 17, as well as Catch-14, apparently because the publisher did not feel that 14 was a "funny number". Eventually the title came to be Catch-22, which, like 11, has a duplicated digit, with the 2 also referring to a number of déjà vu-like events common in the novel.[13]
A 1950s/early 1960s anthology of war stories included a short version as "Catch-17".[14]
--wikipedia entry for Catch-22 All that work to pin down part of a title.  |
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mmcdonald64
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« Reply #18 on: November 17, 2009, 04:53:11 PM » |
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Shoot. I'm having trouble with my title. The one I chose originally was The Right to Dream, but that sounded like a romance, and the book is definitely not romance, so that was out. Then I went with Enemy Combatant, which flat out tells what the story is about, but there's already a novel with that name that came out several years ago. So, now I'm thinking 'Detainee'. Any thoughts about that?
There's also some paranormal going on where the MC can see the future via photographs and dreams. (which is why I liked the Right to Dream--he lost pretty much all his rights, except that one.) So, then I started thinking something like Picture Fate?
Gah! Most of the time, I can come up with a good title.
There's a title I like, but it's also a song by Flogging Molly called Tomorrow Comes a Day Too Soon. It kind of fits but it's way too long.
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Kimmy
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« Reply #19 on: November 17, 2009, 05:01:48 PM » |
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Hmm, McDonald, lemme see:
Picture Perfect
Future Fortune
Picture Predictor/Picture Prediction
Picture Prophet
Dream Deliverer
I didnt check any of these on Amazon, anything sound good?
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Kimmy
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laurabdiamond
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Be the change you wish to see in the world--Gandhi
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« Reply #20 on: November 17, 2009, 05:45:04 PM » |
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So, then I started thinking something like Picture Fate?
Um, I have an MS titled PICTURE OF FATE. (It's para rom.) What are the odds?  Tee-hee L |
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ajcastle
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« Reply #21 on: November 17, 2009, 07:26:53 PM » |
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I tend to like (and use) one word titles. No idea why. I had a two-word title for my last MSS, but I changed it to one. I couldn't leave it with two.
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mmcdonald64
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« Reply #22 on: November 18, 2009, 05:39:33 AM » |
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Hmm, McDonald, lemme see:
Picture Perfect
Future Fortune
Picture Predictor/Picture Prediction
Picture Prophet
Dream Deliverer
I didnt check any of these on Amazon, anything sound good?
Those are good, but not quite right. It's a pretty dark story. I'm kind of thinking of just leaving the picture/dreams thing out of the title unless I can think of something amazingly good. Maybe I'll focus on something like "Isolated". That sums up how he is throughout much of the story. Or "Solitary" |
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