Today's post was inspired by a comment string in my FB writing group, as well as a comment made by Arlee Bird about my last post. The two comments in question were about book titles.
In the writing group, a friend/fellow writer asked if anyone had ever heard of a rule about book titles having to be at least five words in length. This brought a very lively and interesting conversation about the various word length for title, and what everyone's personal preferences are.
Over here, Arlee complimented me on my title choice for my latest project The Average American Novel, mostly about how interesting/intriguing it was. I briefly elaborated on what the title was/what it meant, etc., but it did get me thinking about what is and what isn't acceptable for word title length.
In the writing group, the general consensus was that 1} no one had never heard of such a rule and 2} three to four word titles seemed to the norm. I, of course, threw in my two pence worth, by saying that the majority of my book titles were three words, with just a few being slightly longer, and I said this with confidence. Sad to say, my confidence was misplaced, in that the bulk of my book titles are MORE THAN than three words (sometimes four or five is the rule of thumb), and not the other way around.
Granted, a caveat comes with that statement, in that the bulk of the short stories I've written have been three words or less. This is directly due to the fact that I am horrifically horrible at picking out a germane title for a story: case in point, one of my previously published short stories "Red Stripe" actually had no connection to the beer, and the original title of "The Inner Sibling" called "Line 21" had a very tenuous connection to the 1040 tax form.
So, to the issue at hand, my latest novel, which has a placeholder title of "The Great American Novel". As I've stated previously, I am horrifically horrible at choosing story titles. In the almost 11 years in dealing with this novel, it's had, at my last reasonable count, 7 different titles. And that's not including the previous incarnations in the various drives I had in those 11 years, which currently is sitting in a folder called, plainly enough, Novel_Project_3.
Because, although I know what the entire plot line for this story is from start to finish (very much a necessity), I still have no idea on how to approach it for a title. Thus the placeholder title, because if you devote about fifteen seconds of thought, you'd realize that a story about a turf war between two drug organizations does not lend itself to a title like that. Fortunately, one I get the first round of edits in, it'll be put into my needs-to-be-published pile, where it'll sit for about a year of so.
So how about you? What's your take on wordy titles, like them, loathe them or somewhere in the middle?
{c} 2022 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved
Wouldn't it be funny if that was the name you gave it?
ReplyDeleteI struggle with titles as well. How do you sum up a story in so few words?
All of my book titles are one word except for one that is four words.
Very much so: "And now, my latest novel is called, Average American Novel! Coming soon to a book story near you!"
DeleteI am so horrible with story titles. I just seem to have a "No Vacancy" sign hanging when it comes to titles, whether story or blog.
I was fortunate to come up with a one for a rewrite that only took me about two days of solid thinking/doodling to come up with.
Hi GB. Alfred here from the Soapbox. I try to either base the title on whatever takes prominence, whether it's the person, a weapon, or the stakes. In my book, The Lost Kingdoms, it's about the overall restoration of a land divided by a usurper (the stakes). In 'Red Jade,' it's about the character's journey on her way to becoming a warrior despite being told that's not where her destiny lies (the person). Possessing red jade is said to bring forth the energy of a warrior and remove doubts and obstacles. In 'The War of Canticles' it's about weaponized music in the form of sung spells (the weapon). I don't know if this helps in your specific case, but if you can use it, I'm glad.
ReplyDeleteThat seems to make the most sense, connecting the title to actual part of the story. That's always been an issue with me and it's something that I really need to work on. I've gotten a little at doing it, but it's still that 200lb baby elephant in the rom.
DeleteI think shorter titles are better (1-3 words) but like most things, there are always exceptions to the rule. A long title is fine if it's really unique attention grabber, such as Dave Egger's "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius." What a wonderful title!
ReplyDeleteVery true. I've read a few books with wordy titles that absolutely fitted quite well the content of the book. Short usually conveys the basic idea of the book quite well though.
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