Titles

One of the most important yet often overlooked parts of a book is the title.  A good title can grab a reader from the outset and make them curious enough to pick up the tome and browse through its pages.  A bad title, on the other hand, can instantly turn off a reader and make them think that there's nothing inside that could possibly interest them.

Imagine a book called Past Feelings, Future Grim.  Or maybe it could have simply been called The Wages of Greed.  Would any of those titles have drawn in readers as much as A Christmas Carol?  Or what if The Old Man and the Sea had instead been called A Fisherman's Shitty Life?  Maybe Twilight could have simply been called Sparkly.

Books with the God awful titles above would have likely never found their way into the literary lexicon because the titles alone would have turned people off.  To me, they say, "I'm boring or cheesy beyond belief, and you'd be better off spending your time getting a colonoscopy."

The writers I know - at least the good ones - agonize over their book's title.  It's got to be something that captures the spirit of the story and creates an instant emotional connection.  It should be the surface identity of the novel and entice people to delve further into its soul, the same way our own name does that with others.  And let's not forget that it'll be around for a very long time, since it's easier to change your own name than a book's title once it's out in the public sphere.

Of my three novels, only one - Akeldama - came easily.  I agonized over my first book, a sci-fi novel that will never see the light of day, for months.  I poured over several working titles with a friend before eventually deciding on On Freedom's Wings.  The book told the story about humanity breaking out of its self-confining box thanks to a warship called the TWH Freedom.  There were multiple layers to it, and I finally felt that I had something that captured the essence of the book in several ways.

With my second book, Salvation Day, I thought I'd never come up with a title.  Nothing resonated.  There were several dozen attempts, each as putrid as the one before.  How would I convey the sense of loss, grief, retribution, and redemption that were part of the story?  I didn't want something overly bold like Target:  Jehovah, but anything too understated wouldn't do it justice and might even seem mousy.  Then my wife - thank God for the creative woman in my life - said, "Well how about that thing Mike said in the last chapter about how they'd call the day God returned Salvation Day?  You could go with that."  I spun it around and around in my head and knew it was everything I needed it to be.

Akeldama came easily and out of nowhere(probably because I knew most of what was going to happen before I wrote it), but the current novel I'm working on is no closer to a title today than it was before I came up with the outline of the story.  I probably need to wait to finish it before I'll be able to come up with something appropriate.  Too many of my tales go off in unexpected directions, and any title that rears its ugly head before I finish probably won't fit by the time I'm done.

Still, I relish that eureka moment when  I think of something and can say, "Wow, that's an awesome title!  I know it'll work."  Those small victories are the things we writers cling to in the dark times when we wonder if people will enjoy our work.