I’ve chosen names for two children, and both times it was a lot easier than naming my next novel!
Titles are sometimes very easy to find. Some of my books have arrived in my head with titles almost fully formed. I had the idea, I thought ‘oh, that could be a book!’ and by the time I’d reached for a notebook to start scribbling the idea down, I already knew what title to put on the cover.
For example, Rocking Horse War and How to Make a Heron Happy were always the titles of those books. I never considered anything else.
And the title First Aid For Fairies And Other Fabled Beasts arrived very fast too. Though to be fair, I always expected someone (my mum, my agent, the publisher) to say, ‘don’t be daft, please come up with something shorter!’ But no-one did; everyone seemed to like it. And it does describe the story pretty well!
However, it did leave me with a bit of a problem, which is that the title of every subsequent book in the series has to have the structure:
Something Something and other Something Somethings. Whew.
This has posed problems for every book. Wolf Notes as a title didn’t appear until I was about 2/3 of the way through the book. I knew I wanted ‘wolf’ or ‘fangs’ in the title, but didn’t know what else, until my husband found the phrase ‘wolf notes’, which I loved because it fitted the feel of the book. Though I have to admit that I went back through the story and changed a few bits of the plot to make the title fit perfectly.
Which poses an interesting question: do you write a different story if you already know the title? Do you write the story to FIT the title? Is it better to wait until the end of the plot-building to come up with a title, so you aren’t pinned down by the title, or is it better to know the title at the start so you can keep the story focussed? I’m not sure – I’ve done both, and both ways have worked for me with different books. And of course, sometimes a writer will think they know the title of a book, but the editor will disagree, so the title changes at the last minute! (In which case, can the title ever really fit the book?)
Storm Singing was a title I liked right from the start of the writing process, and I agreed it with the editor early on – we even had the tricky second part (And Other Tangled Tasks) sorted too. So writing the book and that title went hand in hand, which meant the idea of Storm Singing was a vital part of the plot from the start.
But now I’m working on the fourth First Aid book. And this time I wrote the whole plotline with no idea what the title was going to be. I had a few ideas, but none fitted perfectly, and the ones I liked best my editor didn’t like at all. So I finished the story, and started to edit it, still with no idea what the title was going to be. This felt very weird, because I had little signposts in the book to various potential titles, and I didn’t know which were going to stay in and which were going to come out.
Then only two weeks ago, I came across a phrase which was PERFECT! It fitted the story, it even added another layer which I hadn’t anticipated, and it sounded great! And not only that, my editor likes it too.
So… I can now announce that the title of the fourth and final First Aid for Fairies book is:
Maze Running And Other Magical Missions!
What do you think? Please let me know…
Interesting post!
My first novel went through three titles… It was up for the Kelpies Prize under the name ‘The Resurrection Spell’, but my publishers requested a change, for a number of reasons. Oddly enough, the tile they suggested – The Daemon Parallel – was very close to the title it had had in my very earliest drafts. Maybe that’s why I agreed quite readily – in a strange way, it felt like coming home…
Titles are strange! Another writer has recently been asking me why I don’t just demand the title I want, and not let my editor say Yay or Nay, but I think that the title is a far more ‘public’ bit of the book than the words inside, and I also know that it’s part of the marketing package, like the cover. I feel I want everyone to be behind it, so I’m quite happy to discuss and compromise with it, in a way I’m less likely to with a character’s motivation, or an essential sub-plot!
I like Daemon Parallel (even if I have to check the spelling every time!) What do you think of Maze Running?
I have to check the spelling quite often too – and it’s my book (gulp!). I think I might’ve felt more strongly about the title change if it’d was the very first thing I’d come up with – if that was where the idea sprang from (the heart of the novel, if you like).
I do like ‘Maze Running and other Magical Missions’ – I like that all the books in the sequence fit the same rhythmical pattern, and that they can all be neatly contracted to something shorter if need be. I’m intrigued by how you might run around a maze as well… I heard once that the way to solve any maze is to put your left hand to the wall, and then just keep walking. Eventually it leads you out! Is that true, I wonder? You’d have to be very patient – and not have anything nasty chasing up behind you…
Glad you like the title! And actually running the maze, or treading the maze, was a ritual or pastime in Ye Olde England, round turf mazes. Easier if you’re not being chased by a nasty beastie, Daemon or other kind…(Also they were unicursal mazes, without junctions or choices. I know all this stuff now, from lots of maze research.)
Your hand on the wall theory does apparently work, though it can take you a VERY long way. I invented a maze-solving theory to fit with my plot and was absolutely flabbergasted when it actually got me to the centre of a real maze!
Glad it’s not just me who struggles with titles. They really are hard aren’t they? And so important in hooking readers in. Maze Running is a good one though – Emily and I can’t wait to read it. The book that springs to mind when I think of mazes is Carol Shields’ Larry’s Party where you get an insight into the mind of a maze-maker. A very different angle.
I’m rereading Larry’s Party right now! And I realised I had done quite enough maze research when I recognised one of the charts at the start of a chapter as the layout of Hampton Court Maze. It’s a fascinating book. But very different from Maze Running! Fewer monsters, and no magic!
I’m delighted you like the title! (I’d be interested to know what Emily thinks… Because an interesting question is – who is the title FOR?)
Emily thinks the title sounds amazing (pun fully intended!) It appeals to her – but then I suspect that a book called Car Battery Serial Numbers through the Ages might appeal to her if it had your name on it too…
Thanks so much for this comment. I know that writers are meant to be self-sufficient and self-starters and all that sort of thing, but actually, a reminder that kids actually enjoy reading our books and look forward to new books (even books about car batteries) can really help, especially when we’re tired and can’t think of a word for “floating” that isn’t “floating”…
Also, I’ve noticed that my blog shows your lovely face, and Roy’s lovely cover, but has me as a strange pale silhouette. Now, if I was having a REALLY bad day, I would get paranoid that not even my own blog recognises me. But I’m not having a bad day, because Emily likes the title.
Now, what about “drifting”?