Musing About Titles and Things

I'm feeling pretty inspired to work on the tragedy I've been working on.  I don't know if I can exactly classify it as a tragedy, though there is a lot of tragedy happening in it, but that's beside the point.  Classification can be important or helpful, but I don't want to worry so much about pigeon-holing it that I let that get in the way of telling a good story.  As a writer, I feel like my main concern should be about telling a good story, and more specifically, the story that I want to tell.

So, all that aside, I have a working title down on paper, though I always feel hesitant about titles.  I never know if they fit just right.  A title, after all, is the first representation to the world that your story has.  It's your first attempt, through words, to draw potential readers in.

Not that I'm fretting too much about this.  Not at all!  I swear!  (Fret, fret, fret. Fret, fret, fret.)  What?  What are you looking at?

Okay, seriously though, a title is worth some thoughtful consideration.  I'm using the working title Silent Soliloquy because I feel like it reflects the narrator's situation.  I can't say too much lest I give everything away, but she has a story to tell and no one to listen to it.  Hence the name.  So, it works on that level for me, but at the same time, it doesn't feel attention-grabbing enough.  Oh well.  I have time to consider that while I work on the more important piece of this puzzle: the story itself.  And that part, I feel, is going well.

Thanks for letting me vent a little.  Now, I should get back to work!

Tag . . .You're It!

I've been double tagged!  That's doubly flattering, because that means two lovely ladies were thinking of me!  Thanks to Krista McLaughlin and Mina Lobo for tagging me for "The Next Big Thing!"  If you haven't checked out either of their blogs, you're missing out!

Since I've talked at length about the project I'm working on now, and also about the manuscript I intend to finish immediately after that (so much work, so little time), I'll talk about the book I intend to work on in 2013.  This book is the first in a 6 book series.  I have the first draft of books 1-3 written, and a detailed outline for number 4 in addition to a number of key scenes.  The only reason I put that project on the back burner is that it seemed too big.  I felt like I needed to do a couple of stand alone things to clear my head and hone my techniques before diving back into that massive project.

So, I'll hopefully pique your interest by answering a few questions about the first book in this series.  If the revisions go well when I get back to them, I'm hoping you'll be able to find it on bookshelves not long after that!  And I'm not trying to sound overly confident, because I'm not.  I'm merely testing out the power of positive thinking.

What is the working title of your book?  The Minor War.

Where did the idea come from?  It's hard to say now.  I know I was originally inspired to write this series when I was 13, though at the time it was barely recognizable compared to what it is now.  Let's face it, when the idea originally came to me, I was nowhere near mature enough to write it.  That didn't stop me from trying though.  The inspiration likely came from the wide variety of sci fi books, films, and television shows I consumed as a kid.  I couldn't get enough, and I always loved the idea of settling new worlds and meeting alien species.

What genre does your book fall under?  Science fiction.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie?  That's a tough question for me.  When I write characters, I have a very specific image of them in my mind, and I don't find myself comparing them to actors as I visualize the scene. (Though my books each have their own soundtrack in my mind.  I may indulge in describing that some other time.)  Gretchen would have dark hair and be tall and quick, similar to Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games.  I promise though, the physical parameters for this character came long before I ever heard of that series.  Ellen Page would also have the right look, though she might be a little short for the role.  Then again, what do I know?  As for the other characters, they would be wearing a lot of heavy makeup, so it's been difficult to visualize specific people in those roles.  I know one thing.  I should never pursue a career as a casting director.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?  Gretchen Taylor was never allowed to interact with the Kentari, but when she finds herself in need of help from a young Kentari man, she learns a secret about him that changes the trajectory of her life forever.  (There are so many things going on in this book that this doesn't really represent the entire book, but this sentence at least describes the conflict the main character faces.)

Will your books be self-published or represented by an agency? For this one, I think I'd like to try to find an agent.  I can't say whether I'll succeed or not, but since I've been working on this particular story for so long, I'd like to find it a special home if I can.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?  That's a tougher question than you might think.  If you're asking how long it took to get from idea to completed draft, 9 years.  Most of those 9 years were represented by my struggle to become a better writer. None of my initial drafts made it much past 100 pages because I didn't know what I was doing then.  The story mutated over time as a result of those early efforts.  If you're asking how long it took for this regeneration of the original idea to make it to a completed draft, maybe 9 months.  It's hard to remember exactly, since I was busy with college graduation around that same time.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?  A combination of things.  I've known I wanted to write books since I was in first grade.  My mom liked to write, and my dad was always reading.  Storytelling just became a part of my life.  My teachers started encouraging my writing, and they seemed confident that I could be a novelist someday.  So when the idea for this book series came to me, it never occurred to me that I couldn't do it.  Though it's given me some difficulties over the years, I still know I can do it.  It's only a matter of time and patience.

What else about your book would pique the reader's interests? Let's see: cute aliens, awesome telepathic and telekinetic powers, a world on the brink of civil war, a forbidden friendship that could lead to something more, and a decision whether to do what's right, though doing so would come with a host of personal sacrifices.  I can't elaborate on that last point any further, because that's getting into the next book.

Now I'm supposed to tag a few people for this honor.  Since it's been going around (not to make it sound like the flu, because this is far more pleasant than that) for awhile, it's hard to find people who haven't gotten it yet. Even so, I will do my best.  And if I pick you and you've already done it, feel free to simply take it as a compliment.  Let's be honest.  You all rock!

1. Karen Elizabeth Brown
2. Christine Rains
3. Cherie Reich
4. Michael Offutt
5. Scribbles From Jenn

Okay.  Now, I normally do my Worldly Wednesday post today, but today is turning out to be busy.  However, I won't leave you with nothing.  I'll talk a little about how I selected the title The Minor War.  That deals with words and meanings, so it technically fits in with the day's theme.

Titles are important because they need to capture the essence of you book in a few short words, and sometimes even less than that.  The colony world on which the story takes place is called Terra Minor, so one word of the title immediately makes sense.  Terrorist factions of the Terran population have attacked the Kentari, with whom they share this world.  This causes great tension, but the Terran government doesn't want to go to war with the Kentari. The government struggles to hunt down the terrorists, but the support for terrorism comes from higher up than most people realize.  In this respect, the meaning of the title The Minor War is clear.

On the other hand, the main character Gretchen also deals with the inner struggle I briefly described above.  If she chooses to align herself with any member of the Kentari species, her deeply racist parents would be outraged.  At the same time, the new direction her life has taken appeals to her, and she feels for the first time in a long while that she knows who she wants to be.  In this case, The Minor War references this inner struggle.

Ultimately, I chose this title because it works on multiple levels.  I find it satisfying when a title is able to do that.

What's in a Title?

A title is crucial.  Whether it's for a story, book, movie, or article, that small collection of words needs to reflect your work while attracting your audience.  That's no small task.

I remember one of my philosophy professors in college had a bit of an obsession with titles.  He even wrote his own epitaph for his gravestone and shared it with the class. I guess he wanted to be in charge of summing up his own life, and I can kind of understand it.  This professor also had a passion for subtitles.  He liked to give things lengthy subtitles, which if nothing else, made papers and books sound more intelligent.  I'll admit there's something catchy about them.

Now here's my predicament.  I've already mentioned on this blog before that I'm hoping to self-publish a book sometime in the near future.  Right now I'm in the middle of learning about the process.  I have a good idea how I want to go about doing this, though I have plenty of writing and revision left to do before I even get that far.

Though I'm nowhere near done with the writing process, I'm already agonizing over the title.  It's a compilation of a few stories, including the short novel that I used to post for the Hookers and Hangers Blogfest.  These stories are all science fiction, but they have something else in common, and that theme is something I want to express through my title.  I feel like having the title will help me keep that theme in mind as I keep working and really help me concentrate on the elements of these stories that I find most important.

So here's my idea for a title, and I welcome any opinions.  

Prices Paid

I like a short title, and I have a thing for alliteration.  I think this one rolls off the tongue well enough.  In this book, the stories each illustrate something that is lost or sacrificed when something changes, whether it be public policy or the way a certain kind of technology is used.  When society changes, there are beneficiaries, and there are those who pay the price for that change.  There is always a price to pay.

Anyway, that's my idea.  Is the title a good one, or should I change it.  Would a subtitle help me better make my point, or would it just be cumbersome?

Would anyone like to share their favorite title (from movie, book, anything really) and say why it works? 

Oh, and before you go, can you tell me which of these you like better?  The Great Divide, or Divided We Fall.  They're the possible titles for the short novel in this compilation.  I think they'd both work, but I'm struggling to decide which would have more impact.

Thanks!

The Name Game

What’s in a name, really?  These days a name can easily mean the world, or in many cases, absolutely nothing at all.  Some people name their children after family members, or people who were otherwise influential in their lives.  Or perhaps parents, through research, discovered a name that had a meaning behind it that resonated with them.  And, of course, there’s always the equally viable “I liked the way it sounded.”  I, for example, have the middle name Gene.  Yes, I am female, and I know that my name is therefore supposed to be spelled J-E-A-N.  I get that, and I endured a lot of teachers misspelling it over the years.  Yet, my parents’ use of the male version of the name was quite deliberate.  First of all, I had an aunt named Gene.  And second, my parents loved Star Trek, so it seemed that having the same name as Gene Roddenberry would be a desirable thing.  This is just fine with me.  It proves that, from the very beginning of my life, I was always going to be a geek.

Anyway, getting to my main point, though our names may, or may not, have special meaning behind them, our culture accepts that titles generally convey a lot.  If they don’t, they fail.  The title of a book is an opportunity for the writer to connect with potential readers.  Now, I realize I am essentially unpublished (I’m not sure how much the occasional published poem and single essay in a small magazine over a decade ago count), but I have enough knowledge to say this with confidence.  And as I know that the titling process is important, I figured I would share a little of my process with the world.

First of all, I never start with a title.  I’ve tried to start with a title and work from there, and the title certainly gave me a launching point, but by the end, the story had outgrown the original title I’d chosen.  These things happen.  That’s why the concept of “working titles” is so prevalent.  And while I may use a working title along the way, I still go through a final naming process at the end.

The process begins with me making a small list of important themes and objects/places/events present in the story.  Sometimes it’s as easy as choosing an important object or event to double as the title, but in my case, it usually doesn’t.  I’m much too hard on myself for that.  I usually end up traveling the thematic route, though on occasion I’ve combined the two methods. 

When traveling the thematic path, I select a handful of words that go along with the themes I’ve identified.  For example, a theme might be death, so I might choose the word “darkness” to symbolize nightfall.  Yes, not original, but it’s just an example.  Once I’ve picked out a few I like, I compose a long list of variations that I think would accurately portray that mood of the story I’ve told.  Going with darkness, I could call it “Darkness Descending” or “Walking into Darkness.”  With the final list of options in hand, I read them out loud so I can get a sense of how they sound.  I may share them with others to get feedback.

Obviously this is a task I take quite seriously.  Sometime in the near future I’ll post a written example of how this process goes down.  The example will be given in precise detail.  I tried to explain it clearly here, but it can get quite complicated, and I know making sense of my ramblings can be challenging for anyone, even on the best of days.