Titles - What sticks to the wall

That’s pretty much how they come to me. I throw them at the wall, like the proverbial pasta and see what sticks.

Most of the time I get a good one, kindly offered when the characters tromp through on their way to introductions. You know, age, sex *g*, location, general prop info. I’d say this happens about 80% of the time. Out of that 80%, I might tinker with one to two, so that leaves me a solid 60% of titles that unless the publisher changes them, I’m happy with them.

That other 20%? Yeah, those are the ones that drive me batty. I have begun to just number those stories. Seriously. I did them by heroine’s names for several years and still do that, but just to be contrary (because I’m good at that too) I decided I’d number them. 100, 101, 102. I have no idea why is started with a 100 either.

I have a fantasy that has changed titles by me, three times already. Each one resonates, but it’s not the ONE. I hope it appears by the time I finish it. Then I have my current wip, a challenge manuscript that I had roughly 72 hours to prepare for to write. My challengers were kind. Ha!

The story is going along okay, but the title eludes me at this point and I’m about 50% done with it. That bugs me! Really. I like to have the title when I start. It gives me a vision of what I’m working on, like the character name inspires that person in the story.

There are methods to contriving titles for stories. One is to list the attributes of the story and combine them. (Sort of how Restless Heart garnered their name - They drew slips of paper out of a hat. Imagine if they’d gotten Forgotten Stomach??) Or you use the strongest/weakest denominator of the book and use a play on words. There’s also action titles, character names as titles… The list is absolutely wide open as to how you can produce a convincing title for a book.

My problem is this particular book isn’t giving it to me! Gah! It’s a witchy paranormal with a very HOT theme. Did I mention my challengers also challenged me to write out of comfort zone? Yeah, they did. But I love them anyway. So I’ve been sitting here thinking about what I could name this book.

So far, it’s not pretty. Maybe it’ll come when I get to the end. I am usually the last to know around here.

Do you think titles make a big impact on choice? Is it a combination?