Not unlike how I come up with stories, titles most times just pop into my mind—but that doesn’t mean that they’re the ones that stick for the long haul.
For The Last Summer, the idea was fairly obvious: the murders take place in summer, and that’s where my limitless imagination took me. Something a bit more descriptive, like Phoebe, Tallulah, Magnolia, Jade, & Ramona’s Last Summer was too much of a mouthful, right? There would’ve been no room for my name on the cover and I really like it, thank you very much.
As for The Five books, at first I’d thought about playing with moon colors. A Full Moon’s Night was originally Silver Moon; On the Run was Black Moon, A Failing Condition was Red Moon, and A Personal Investigation was Golden Moon. The covers were quite similar (this was when I was publishing under a pseudonym and was learning the ropes), and the idea was to continue with them when I decided to re-edit them and publish them under my name.
However, in a round of reviews, my favorite reader suggested changing the titles to something more relevant or explanatory, and the new titles came to be as I did the final edits.
For the Everything’s Fine series, I considered naming each one after each of the main characters, but then…A song became especially significant for each character.
Darcy’s rendition of “All Too Well” can make you laugh or cringe (or sing along); Lauren is trying to rebuild her life when “I Will Survive” comes on; for Zoe, “Everlong” isn’t about romantic love but about a different kind of connection; and “The Nearness of You” perfectly encompasses Beth’s feelings. Plus, it’s my second favorite Norah Jones song (yes, I know that it’s a cover).
When I came across the common musical denominator, I just decided to go for it.
There are different types of titles, as you may have noticed. If you do some googling, you’ll find that different sites suggest different types and amounts, but the ones below appear to be the most common:
- Clear title: Anna Karenina, Jane Eyre, Wyrd Sisters—the audience knows what or who they’ll be reading about right away.
- Descriptive title: The Break, The Comedy of Errors, Death on the Nile—the plot may be conveyed in a general way with or without setting but without revealing much.
- Symbolic title: The Great Gatsby, Animal Farm, The Notebook—the true meaning becomes clear after the text has been read.
- Distinguished title: Star Wars—different from other things, includes aspects of the story that want to be conveyed, may be similar to another title.
There are also surprising twists on either known titles or phrases: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, It’s Not Me, It’s You, and Much Ado About You, just to name a few. These clearly convey a connection either to the previous or original works (Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility), or to phrases that convey a certain meaning (it’s not you, it’s me), or to a particular topic (Shakespeare).
Do you have titles you especially like?