Welcome to the Insecure Writer’s Support Group blog hop! Can’t speak for the others, but yup—insecurity is my middle name sometimes 😉.
Once a month writers gather online to share, cheer, and
lament this writing world we’re in.
Today I’d like to talk about a topic currently near and dear
to me—naming books. The book that launched in January, had its title for years—Destruction
of Chaos (Following Essence of Chaos and Division of Chaos in that trilogy.) That
was easy peasy.
But, I’ve got three projects currently—and until a few days
ago none of them had titles. Oh, they had placeholders, and two still do—FAERIES
2024 and JINN 2024. The one that has its title now was VAS 2024 but is now
Keeper’s Tempest.
So, how do I name my books?
Each series has a unique pattern within the series and is
different from the other unrelated series.
The first six Lost Ancients (Fantasy) were all named after a part of a broken relic staff that my characters needed to find, whether they wanted to or not.
The Glass Gargoyle, The Obsidian Chimera, and The Emerald Dragon were the first three. For the continuation of that series, I needed new items as we’d dealt with that staff in the first six books. The Seeker’s Chest, The Finder’s Crown, The Hunter’s Chalice, FAERIES 2024….okay, that last will get a title….anytime now 😉. I'm only about an eighth of the way done with the draft, it'll come to me!
The space opera series is currently at book 6 (there are two
trilogies—don’t ask). Warrior Wench, Victorious Dead, and Defiant Ruin are the
first set. All three are names of starships but also say a bit about one or
more of my main characters. Similar style, but slightly different in tone, the
next three are Traitor’s Folly, Destroyer’s Curse, and now, Keeper’s Tempest. Again,
starships and reflections of the stories.
Probably one of my most fun trilogies (so far 😉)
to name have been the steampunk ones—A Curious Invasion (aliens and vampires in
Victorian London), The Mayhem of Mermaids (fishy people aren’t all good), and
An Intrigue of Pharaohs (Egyptian trouble makers back from the dead!) These books have a different feel and pace
than my other series. Still action and adventure, but a bit slower pace.
The titles worked to show that (in my opinion-LOL) and also tell a bit of what’s
going on inside.
The other trilogy that was fun to name was an Urban Fantasy
thriller. The Girl with the Iron Wing, An Uncommon Truth of Dying, and Through
a Veil Darkly. The tone and length of the titles are different from the other
series but consistent with each other. These books are a bit darker than my
other books and so are the titles.
Our covers and titles are the first thing we have to catch a
potential reader’s eye and give them a reason to look into buying our books. They don’t
need to be perfect, but ideally, they should reflect the tone and genre of the
book and series.
How do you create titles for your stories?
Happy IWSG DAY!!!
You're good at writing titles. I don't usually come up with mine until I'm really into my story. I just call it something like new story until I figure it out.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Yeah, mine sometimes take a while--but we all get there eventually! Thank you for coming by!
DeleteAll great titles -- I really love the UF ones. It's funny how some just pop right into place and others need to stew for a bit.
ReplyDeleteThank you! It's almost annoying how sometimes they pop up quickly-- and other times, I have to wait until the book is almost done. LOL. Thank you for coming by!
DeleteI just sent my latest novella to my proofer and it is still untitled. As well the duet series doesn't have a title either.
ReplyDeleteNaming people, places and books is one of the hardest things for me. This book has been MyAwesomeTitle for forever because I haven't been happy with anything. The series doesn't even have titles for me to reject because I come up blank when I try brainstorming.
Oooo! That's hard-- maybe the proofreader or your readers might have suggestions? Good luck and thank you for coming by!
DeleteThat's cool! I've never had to struggle with coming up with titles for books because I've only finished my first draft a month ago. It wasn’t too hard to name it. But I do know the struggles of giving titles to the poems, limericks and little stories that comes into my mind. Giving titles is a hard job. Love your titles<3!
ReplyDeleteHave a great day:)
Title can be tricky! Thank you for coming by!
DeleteAnonymously Esther O'Neill, East of the Sun, in a dead zone, but suspecting Google can't believe this. Had to drop Google, because in a dead zone, I can't pick up security texts.
ReplyDeleteCurrent so-called reality's so tedious. I grew up close to a malign or just teasing spirit called a boggart (bhut) Joined by a motorway, Leeds and Manchester are proud of their boggarts, or bhuts.
Titles ? They're great. Just once, a title arrived when I wasn't trying - The King of Dublin's Daughter. Doesn't usually happen likle this.
Thank you for coming by! That's a nice title!
DeleteAbsolutely love the ship names. They are always so fun and you've quite the flair with them. I find series names just as hard. How much do you give away with the name you pick? How much does this name constrain you as you move forward? How can you keep the series name relevant from book to book?
ReplyDeleteThank you! And you are sooooo right! So much to consider, and it hurts my brain! Thank you for coming by!
Delete