Random Observations: Titles

The writing process can take a long time. Brainstorming, outlining, actually writing, rewriting, more rewriting, editing… each writer’s process is different. But still, writing a novel or other work of writing takes time. I try to make my process as efficient as possible. This means cutting out the time spent on unnecessary things so I can finish the project within a timely manner. One of these cut-out-and-forgotten things is… (as you probably already know from the name of this post) titles

If we were to take a tour through my Google Docs, you would get lost quite fast. I have documents named, “SS#2,” and “BP: Hadestown,” and even “Bikes on a Log.” I don’t title things, so I abbreviate them. SS#2 is the second short story in my write-a-bunch-of-short-stories-to-work-up-to-a-novel project. BP stands for blog post (which actually makes searching for all of my blog post drafts really easy) Bikes on a Log is a short story, which I actually attempted to title, albeit in a sloppy and fast way. 

But the thing with titles is that you kind of need them for publishing and polishing a story. I have a lot to learn and improve before I really pursue publishing, but I still want to fully finish and polish some stories. Therefore, I kind of need to start titling things. 

My favorite way to learn something is through observation and imitation. I started looking at the titles of books, really looking at and analyzing them. And through these imitation adventures, I’ve noticed that titles seem to come in a few different categories. 

Why the heck are there so many birds in YA!? 

Six of Crows. The Raven Cycle. Call Down the Hawk. Divergent. The Hunger Games. 

There’s something really odd about the sheer number of birds in YA. And most of the time, they’re just a weird afterthought-metaphor-thingy. The birds are briefly mentioned, and then they’ve done enough work to be able to be in the title. 

Also, these have to be SpeCiAL birds. Ravens. Crows. Hawks. Jays. Mockingjays…

But what about cardinals? Eagles? Storks? Swans? Ducks? Seagulls? Geese? Chickens?! Turkeys!? Peacocks?! Pigeons? 

Yes. I want a book title that has “pigeon” in it! Just think of it, The Pigeon Boys. Six of Pigeons. 

Maybe birds resemble freedom? Breaking free from the chains of society? Mockingjays in The Hunger Games become a pretty important symbol, and they actually show up in the book more than once. And The Raven Cycle has a lot of ravens in it too. (It also features my favorite name for a pet: Chainsaw) 

Or maybe birds just look cool on covers. 

Because they really, honestly, do.

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Mile Long Tongue Twisters 

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories, House of Salt and Sorrows. 

YA books seem to have an affinity for super long titles as well. Like, ridiculously long. So long that when you say the title out loud, you sound silly. So long that the title is abbreviated all the time. This certainly makes a book stand out and add a little bit of personality to a title. But other than that, I’m not sure if there are any reasons why other than just quirkiness. What do you think? 

But honestly, I love the extra-ness that long titles have. I’m pretty sure that if I titled my works, I would have an Unnecessarily Long Title. 

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One Word Bombs 

Scythe, 1984, Dust, Emma. 

And the complete opposite of the wordiness mentioned above, the infamous one word titles. 

I actually really like these titles. It seems like there are a good amount of one word bombs in YA, but also in other genres. The thing about this one-wordiness is that you need to choose just the right word to deliver a giant punch. 

The punchiness is my favorite thing about these titles. They can leave a lasting impact, especially after finishing the story. You can examine and dissect this one simple word. It carries meaning. 

I’m completely speculating here, because I have very little experience in the titling business, but wouldn’t this be the hardest title to do? You have to get the right word, and if you don’t, it just flops. But if you get it right, it shines brightly in a sky with millions of title-stars.

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The Adventures of Names 

Fawkes. Harry Potter. Jane Eyre. Cinder. The Giver

The first book I wrote was titled The Adventures of Joy Fitzgerald. (because yes, I did title my first “book”) 

There are some titles that simply need the name of the protagonist, and that’s it. The work is done. Honestly, these are kind of boring because it’s literally just a name that you will read a million more times in the book. But it’s interesting to think about how that name can be recognized so easily. (i.e. Jane Eyre) 

It also wouldn’t work if your main character didn’t have an out-of-the-ordinary-name. Fawkes works because of the general interesting-ness surrounded by Guy Fawkes. But Olivia Jones wouldn’t work because, well, let’s be honest, that’s a really plain name. 

Or maybe it doesn’t have to be the name of your protagonist at all. You could do something like Lois Lowry’s The Giver and have a side character’s name be the title. 

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All in all, titles are an important thing to stories. They’re one of the first things a reader sees of your book, the first impression. I honestly had so much fun categorizing titles. Until I did this, I didn’t realize how similar some titles are. So tell me. Do you take the time to title things? What are some other categories of titles that you’ve noticed? What are some of your favorite titles? 

Thanks for reading! I hope you have a great rest of your day! 

-Hannah

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