Working Titles

It seems like either I have a great title right away or I can’t think of a title to save my life.

When I don’t have a title or a character name I use a place holder. For example, Season of Us was referred to as Save the Dog which is a callback to a popular screenwriting book called Save the Cat.

I do this even with short stories and story ideas so I have zillions of folders on my computer with names like “Scary Monster Thing” or “Auntie gets Lost.” Even if I eventually change the title and the story is published, I keep it the placeholder name in my computer.

I don’t recommend this practice because there are times when I need to find an older piece of writing and I can’t find it because I can’t remember the working title.

I generally don’t have a hard time coming up with names for characters but sometimes I use the name of a person I know as a placeholder. I once was about to submit something when I realized I was still using a real person’s name. And she has a somewhat unusual name and the character had a few similarities with her. I had to come up with a new name fast.

I’ve started the next book. Let’s pencil in mid-October for a release date. More details when I have them.