Title time
It's possible to write a book with just a working title, but I think the sooner you have the title, the better -- and the easier. I waited too long, I think, to settle on the title for The Grand Mirage and it was hard at that point to actually figure it out (and then retrofit the title into the book).
Working titles are easy. They are one word and it only has to speak to me. Mirage, for instance, was called Orient, which told me what I needed to know but couldn't be used in the title because most people now associate Orient with the Far East. I thought of Orientalist as the title, but that didn't really solve the problem and the biography of Kurban Said had just come out with that title.
So now I'm working on the sequel to Mirage -- or really the next in the series. My first idea was one set in Cairo (working title: Cairo) and involving oil, tentatively titled Black Sands. I liked that because, as with The Grand Mirage, it directly evoked the desert. I may get back to that but in the meantime I feel more inspired to have the next one set in the Levant (working title: Levant, you see how it goes). Unfortunately, as I've noted in a related blog, this concept doesn't seem to be commonly known in the U.S. So any title like Shadows on the Levant would not resonate the way I would like.
I'm beginning to understand why many of Alan Furst's titles are so vague (Night Soldiers, Kingdom of Shadows, Red Gold, The World at Night, Dark Voyage). They are evocative but evanescent and I'm sure I'm not the only one who can't remember which title goes with which plot. I can't even remember which ones I read. Some of the others (Spies of the Balkans, The Spies of Warsaw) are literally easier to place, but betray a certain lack of imagination. His forthcoming book apparently is titled Mission to Paris.
In fact, one of the titles I considered for Mirage along these lines was Caravan to Baghdad. So in the sequel I should forget Levant and think about the names of some cities involved, such as Damascus and Beirut (Smyrna and Alexandretta probably don't have sufficient name recognition). Combining this with some evocative concept like "shadows" or "winds" may do the trick, but something more concrete may be called for. We'll see.
Working titles are easy. They are one word and it only has to speak to me. Mirage, for instance, was called Orient, which told me what I needed to know but couldn't be used in the title because most people now associate Orient with the Far East. I thought of Orientalist as the title, but that didn't really solve the problem and the biography of Kurban Said had just come out with that title.
So now I'm working on the sequel to Mirage -- or really the next in the series. My first idea was one set in Cairo (working title: Cairo) and involving oil, tentatively titled Black Sands. I liked that because, as with The Grand Mirage, it directly evoked the desert. I may get back to that but in the meantime I feel more inspired to have the next one set in the Levant (working title: Levant, you see how it goes). Unfortunately, as I've noted in a related blog, this concept doesn't seem to be commonly known in the U.S. So any title like Shadows on the Levant would not resonate the way I would like.
I'm beginning to understand why many of Alan Furst's titles are so vague (Night Soldiers, Kingdom of Shadows, Red Gold, The World at Night, Dark Voyage). They are evocative but evanescent and I'm sure I'm not the only one who can't remember which title goes with which plot. I can't even remember which ones I read. Some of the others (Spies of the Balkans, The Spies of Warsaw) are literally easier to place, but betray a certain lack of imagination. His forthcoming book apparently is titled Mission to Paris.
In fact, one of the titles I considered for Mirage along these lines was Caravan to Baghdad. So in the sequel I should forget Levant and think about the names of some cities involved, such as Damascus and Beirut (Smyrna and Alexandretta probably don't have sufficient name recognition). Combining this with some evocative concept like "shadows" or "winds" may do the trick, but something more concrete may be called for. We'll see.
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Lee wrote: "Another consideration with titles is that of avoiding a title that has been used often or contains a key word that is used often. This results in your book being buried in lists. You have avoided t..."What do you think of using "Levant" in the title, something like "Shadows Over the Levant". It would certainly fulfill the criteria of avoiding a keyword that's used too often (a great point).
I like "Black Sands" better. "Levant" is a little fussy and "Shadows Over the Levant" strikes me as a tad melodramatic. But that's just me. The Reluctant was a great title because it so well describe your Tom. Can you come up with something that describes his new frame of mind or that describes the plot without giving it away. Why not write the book first and pick a title later?
Lee wrote: "I like "Black Sands" better. "Levant" is a little fussy and "Shadows Over the Levant" strikes me as a tad melodramatic. But that's just me. The Reluctant was a great title because it so well descri..."Good idea. Patience is a virtue...
I was a little too cryptic in my previous comment. I was referring to a book (The Reluctant) by a friend - C.S.Splitter - where the title described the protagonist, a reluctant vigilante, perfectly, and, of course, the "Tom" was his Tom. My point was that your hero will have matured some since The Grand Mirage and your title could refer or hint at some aspect of his character or, as in the case of The Grand Mirage, refer to some actual thing in the plot that also speaks to a key aspect of the plot.
Lee wrote: "I was a little too cryptic in my previous comment. I was referring to a book (The Reluctant) by a friend - C.S.Splitter - where the title described the protagonist, a reluctant vigilante, perfectly..."Yes, I think that's the way to go. Per my original blog, you otherwise end up with bland titles a la Alan Furst that make the books indistinguishable from one another.
Appreciate your comments!
I too use working titles and usually change the final title several times before publication. My usual working title is a key characters name that almost never appears in the final title.