What's in a Title?

What's in a Title? Rather a lot; in fact it's the play, book, sketch, in a teeny weeny nutshell. The title gives or should give a clue to the genre, story and tone of a piece of writing. So important is a title, that it should be up there on the title page, before pointing your mouse at the screen. Which is why I've struggled with my last piece of writing. For almost the first time ever, I began without a title.

Latterly, it dawned on me, that I couldn't summon up a title, because I didn't have a crystal clear vision of the story. When I eventually found my title, the fog, to use a terrible cliche, cleared, and I hung onto it like a life jacket. The piece I'd been working on needed clarifying, and some minor surgery, but finding that title really helped.

Now I've finished, I'm happy that it reflects the story, even though I've discovered that there's a film, and film series with an almost identical title. Hey ho!